SEGNI Land Art Installation, Carso Upland, Doberdò Lakes Nature Reserve

GRAND OPENING OF THE INSTALLATION 
(PRESS CONFERENCE AND OPENING WITH A VISITED TOUR): 
October the 20th, 2018, 11.30 am
Reservation is highly requested: https://www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-segni-inaugurazione-dellopera-di-land-art-visita-guidata-49876336465

Two monumental red signs, condensing the vocation of a whole territory. This is how artist Joshua Cesa makes fully visible a fragment of the border between Western and Eastern Europe: border which, during centuries, has split up populations forcing them to adopt new national identities (in recenthistory, with the World Wars). The installation rises in the middle of the Carso Upland, in the Doberdò Lakes Nature Reserve. Built of fabric, and designed to be gradually consumed, the artwork has a colour that recalls the surrounding landscape’s chromatic scale, dominated by a type of karstic bush called “Sommaco”, to which a significative historical memory is connected: it’s belief that its autumn red leaves are actually the fallen soldiers’ blood resurfacing on the upland.

The visitor will be able to enjoy the artwork from different perspectives and points of view, even going inside it, discovering different perceptions of  the boundary and its continuous movements.

Joshua Cesa, was born in 1986 in Monfalcone (GO) and graduated from the University of Architecture in Udine, develops his art combining architecture with digital, installative and contemporary art, experimenting on the issue of conflicts to share the memory among local people. Cesa uses Land Art getting inspiration from the monumental and environmental impact of some Christo’s artworks, and so he did for his latest project “Segni”. This installation consists of the rappresentation of a fragment of the borderline between Western and Estern Europe through two monumental straight edged signs built of special fabric tipically used to fabricate sails, more than four metres tall and respectively 30 and 36 metres long, placed on the Carso Upland, in the village of Doberdò.

Indeed, the borderline has been moved on several occasions during the World Wars, splitting up populations and forcing survivors to assume a new national identity they didn’t feel comfortable with. The two signs are made in a blood red colour in accordance with the surrounding landscape’s chromatic scale, dominated by a type of karstic bush called Sommaco to which an important historical memory is connected: they say that its red autumn leaves are actually the ancient fallen soldiers’ blood that resurfaces on the upland.

For around a month, from the 20th  October 2018 to the 18th November 2018, the visitor will have the possibility to enjoy the artwork from different perspectives: closely, so they could perceive the kinetic nature of the artwork, internally and from above, from the promontory of the nature reserve where the artwork’s shapes and dynamism pointing towards the sea can be easily caught. In particular, looking at the installation from the right side people may have a perception of breakthrough and tension to the destination, while on the left side the sensation will be the opposite.

This tension reminds the visitors of the public imagination of the Carso Upland as frontier with Eastern Europe, since it witnessed the World War I and the Cold War, in the period of the Berlin Wall when it was the last Italian fortress.

In a contemporary moment of transition, full of violence, the artist want to encourage the vistors to pay attention to the mortality of human beings, metaphorically represented by using a fabric that is deriberately designed to be gradually consumed by weather conditions.

“Remarkably Prescient” Exhibition Focused on American Jewish Life during WWI to Open at National WWI Museum and Memorial on Friday, June 29

“Remarkably Prescient” Exhibition Focused on American Jewish Life during WWI to Open at National WWI Museum and Memorial

“For Liberty: American Jewish Experience in WWI” Opens Friday, June 29

Jacob Lavin (center) with group of American Expeditionary Forces in France. 

Lavin was one of the American Jews who fought in World War I.

National Museum of American Jewish History, 1996.51.5

Gift of Marilyn Lavin Tarr

PRESS RELEASE

KANSAS CITY, MO. – More than 250,000 Jews served in the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. Yet, their stories – and the stories of those who remained in the U.S. during the war – often remain untold.

Hailed by Time magazine as “a deep dive into a strange, history-shaking year” and by the New York Times as “remarkably prescient,” For Liberty: American Jewish Experience in WWI, the latest special exhibition at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, portrays what life was like as an American Jew on the home front and the battlefield through remarkable stories and unique artifacts.

“One of the most noteworthy aspects of this exhibition is the unique perspective it provides,” said National WWI Museum and Memorial Senior Curator Doran Cart. “Seeing these extraordinary objects in person and gaining a deeper understanding of American Jewish lives during WWI is a truly incredible experience.”

