IMPORT/EXPORT Picture of resistance by Alireza Ostovar (Iran)
Picture of resistance is inspired by “The Girls of the Revolution Street”. It is performed in public spaces in support of Iranian protesters fighting for their human rights. It is dedicated to all Iranian women resisting oppression. The performance is a direct, symbolic message of freedom - of speech, opinion, expression, and attire (hijab). INFO ABOUT ALIREZA OSTOVAR
Alireza Ostovar will be teaching a workshop on transcultural music and transdisciplinary art as part of the EXPORT PROGRAM
ACTA DISTANTIAE 2.18 (The Journal of Distance 2.18) by Aleksander Zain (Serbia)
When I started working on this piece, the total time count by Google Maps on how long it would take to walk the route from Venice to Livorno came out as 2 days and 18 hours. Of course, the journey is longer, and 2.18 is a partially sarcastic subtitle which will never realize its essence.
On the other hand, the numbering refers to the chapter/section marking, and this traveling process treats each day like a diary chapter that constitutes the image of the road, avoiding the mystification of the walk or journey as pilgrimage, but rather a search (or even a hunt) for personal understanding of the mental states inflicted by what was left behind us as well as what we currently experience through the space/time coordinates of the road.
The action of ACTA DISTANTIAE starts from the morning of the September 13th in Venice and follows the journey, mostly done on foot, to Livorno, and continues on the fortress during the event on 22nd and 23rd. The image in Fortezza depicts the crossing, confrontation, and meeting of the artist with his road.
In their geographical position, the two Italian cities, Venezia and Livorno, bring the connection of the east port to the west one. For the artist who is walking, they also connect two personal experiences and two important spaces for performance art. This geographical translation opens the opportunity for research of certain aspects of the art form itself - the relation of space and time, and how we treat the piece that, for the part of the time while it is happening, does not have an audience, and is visible only through the documenting lens.
ABOUT ALEKSANDER ZAIN
Scheletro della vita by Rascal Black (Poland)
Scheletro della vita is an interactive performance, inspired by fashion designer Alexander McQueen and Marina Abramović's Rhythm 0. The artist is guided by the idea of reappropriating waste as a symbol of strength using his body as a base. The public is at liberty to dress the artist, choosing various materials derived from local waste found in the Livorno area.
"The piece wants to draw attention to the problem of environmental pollution. The items on the table were found on the streets of the city. Please use them during the performance and create something wonderful or dramatic on my body."
Fallen Bird by RILABEN, Enrico L’Abbate (Italy)
Fallen Bird questions dreams, imagination and acceptance, inclusion and diversity; feelings of loneliness, solidarity or envy towards those who can or cannot see them realized. Through the falling human being, typical gravitational failure, however, alludes to the duck that glides on the water, following a soft diagonal trajectory. The viewer observes a 'natural' event - speculated by the human performer - from afar, inside the urban and spatial sound of JD Zazie, taken from the 'noise' of a computer hard drive. One wonders: don’t we all dream of flying? But if we could, where would we land? And to say what or meet whom? And you? How do you feel, safe? Do you perceive the boundaries between you and the air, between you and the water, you and the other thing? Skin and space, water, soil, the density of pain, and the transparency of happiness. The artist therefore dreams of falling where they welcome him, with lightness, freedom and feathers. Is this port like this? The queer Imaginary is aimed at stimulating the observer who looks at the metaphor of self and other, independent of gender, personal, but dedicated to the lives of others. Located in different points of the old fortress, the artist is positioned outside the building, on the building, in the building, in diagonal trajectories that distort his perspective with respect to the observer. ABOUT RILABEN
In the name of the mother and the daughter by Ivana Ranisavljević (Serbia)
In the name of the mother and the daughter reflects the artist’s perception of patriarchy with respect to female maternal roles, revolving around the artist's personal experience as a new mother, subject to the commonalities of many women taking on this role. Society's "appreciation" for this figure masks the invisible, uncompensated work this community absorbs and the silence with which this role is accepted. In most cases, this type of behavior further moves into the education of female offspring. The performance represents the process of articulating women’s personal experiences as social issues of political importance. It aims to recognize and legitimize the marginalized voices of women to understand the complexity of everyday life in all its aspects. ABOUT IVANA RANISAVLJEVIĆ
Ivana Ranisavljević will be teaching a workshop on performance art as part of the EXPORT PROGRAM
“Heaven Spot” by Florence Lam (Hong Kong)
