Blog
Expotarget in Milan
A little contribution of mine – a paper airplane – takes part in Milan in bersaglioexpo exhibition cured by microbo.net. First exhibitions, among with other ‘planes selected, will be at the space microLive from May 1st in coincidence with the Expo opening.
http://www.microbo.net/2015/05/bersaglioexpo-laura-cristin/
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
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!
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”.
Latin America at Phoenix Art Museum
On October 1, 2014 the mail art exhibition “Art is Our Last Hope” has opened at Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona USA. Curated by Vanessa Davidson and John Held Jr. in conjunction with the work of the Brazilian artist Paulo Bruscky, it will close on November 23. Takes part in the exhibition held in the Orientation Room, an artist box of mine, with the soul of a velella velella picked up last Summer in the center of Mediterraneo. It connects my performance “Sheren in A-MexicO” at Academia de San Carlos in 2006, around a plaster copy of the Winged victory of Samothrace, to the real Nike that I could admire this year in Paris. Not so distant feelings.
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.
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.
