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My name-day at EXPO
Laura Cristin among alive memories on her name day 19th October in Rodi Garganico (2005) and at Expo in Milan (2015)
Pilgrimage to London 2015
Legenda of the colour pictures (from up left): 1) London Biennale 2006 card, 2) velella velella fish, 3) with Dawn Redwood in London, 4) impromptu at Hillside Gardens in 2011, 5) at the Foundry in 2006, 6) performance at aardverx in 2011. In the sepia background images from a-live memories album of 1975: at Piccardilly Circus, at rock festival of Reading and on the boat to Douglas
Pilgrimage to London 2015 July at “aardverx” of Dawn Redwood
When I was young, I used to go to “Inghilterra” during the Summer to practice/learn some English that I had previously roughly caught from BBC lessons/broadcasting on short waves. One way or another – working as au pair or as a chamber maid on a wealthy hotel located in a Thames’s island – I could earn my living beside studying and attending rock festivals. Years later, then came the vacations in camper with the family (progeny in tender age included) sleeping sometime, to cut the costs, in underground car-parks looked after by angry dogs… More or less ten years ago, I started to approach the UK land in an artist capacity. Several participations in London Biennale, a beautiful performance at the once mythic “Foundry”, impromptus at Hillside Gardens took place among many other art actions. Every time I go to London, my heART beats and regenerates at “aardverx”, that is run as an alternative/genuine art space by Dawn Redwood. Its motto is: –(Art) is a hard work but somebody has to do it –. This time, in July 2015, I go back to the places that have undoubtely marked my emancipation from the narrower minded 70ies in Italy. It was/is an oxigen breath. A sort of – far from nostalgic – pilgrimage will take shape during my stay. Coming from the Mediterranean and with the recent bEAUtiful experiences as Sherena Velella in Ponza, I will perhaps bring a ray of light and a little wave in the misty city. For sure I will visit/perform again at Ebury Street where Mozart composed his first symphonies. Maybe I will be tempted by brand new impromptus at Peter Pan’s Kew Gardens or at Crystal Palace that had hosted an international exposition in the past like the current Expo of Milan.Though, the core of it all will be the performance inside the red bricked building of aardverx on July 22nd on the occasion of the annual Bday of Dawn Redwood, deeply immersed in not-only-my Times.
June updatings: plumes,Tarots and food
From my (life) travel notes:
– by June 13, the delivering of the 60 piume in viaggio was completed by snail mail and the responses have been amazing!
– Videos of my performance “Danse du Tarots en F” in Paris had new links, after the participation in Magmart video festival. You can now find them at https://youtu.be/8qOFcx4uorw and https://youtu.be/AY1yzJ602UY
– The new project/exhibition “microstorie di cibo” of ArtCafè in Milan hosts my contribution “Fiabe da gustare” at http://microbonet-artcafe.blogspot.it/2015/06/laura-cristin.html
60 feathers-pals: 8th May – 13th June 2015
Legenda (from bottom right): 1) feather 2/5 on card, 2) with Nenad Bogdanovič at Way Pavilion International, 9 May 2015, 3) Maurizio Follin at WPI, 4) Renato Sclaunich, 5) Gianni Noli, 5) Daniel and Christine Daligand, 6) M. Follin on his Way, Mariano Bellarosa and Tiziana Baracchi at a distance, 7) plume in the (h)air, 8) Gabriella Gallo, 9) with Emilio Morandi, 10) plume in trans(parent) envelope, 11) with Peter Küstermann, 12) with G. Noli embracing one of his work, 13) Tarotensign XII: (la) vie, painted by Laura Cristin 2014-2015, 14) still life with a goose and a dancer on my wonderlibrary, 26 May 2015, 15) 60 feathers at 8 May 2015
http://maurizio-follin-lavia.blogspot.it/2015/04/way-pavilion-international.html
Eclipse of the sun (1961-1999-2015)
Eclipses at Lat 45°N, Long 13°E (clockwise from left): 1) “Box 1 Pre-vision” 11 August 1999, 2) detail (bottom) of “Box 1”, 3) Sun on 20 March 2008 at “Duino Paradiso Equinox”, 4) detail (top) of “Box 1”, 5) stillframe from the performance “Sirena Bulgara” in Sofia on 19 June 2013 at WTAF
At Lat 45° N, Long 13° E, I had some chances to witness the sun being overshadowed by the moon. First time has been at 7 years, on 15 February 1961. I was allowed not to go to school and my mum brought me – seated on the front saddle of her bicycle – to the gathering of firewood, 15 kilometres far from home. It was a sort of magic – at daytime – to suddenly find immersed in the darkness. It made me think of a Holy Friday when Christ was crucified and the sky turned night. Incidentally, I would have devoloped this impression many years later. The occasion was the performance “Duino Paradiso Equinox” on 20 March 2008, with Dawn Redwood (link to the video in “Places”). The (partial) eclipse of 11 August 1999 was planned in advance so that it could be lived in an artist mode. I spent the exact time of the eclipse painting the inside of a big wooden box whose exterior I had previously tinted in black. Then, in a couple of hours, closed in the camera obscura of my garage, while projecting and painting images of primordial aquatic life into the box, I recreated the inside of an eye, as pre impressed on the retina. “Box # 1, Pre-vision” took shape. This piece made me think of a moment of a not-so-distant performance in Sofia, on 19 June 2013, next to the Summer Solstice. I was lying in a lighted spot of a water tower as a chrysalid ready to sprout in a butterfly, in a sort of pre-life defined by a eye shaped background.