Eva Davidson (right) with her fellow Marines. Davidson, an American Jew, was one of the first 300 women to enlist in the United States Marine Corps after the Secretary of the Navy began permitting it in 1918.

National Museum of American Jewish History, 1992.126.19

Gift of Judge Murray C. Goldman in memory of his cousin Eva Davidson Radbill

Service men and women were not segregated by religion or ethnicity except for African Americans. Trying to discover their American identity, 1917, the year that the United States entered WWI, was a unique time for Jewish Americans at home and at war.

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise spoke for many when he wrote in the New York Times that military service would “mark the burial, without the hope of resurrection, of hyphenism, and will token the birth of a united and indivisible country.”

Featured objects from the exhibition include a letter from American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) leader Louis Marshall appealing to Jewish philanthropists like Julius Rosenwald to support the Ten Million Dollar Fund, American Jewish composer Irving Berlin’s draft registration card, and two handwritten drafts of The Balfour Declaration by Leon Simon from July of 1917, the document that outlined British support for the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel.

The trials and tribulations and the lasting effects of WWI on the American Jewish population are also shown through documents such as a map that notes the amounts pledged to the JDC for Jewish war sufferers and a poster showing a shipment of kosher meat being loaded onto the SS Ashburn in New York City, bound for Danzig, Poland.

For Liberty: American Jewish Experience in WWI, originally exhibited as 1917: How One Year Changed the World, is organized by the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and the American Jewish Historical Society in New York and made possible in part by the National Endowment of the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.

Bank of Blue Valley, the Regnier Family Foundation and Herb and Bonnie Buchbinder are sponsors of the exhibition’s appearance in Kansas City with the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle and KCPT serving as media sponsors.

This special exhibition will be open to the public at the National WWI Museum and Memorial from Friday, June 29-Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018, in the Wylie Gallery.

About the National WWI Museum and Memorial

The National World WWI Museum and Memorial is America’s leading institution dedicated to remembering, interpreting and understanding the Great War and its enduring impact on the global community. The Museum and Memorial holds the most comprehensive collection of World War I objects and documents in the world and is the second-oldest public museum dedicated to preserving the objects, history and experiences of the war. The Museum and Memorial takes visitors of all ages on an epic journey through a transformative period and shares deeply personal stories of courage, honor, patriotism and sacrifice. Designated by Congress as America’s official World War I Museum and Memorial and located in downtown Kansas City, Mo., the National WWI Museum and Memorial inspires thought, dialogue and learning to make the experiences of the Great War era meaningful and relevant for present and future generations. To learn more, visit theworldwar.org.

"Visions of war. How artists and soldiers depicted World War One". An online exhibition by Europeana

La tranchée : ("C'est la Guerre". I) : [estampe] / Félix Vallotton

As we can read in the announcement, the new online exhibition "Visions of War" by European examines how serving soldiers and official war artists depicted conflict on the Western Front during World War One in paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculpture.

We invite you to browse and to take a deeper look from this link.

"Memory Lands", the new exhibition of the B#SIDE WAR FESTIVAL's opening in Treviso (Italy)

Gordon Belray,
'STUDY FOR THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME.
TWO PEASANT WOMEN IN FIELD'
print, 2014

MEMORY LANDS

Vernissage: Friday the 10th November 2017 at 06.30 p.m., at B#S GALLERY (Via Isola di mezzo 3/5, Treviso, Italy).

Exhibition's details: the exhibition will be available from the 11th November to the 2nd December, from Monday to Saturday with timetable 10.00 a.m. - 06.00 p.m. (free visited tours available in location).

Infoline: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org

Jane Glynn,
'TRENCHES IN THE FLANDERS SALIENT'
digital print on aluminium, 2015

New perspectives on the everlasting advancing of history in war’s territories invite us to a profound consideration on the memory of the soil, through the techniques and the looks of international contemporary artists from Ireland, China, Canada, UK, Belarus. Memory Lands is the new exhibition of the B#SIDE WAR FESTIVAL's fourth edition, which enjoys the patronage of UNESCO and the Municipality of Treviso: the vernissage is planned on Friday the 10th November at 6.30 p.m., at the B#S Gallery (Via Isola di mezzo 3/5, Treviso). The exhibition will be available from the 11th November to the 2nd December, from Monday to Saturday with timetable 10.00 a.m. - 06.00 p.m. (free visited tours available in location).

