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La “Repubblica dei matti”
On 19 September 2015, at “Pordenonelegge” I met the historic John Foot at the launching of his book La “Repubblica dei matti”: Franco Basaglia e la psichiatria radicale in Italia, 1961-1978. Having had a little – however significant – part in the story of Gorizia, where I met Letizia Comba Jervis between 1966 and 1969, we had many things to share and tell.
…to be continued.
Sherena Velella in Ventotene
Sherena Velella as installation – a soft bust of sea and sky – takes part in Ventotene in the new collective exhibition of “Lo Stracquo”. Last year the works of art were made by international artists with the waste-material collected from the sea along the shores of Ponza. The exhibition continues to travel in the Thyrrenian Sea to a nearby island. Opening at Sala Polivalente U. Terracini at 19:30 of August 7th, 2015. Exhibition will remain open till September 27th. Associazione Calafelci and La Mongolfiera.
http://www.ponzacalafelci.com/ventotene-lo-stracquo-apre-le-porte/
http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=1347262
http://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/08/10/foto/_lo_stracquo_a_ventotene_la_mostra_che_viene_dal_mare-120763529/1/#2
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.
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.
Madonnina pop Milan-Rome
Starting from Rome, at studio.ra of Raffaella Losapio, my contribution “Madonnina pop con cuore-farfalla che vola nel Tempo” takes part in the project Madonnina pop, re-styling the golden statue on top of Milan Dome. My image links several events such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s KV 200 that was composed in November 1774, one month before the inauguration of the golden Madonna, with other not so private facts, mainly related to my performance “Tarots in Paris” at Père Lachaise in July 2014. A butterfly heART (from Sherensign 6 named “LoveS”) is in the core of the Madonnina of Milan.
http://www.studiora.eu/2015/03/06/nuovo-look-per-la-madonnina-del-duomo-di-milano/
Mary ‘Xmas and happy New Year
Legenda of the card – crib 2014, year of the Seahorse yang – (clockwise from left): 1) ”Intimacy” cm 26×9,5 acrylic and paste on a piece of wood – rescued from the shed – that was used in the Nineties for colour proof, 2) “Selfportrait at 60” cm 14,5×14,5 acrylic and paste on disposable textile coupled with cardboard, 3) “Lorenzo a due anni” cm 14,5×8 acrylic on wood, 3) paper boat in “Sherena Velella artistbook 1r”, detail of a reliquary of a velella velella in “Sherena Velella 1”, 4) “Dario Brunori s as Babbo Natale 2014” activity puppet sheet, 5) Atlas from the center of Mediterraneo, ATCards and title from “Sherena Velella book 1”.
In recent months it was nice to think over the latest things experienced here and there. It enriched my imaginary and urged me to create new stories with scraps, tickets, calendars collected along the art&life way. Among other things, four artist books were handmade and many words were written in ultramarine ink with a nib shaped as the Eiffel Tower. Multimedia attachments like “Sounds and memories around the Mediterraneo” and other more or less ir-relevant videos completed the artist books. Then, I wanted to return to my first love, that was/is painting. “Selfportrait at 60” on a rectangle of nonwoven fabric (I like very much the dotted texture of the material) came out: I had already made it as a collage but acrylics and pastes are more involving and unpredictable! Then I rescued from the shed some wood that I had used in the Nineties for color tests. These were turned into portraits emerging from the turquoise of the sea. Veering towards Christmas time, I am ending the year with a Santa Claus puppet to dress!
Sherena Velella artist book
The first two artist books on the theme of “Sherena Velella” are almost completed. They are inspired by the velelle velelle met in the navel of Mediterraneo this year. The theme expands beyond a physical place and also in the Time, connecting history, myth with the present and the future. The second copy of the artist book is almost ready to sail for Fundación del Garabato based in Angera/Zaragoza.
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.
Stracquo with Sherena Velella in Ponza
On August 1st, in the island of Ponza, at i Cameroni dei Confinati (aka Museum) of via Roma, the exhibition “Lo Stracquo: l’arte che viene dal mare” opens to the public. The project is run by the association Calafelci and Pinacoteca of Gaeta.
From Velella Velella fish (bottom right) in anticlockwise direction: 1) with a blue sail given by the Sea, 2) study/details of the inside of “Sherena Velella”, 3) enwrapping the feelings in the right shape to fill the textile bust, 4) finished torso, seen from the pelvis, 5) “Sherena Velella” (in the white box) just about to leave home, headed to the sail in Ponza.” width=”600″ height=”348″ class=”size-full wp-image-503″ /> From Velella Velella fish (bottom right) in anticlockwise direction: 1) with a blue sail given by the Sea, 2) study/details of the inside of “Sherena Velella”, 3) enwrapping the feelings in the right shape to fill the textile bust, 4) finished torso, seen from the pelvis, 5) “Sherena Velella” (in the white box) just about to leave home, headed to the sail in Ponza
A work/installation of mine “Sherena Velella” takes part among the sixteen selected. The textile bust filled with feelings/emotions coming from/leaving the very center of Mediterraneo, has joined at last the “blue sail” already there since its repechage in April. I will be there too from the August 24 till the 30 and at the finissage on Sunday, September 14th, 2014.
Danse du Tarot en F
On July 14th, in Paris, at Pére Lachaise cemetery, at the annual celebration for Raymond Roussel cured by Gianni Broi, meeting point at Chapel Thiers (55th division) at 14:00. Up to 18:00.
clockwise: Ensign 14 D Angel, 2007: performance at Pére Lachaise 2011; study for hair in/for F; detail of a seahorse in Mediterranea II mannequin, 2000;performance at Carolei, CS, 2010
The Tarots’ dance in F that will take place at Pére Lachaise cemetery in Paris on 14th July 2014, frees a significant part of the research on the Arcana undertaken in 2007 by the painter and performer Laura Cristin, aka Sheren, and the musician Dario Della Rossa . The intent was / is to relive personal experiences in new Stories and Geographies of the imaginary. The research starts from the orthodox symbolism of the Arcana and goes on exploring other spaces and dimensions. Ensigns, music, actions, so far produced were exhibited in fragmentary form – mostly in private performance. This year, the heart of that work finds an extreme affinity of times, places and themes with/just joining the choral memory of Raymond Roussel in Paris. There are moments/steps in “Locus solus” (the centenary of his masterpiece falls this year) with which “Danse du Tarot en F” is most in tune. The musical hair of Faustine/mermaid to be paired with Sheren, not to talk about the resemblances of the sixth chapter where the Tarots’ music is played by the emeralds trapped in the cards. Beautiful corresponDances to be re-played in Paris, together with the ensigns 14 D, 6 LoveS and 21 CoronA. The idea of this performance emerges from a deep empathy with the writer, whom we are grateful to for the demostration that dreams and imagination are true. Another motivation is to bestow him – perhaps — just a bit of that success that he felt in life only while singing at the piano. More about this tribute can be seen while/when taking its proper shape on July 14th . The first part will be mostly in blue, the second will turn toward the emerald green, with a water-veil that comes from Palermo…