"疒" ("Heaven Spot") is a performance in which the artist carves a piece of car wreckage, imitating the ancient human practice of carving murals in caves. Scratching the surface of a car implies destruction, emotional liberation, and communication with the world and with people, trying to leave marks of the current civilization in a primitive way to connect it to the future. What does post-human mean? What does human mean? Is the man still human without civilization, without history, without memories of the past and aspirations for the future? And what’s after the human? Scratching on car wreckage, whether it’s vandalism or a historical act, calls into question the idea of public property and morality. The action is decontextualized and re-contextualized in an action that brings an added value, an artistic value. "Heaven Spot" refers to highly dangerous places, typical of graffiti culture, the boundaries of physical capacity, social structure, and imagination. In this performance, the artist tries to perform without a time limit, to transform the maximum of the body and psyche in the raw fuel of this work, to explore the fertility and sterility of the mind manifested through the properties of the biological body and language, as a suggestion for the evolution of human values and spiritual understanding. ABOUT FLORENCE LAM
Una Fantasmagoria by Maria Larocca (Italia)
Una fantasmagoria is a site-specific installation environment, imagined by Maria Larocca in the tower of Fortezza Vecchia in Livorno.We conceive Una fantasmagoria as a purpose: the invite to embrace the dimension of an 'exposure' to the materiality of time in its unfolding, fruition and usage. The tower, available for either a crossing or a longer visit, acts as an interstice: a dense realm of time opens upwards, upon the inhabited spaces of the fortress, its rhythm defined by sound apparitions, a progression towards its own dissolution, or revelation. Una fantasmagoria allows for breaks, rests, silences, hearings, slumbers. You can enter and leave the tower at any time.
Maria Larocca is an independent transdisciplinary research project. Her work focuses on exploring the temporal aspect of the aesthetic process in the presence of its objects which can manifest itself across different practices (performance, music, installation). Her research is guided by a praxis that explores the authorial function regimes within artistic production processes.
Anonima di Cecilia Ventriglia in collaborazione con Davide Calvaresi (Italia)
Anonima is an instantaneous creation of a polyptych of canvases on the theme of the duality between human beings and divine beings. The focus is on this spiritual strength that is part of and written in all of us. The work lingers on this mystery, giving it visual form, rendering the intangible tangible, the infinite finite. It does this through a perceptible figure, a cardboard puppet with a clear semblance, that of Jesus; Jesus the human being, taken as an archetypal example of a well-known prophet of the destiny of the universe. Anonima seeks contact, a connection, and communication with whatever is not there but is there. The creative process of Anonima is inspired by the hand-made work of artisans: the creation and use of objects and the relationship between them and the performer. This manifests in an interaction with a life-size human puppet which becomes a clear symbol. The artists explore the full range of movements that this object can potentially do. Every posture, action, and dialogue take on a different meaning. This experiential approach, allows them to give form to their thoughts and deal with some important questions, to go inside and deepen their understanding of themselves. There, in their hands, is something delicate and complex.
ABOUT CECILIA VENTRIGLIA
Dreams about dying_funeralia by Marta Capaccioli and Lucrezia Palandri (Italy)
dreams about dying_funeralia exists in a dreamlike realm, blurring the boundary between life and death and occupying a liminal space of creativity and imagination. The two female figures alternate imaginary rituals of burial, taking care of each other and making their respective "deceased" bodies beautiful. They allow songs, memories, gestures, and objects of affection to surface as they are engaged in daily actions that become funeral formulas, magic spells, lullabies, travel memories, love letters, and farewells. A continuous cycle of burial transcends conventional perspectives on death, such as the biological, medical, legal, religious, and anthropological, revealing the inevitable interconnectedness of life and death. dreams about dying_funeralia reflects, with at times even lighthearted tones, on saying goodbye and the process of transforming the pain of loss. It navigates between public and private spheres, aiming at integrating an intimate and imaginative dimension into the original meaning of ritual as a collective act of profound humanity and compassion. ABOUT MARTA CAPACCIOLI / ABOUT LUCREZIA PALANDRI
Gold Diggers by Danaï Galeou and Darius Bogdanowicz (Greece - France / Spain - Belgium)
Gold Diggers is a happening, a participatory game. The players observe the sunset from a pre-arranged location at the port, fixing their gaze upon the sun until it vanishes from the horizon. They then run to a higher point in the fortress to continue observing the sunset. When the sun vanishes again, they run up... The game ends when the sun disappears from the top of the tower, the highest point of view of the old fortress. ABOUT DARIUS BOGDANOWICZ / ABOUT DANAÏ GALEOU