On the occasion of the Opening, the artist Jane Glynn will present the brand new preview of her photographic reportage. The Irish artist is the protagonist of the new edition of the B#Side War Artists in Residence project: the photographer has spent a whole month on the Carso Upland (between cities of Trieste, Gorizia, Nova Gorica, Fogliano Redipuglia, Monfalcone), where she has dedicated herself to a reportage on the karst territory. The Glynn feels particularly attached to the idea of the karst soil: in fact, her country of origin counts a vast number of karst territory, so she has developed a special bond with the Italian/Slovenian border lands as well. The element more attracting for her attention is the flow of historical rivers, such as the Isonzo, the Tagliamento and the Piave: they were silent protagonists of numerous battles and with their vibrant flow, they represents metaphorically the passing of time and memory.

Victoria Lucas
'CONFLICT'
digital video, 2014

In Memory Lands, soil as a natural element is the protagonist of a dynamic memory, captured by photos and videos which are able to underline its invaluable testimonial essence. Starting as a static document, thanks to the artists memory becomes alive and vibrating, transmitted from generation to generation, leaving an unchangeable trace in the History of the land (like the rivers that cross it).

In the exhibition, artworks by: Jane Glynn (Ireland), Victoria Lucas (UK), Ting Bao (China), Gordon Belray (Canada), Lesya Pchelka e Vasilisa Palianinа (Belarus).

Contacts:

Event link: http://www.bsidewar.org/en/highlights/3090/
Web: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org
info@iodeposito.org; daniela.madonna@iodeposito.org (press)

Last days to visit the exhibition "Organic Memory" at Ca' dei Ricchi (Treviso, Italy)

If you're spending some time in the Venice area, there are still some days to visit in the city of Treviso the charming exhibition entitled “Organic Memory”. This is located in the beautiful venue of Ca’ dei Ricchi, just one minute walk from Piazza dei Signori, the central and main square of the city.

The exhibition will be open until the 5th of August with the following opening times: from Monday to Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. to 01:00 p.m. and from 03:30 p.m. to 07:30 p.m.

Before leaving you with an anticipation, namely a concise and close photo reportage of some of the artworks that this exhibition hosts, we remind you this web page dedicated to the event in the site of the festival B#SIDE WAR. The artworks that the visitors can encounter in Treviso are by Nathalie Vanheule, Boris Beja, Lang Ea, Cosima Montavoci, Anitra Hamilton, Ilisie Remus, Ting Bao and Victoria Lucas.

ANITRA HAMILTON, Still life with Fruit

COSIMA MONTAVOCI, Tomb Sculpture

Lang Ea, Listen

NATHALIE VANHEULE, En Flemme

[Photo courtesy of IoDeposito Press Office]

The Italian sound art installation INSIGHT will 'sound' even across the border

Press release

Vernissage

Thursday the 15th June, at NAGN – National Art Gallery of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia. 

Saturdaythe 1st July, at Mosede Fort & Museum, Greve, Denmark.

Infoline

www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org

B#SIDE WAR, the diffuse artistic and cultural Festival promoted by IoDeposito Ngo, has achieved a new international goal: Insight, sound art installation by Joshua Cesa, lands to Namibia on the 15th June and to Denmark on the 1st July. These two days are dedicated to the inauguration of two of the seven installation's bells, which have been donated to NAGN- National Art Gallery of Namibia and to Mosede Fort & Museum of Denmark. In fact, Insight is the protagonist of an international dissemination project: the ‘sensorial - auditive stations’ will take new routes, stimulating new keys to interpretation. Presented in Italy during the B#SIDE WAR FESTIVAL's second edition, the dissemination project is now oriented to an international network of partnerships with cultural institutions involved with subjects and issues covered by the artist Joshua Cesa. Thanks to this new horizon, the Italian Ngo IoDeposito and its B#SIDE WAR FESTIVAL crosses national border again and stays tuned to innovative and interactive contemporary art expression. With exhibitions, avant-garde artistic perspectives and international research projects IoDeposito carries on its missio through Festival's third edition, focused on the Great War and its legacy to contemporary society and new generations.