This time, on 20 March 2015, Spring Equinox, many astrological and not coincidences occur again with the eclipse of the sun and I am writing these lines as a keepsake of the Time.
Tarots: con-sonant and (in)finite project
Just the perfect day to let you know something about the Tarots project that is keeping not-only-me busy, from long. On Mardi gras, approaching the turning into the Chinese New Year of the Goat, “Tarots” is published in the “Works” section of this website. A more extensive pdf to download (Intermezzo) goes with it. The journey into this ever surprising/involving theme – treated in a peculiar/subjective way – has come to a crucial point so far. After the silver path, the golden one appears, still ongoing, con-sonant and (in)finite.
In Memory 2008-2015 at Art Cafè
On January 27th 2008, together with Amadea Fayne, mezzo soprano from Berlin and the pianist/composer Dario Della Rossa from Cosenza, I had the opportunity to think/act for the Day of Memory in the old sinagogue of S. Daniele del Friuli. The following day, we all went to Venice for a free/impromptu performance along the gondolas… Kol Nidre and AniMa amin were sung, proper music for the holocaust was played and a Sheren performance (according to my art identity) took place. Life and death are intimately connected: in 2008 we also had in mind/heART the 250th anniversary from Mozart’s birth and other facts. Last July, on 14th, I had the chance to perform “Tarots in Paris” at Père Lachaise, and at a certain point I could almost “feel” the spirit of Raymond Roussel whose tomb I had chosen for a dance prayer. After the 7th janvier 2015, even George Wolinski will rest forever there.
I do not know what art can do, but remembering the little we/I could do makes me feel better.
http://microbonet-artcafe.blogspot.it/2015/01/laura-cristin.html
Tarots in Paris at Magmart video festival 2015
Two videos of the performance “Dance du Tarot en F”, that was made at the sepulchre of Raymond Roussel in Paris last July, take part in the IX edition of Magmart, the international videoart festival of Naples. The curator is Enrico Tomaselli.
The videos can be seen, till March 2015, at the following links
http://www.magmart.it/showvideo.php?i=2167
http://www.magmart.it/showvideo.php?i=2168
30 videos will be selected for the permanent collection of CAM, Contemporary Art Museum of Naples.
As for my videography, I started for the necessity of taking notes of sounds and movements besides the images, along my art&life path. Most of my videos are kept in the personal archive and/or sent to whom it might concern. Since the beginning of the practice, in 2005, some of the most significant ones were showed/took part in Magmart editions/webmagazines and in the Mexican event “07-07-07 para el dia del paraguas negro”.
Meeting Ryosuke Cohen in Florence
16 September 2014, Florence in Italy: it was a unique and wonderful opportunity to meet Ryosuke Cohen, his art, new friends at circolo degli artisti casa di Dante, among masterpieces of the past. Everything and everybody, the situation was just “perfect”, the collaboration, wishing to understand/catch as much as possible from the situation. Ryosuke shown us unexpected sides of Japan and art and humanity.
