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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.
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…
13 June 2014: not-so-personal 60!
On June 13th 2014, at dawn, the Sun will be in the same position of the natal one, after 60 ear_th’s revolutions. At the same time, from the Chinese point of view and calendar, the wooden Horse, yang, of my horoscope will also return, once in 60 yrs. I am happy to share/have shared the Time here on hearth and sky, so far! Celebrations will follow at Lat 45° N and Long 13° E, along the Sea.