Insight is a sound installation, a sensory, narrative, auditive and visual path, a precious and vibrant relational architecture based on the perceptive stimuli of light art and sound art. Cesa's work aims to involve visitors through senses and feelings, in order to trigger an intimate and polyphonic reflection about what conflicts victims have lived. Inspired by the literary evidences of 1914-16, the artwork contributes in investigating the collective and individual memory of the first global conflict, starting from the sensorial polarity sight/deceptive – hearing/salvific, detected into the evidences of the past and common to all the conflicts of the short century. And it's exactly this polarity the main resource of vistor's interactive experience: Cesa’s installation -with Alessio Sorato and Lorena Cantarut sounds- puts in direct contact with the experiential ghost of the conflict, which is narrated by the reproduction of First World War's auditive prints through seven different ‘sensorial-auditive stations’.

The international donation project of the Insight's ‘sensorial-auditive stations’ is based on the assignment of sound concepts to the local history of different countries, in order to connect each bell to the specific history of the land and stimulate new artwork's undermeaning. So, as a demonstration of artworks' universal value, each cultural location chosen (Denmark, Namibia and soon even USA, France and Russia) has recognized a piece of itself and its history in the sound concept of Insight. «The artist has worked with native testimonies, gathering direct life experiences» explains Chiara Isadora Artico, IoDeposito's president and B#SIDE WAR FESTIVAL's art director. The new artwork's geo-localization has, in fact, deep roots. About National Art Gallery of Namibia, the analysis of Great War human experience related to history of African conflicts has led to the choice of the Campana dello Stallo. The eternal repetition, the impasse condition -for example, the foxholes one- expressed in Italian war diaries' pages found here new perspectives thanks to the Namibians contribution. In this way, installed in the neutral, airy and metallic space of the Upper Museum, the sound art installation gives back a fragment of the African local history able to show inner affinity with Italian war testimonies. From comparative studies of Danish war dynamics, it can be investigated the dimension of countries indirectly afflicted by World Wars. The selected station for the Mosede Fort & Museum is the Campana dell'Attesa, which will become part of the important Danish museum's permanent collection. «The connection established between Insight and new cultural institutions' history» asserts the touched and satisfied Italian artist «it's going to create a new narration of the installation itself, but even of the absolute value of its universal message».

Contacts
Event Link: http://www.bsidewar.org/en/upcoming/insight-sound-art-installation-by-joshua-cesa-2/ ; http://www.bsidewar.org/en/upcoming/insight-sound-art-installation-by-joshua-cesa/
Web: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org
Direction: info@iodeposito.org
Press&Communication: daniela.madonna@iodeposito.org

Exhibition Featuring Striking Modern Images of WWI Battlefields from Photographer Michael St Maur Sheil Opens at National World War I Museum and Memorial

 Ancient remains of the village, Fey-en-Haye,

in the St. Mihiel battlefield

Press release 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – World War I was the first “modern” war as industry enabled weapons and explosives to be manufactured in vast quantities that brought death and destruction on a scale never previously experienced by mankind. 

American Sergeant Charles S. Stevenson wrote, “Machine guns, rifles, shells, aeroplanes, and tanks — everything you read about — I saw ‘em all. We followed the first line (the attacking party) for twelve hours and ours was a sort of 'after the battle' review. I saw all kinds of German trenches, barbed wire entanglements, busted houses, burning trees, deep shell holes, torn-up railroad tracks, peaceful gardens, dynamited bridges.”
 

American 30.06 caliber unfired rifle clips in the Meuse Argonne “Pocket” 

where the so-called “Lost Battalion” fought its gallant action.

The experience of American soldiers in the Great War is documented in a free outdoor special centennial exhibition, Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace: The Doughboys, 1917-1918, which debuts Friday, March 31 in the Museum’s Memorial Courtyard. The exhibition features the incredible contemporary photographs of Michael St Maur Sheil, depicting the battlefields of the Western Front where the Doughboys fought. The exhibition, co-curated by the Museum, opens in conjunction with the centennial of American entry into the Great War and is the first large-scale exhibition of Sheil’s work in the U.S. His prior exhibitions have been seen by more than five million people across the world.