clockwise from bottom left: 1) still frame from the video of the performance “Sherena Velella” in Ponza LT, 2) Sherena Velella with Ponza harbour, 3) “Birth of Venus” by Botticelli at Uffizi, 4) Noriko Shimizu, Gianni Broi, Ryosuke Cohen, Laura Cristin outside Casa di Dante in Florence on September 16th, 5) Ryosuke at work, 6) detail of Tarots’ ensign 2 “ear_th”, 2010, 7) performance at “Lo Stracquo”, September 14th, 2014, 8) silhouette portrait of Laura Cristin by Ryosuke Cohen, 2009
From my maritime diary:
On Tuesday, September 16th, 2014, late in a sunny morning, wearing my favourite azure silk dress, Florence was on my way. The origin of my journey was the island of Ponza, in the very center of Mediterranean, where I had performed “Sherena Velella” at the finissage of an exhibition. A not so easy travel – by ship, bus, delayed trains and a final yellow taxi had conducted me to Dante’s house. There, along with my two pieces of heavy luggage, I was promptly hearty welcome. Instantly I felt at ease and started to get acquainted with the president of the circolo Lella Marchini and those present, waiting for Gianni Broi (the curator) and Ryosuke with Noriko (his wife) to turn up. The room was/is beautiful, with all the portraits/paintings of “macchiaioli” hanged on the main walls and one could have felt (I did) a bit overwhelmed by the history. Ryosuke Cohen was not new to me, I had met him in Minden, Germany in 2009 and on that occasion he already made a silhouette portrait on one of his brain cell sheets he is known for. These are collages of stamps, stickers, whatever comes from the network and that are chosen/selected by the artist to express a sort of inside essence of what’s going on worldwide. After a while, Gianni arrived. As we were all busy/worried about contacting Ryosuke, at some point, around midday, he magically materializated with his wife at the entrance. He looked radiant and calm, happy to be in Florence (for the first time, as he explained later). The interview was difficult every now and then because both parts had to communicate in a foreign language. Though, the practical part fully explained the core of his work. He sketched the profile of the presents, one by one. Noriko took pictures, that he could refer to for completing the portraits. Gianni was busy in collaging the frame of the honorary citizenship that he had prepared and also adjusting/reducing the size of the poster to fit the drawings’ briefcase I suggested to stick on the back of the big parchment, a significant piece of Gianni’s mail art (a green rectangle with a little mole asking “ what’s the magic formula?”) that Ryosuke had included in brain cell # 147 sent in 1985 for a mail art exhibition at Uffizi in Florence. The mole seemed happy to continue her journey to Japan!
“Birth of Venus” by Botticelli, emerging from the foam of Mediterranean Sea was on my mind, from time to time. Though, the “real” sonorous hair I had used in Ponza, and other proper performance stuff could remain in the luggage. During the meeting a real and true spirit of mail art took shape as a cooperative attitude. Everybody was at the same level, sincerely aimed at making things happen at their best. Perhaps art belongs to the ones that just make it, with a sense of being at service of a common goal?! The reality, topped with an ice cream eaten nearby later, before saying goodbye, was just the performance, that – considering any kind of presence, including the ones, in spirit, from the past, was really successfull.
Sherena Velella performance: ear_th 2
On September 14th, in Ponza, at Museo Civico of via Roma, I take part at the finissage of the exhibition “Lo Stracquo: l’arte che viene dal mare” with the performance “Sherena Velella”.
From bottom right, anticlockwise: 1) stranded chair used by Charlotte Menin for her installation “Conversazioni di fondo”, 2) Laura Cristin among her work “Sherena Velella” and “Optimist” by Kika Bohr, 3) Tarot ensign # 2, alias “ear_th” painted in 2010, 4) main nave of the collective exhibition “Lo Stracquo” at Museo civico of Ponza LT, 5) detail of my foot in religious mode while entering the chapel inside “The Temperance” by Niki de Saint Phalle at the Tarots Garden in Capalbio GR, August 2014. In the background: heARTs in Ponza’s sky.
After having searched/worked about the interiority of the feelings/fillings of “Sherena Velella” bust/pillow, having installed it in the blue 100% pure plastic wave/veil stranded among many velella velellas in the isle of Ponza, time has come for a performance to interact with the whole collective exhibition. The place is the Civic Museum, aka “I cameroni dei confinati”, just above a big subterranean cistern of the Roman aqueduct. On the occasion of the finissage of “Lo Stracquo”, 5th edition of Ambientarte, on Sunday, September 14th, 2014 I will arrive in the island, in the very center of Mediterraneo at Long 12°E, coming from the places around Trieste where the same Sea reaches its further North at Lat 45°N. The Sea – the true protagonist of the works – will metaphorically come back. A stick-of-rain, the Tarot ensign # 2, that I named “ear_th”, a white, barely perceptible plastic veil for the foam of the waves etc will be the main instruments as long as the movements of my body and the music by Dario Della Rossa. Not-so-ephemeral presences that had most touched the heART of many, will take shape… just for a moment.
“Lo Stracquo” exhibition is promoted by Azienda Speciale per l’Economia del Mare, municipalities of Ponza and Gaeta, Pinacoteca Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea of Gaeta. Organization by Cala Felci and Novecento association.