In addition, a second edition of the exhibition debuts at Guildhall Yard, the site of London’s historic Roman Amphitheatre, on April 6. The exhibition then shifts to the U.S. Embassy in London at Grosvenor Square (April 28-May 12) before traveling throughout the United Kingdom during the course of the year, including stops in Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff.
 

Relic German stick grenade in the U.S. action areas 

in the Champagne region

“Through this exhibition, we trace the journey of the American forces in 1917 and 1918, and commemorate their efforts,” said National World War I Museum and Memorial Senior Curator Doran Cart. “It is both beautiful and poignant work and serves as another example of our commitment to understanding World War I and its enduring impact.”

When the United States entered the cataclysm of the war to become known as World War I, the global conflict had consumed many nations since 1914 and continued for years. The Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918 halted the fighting on the Western Front.

The Western Front the American forces saw when they arrived and until they returned home included scenes of environmental degradation, obliterated villages, vast cemeteries, and continuing massive destruction. Much of the landscape of the Western Front looked like an uninhabited planet very foreign to them.

“The U.S. involvement in the First World War was a hugely significant factor,” said Sheil, whose work has been featured in National Geographic and Time magazine. “Today, it is often overlooked, but it was a New World coming to the aid of an Old World, from which many of the young American soldiers – as first generation immigrants – had sought to escape. Their humanitarian effort in supplying and shipping over seven million tons of food to save the peoples of Belgium and northern France from starvation marked the advent of America as a united nation.”

Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace: The Doughboys, 1917-1918, is open through Aug. 20, 2017 at the Museum. The exhibition is presented by the Aon Foundation with additional support provided by Edward Jones, PNC Financial Services Group and Park University. The U.K. version is presented by the Aon Foundation in partnership with the U.S. Embassy. 

In conjunction with the March 31 opening, the Museum is hosting a free reception and panel discussion featuring Sheil, Cart and Museum President and CEO Dr. Matthew Naylor on Friday, March 31. The reception, which begins at 5 p.m., features a free drink and complimentary light hors d’oeuvres with entertainment from jazz musician Bram Wijnands and his trio. The panel discussion follows at 6 p.m. Individuals interested in attending may RSVP at theworldwar.org

Info:

National World War I Museum and Memorial

2 Memorial Drive | Kansas City, MO | 64108

Office: 816.888.8122

Cell: 352.278.0522

theworldwar.org 

"L'offensiva di carta". An illustrated journey from the Luxardo Collection to modern-day comics. An exhibition opening in Udine (Italy)

We're happy to announce the opening of the exhibition "L'offensiva di carta", an illustrated journey dedicated to the First World War years, from the Luxardo Collection to modern-day comics.

Infoline:
"L'offensiva di carta"
La Grande Guerra illustrata, dalla collezione Luxardo al fumetto contemporaneo
The Great War: an illustrated journey through time, from the Luxardo Collection to modern-day comics
Castello di Udine, 31 March 2017 - 7 January 2018
E-mail: civici.musei@comune.udine.it
Web: www.civicimuseiudine.it
Curated by Giovanna Durì, Luca Giuliani, Anna Villari
in cooperation with Sara Codutti and Fernando Orlandi

The exhibition opening these days in Udine (Friuli, Italy) displays an amount of artworks coming from the Luxardo Collection. Luxardo is the surname of a doctor of the Friuli area that was able to collect immediately after the end of the First World War more than 5600 magazines and monographs. The Luxardo Collection, now part of the collection of Musei Civici, is a large window from where people can view what was produced in terms of illustration and propaganda images in the different armies and fronts. The exhibition develops and takes into consideration the appearance of the cinema as an essential tool for the control of an already biased imagery. The last section of the exhibition is dedicated to the "new" art of illustration and comics, introducing to the works of artists such as Joe Sacco, Gipi, Manuele Fior, Jacques Tardi and Hugo Pratt. The exhibition will run untill the beginning of January 2018.

“Panoptico”, the sound art installation by Greta Lusoli at Castello di Duino

Opening: March, Saturday 25th at 11.00 a.m., at Castello di Duino's Bunker (via Duino 32, 34011, Duino Aurisina – Italy) - The participation to the opening is by reservation only (via mail at info@iodeposito.org or via the B#Side War App)

Opening hours: from 25th March 2017 to 2nd April 2017; from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. (closed on Tuesdays). Free entry.

Infoline: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org

In collaboration with the Gruppo Ermada Flavio Vidonis and the Castle of Duino, IoDeposito Ngo presents on Saturday 25th March at 11.00 a.m. the sound art installation PANOPTICO by Greta Lusoli, at the Castello di Duino's Bunker. The event is organized thanks to the support of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the patronage of UNESCO and it will be available until the 2nd April 2017: from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed on Tuesdays). This new appointment belongs to the third edition of the diffuse artistic and cultural Festival B#SIDE WAR, which is promoted by IoDeposito through numerous Italian and international events such as exhibitions, conferences and research project (www.bsidewar.org).

One hundred years ago, Europe looked like a big open-air prison: almost fifteen million people used to be trapped inside inhuman war jails and even more civilians were trapped between refugee camps and their own houses, living a life of destruction and deprivation. The sound art installation PAN-ὀπτικός by Greta Lusoli relates to that terrible war scenario trying to evoke and reconstruct in the mind of the listener the archetype prison designed by the philosopher and jurist J. Bentham at the end of XVIII century. Born with the intent to make the jails more efficient, less expensive and easier to monitor, the  Bentham's structure provided only one warden who, standing in the centre of the building, was able to guard at the same time all of the prisoners in their cells developed in a circle around the central space. In this way the prison cells became transparent: the privacy of the prisoners and the preservation of their intimacy (so, their inner identity) completely disappeared, stoking a dangerous process of objectualization and dehumanization of the prisoner.

PAN-ὀπτικός works through a stratification of its deepest meanings: there are at least three intrinsic factors related to this immaterial but complex intervention of public art. The first analysis is a sensorial one: to evoke the cruel architecture of Panopticon, Greta Lusoli project into the proxemic space of the listener a vibrant, deep, screeching and unpleasant sound that resonate inside the chest and memory of the listener with universal and archetypical echoes of a primordial energy, reminding to ancestral alert signals.  This sound create an emotional correspondence, as a summa of all the alert signals coming from the animal world, including the most primitive ones whose have been extinguished. The second level of interpretation tunes the experience of this 18th-century architecture with the tragedy of contemporary conflicts. The choice of an architecture as a symbol of an unseen reality (but too much common in our contemporaneity) hit the headlines from a mathematics and conceptual proportion trough that the sound resonate in the space: the minutes within a year are divided with the numbers of prisoners that every year, today, are victims of conflicts. In fact, the sound reverberates every 5 minutes and 53 seconds, underlining the impressive quantity of war prisoners that nowadays still loose their freedom in conflicts. Finally, a third metaphorical matrix concern to the dissociation of polarities see-be seen. The vastness of the conflicts that is gripping the entire world is not read today by our eyes but, thanks to the sound that powerfully touch the deepest strings of our soul, it can be clearly perceived in our minds.

An important role is played by the location. The Castel of Duino, completely destroyed due to its proximity to the front during the First World War, was under bombardments of the allies on Monfalcone during the Second World War. Villagers used to seek refuge inside the big Bunker, venturing into the deep cave and waiting in the dark that the worst was over. The sound art intervention, installed in the last room of the basement, take the listener at the same time in one space and in many others, comparing the “now and here” of the listener physical presence, with the “then and there” of the victims and prisoners of the conflict. A vibrant and harsh sound will vibrate inside the bunker of the castle, reflecting an old fear that can be dissolved only  by the light expectancy coming through a window in front of the sea.

Contacts:

Event's link: http://www.bsidewar.org/en/upcoming/panoptico-sound-art-installation-by-greta-lusoli-4/

Web: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org

Direction: info@iodeposito.org

Press&Communication: daniela.madonna@iodeposito.org

"No words - no war / A Poli-focal interactive installation" at Carinarnica – bivak urbane kulture, Nova Gorica (Slovenia)

 

Press release

Opening: February, Friday 17th at 6.00 p.m., at Carinarnica – bivak urbane kulture, Erjavčeva 53, 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia (Carinarnica is situated on the border between Italy and Slovenia).

Opening hours: from 17th February 2017 to 3rd March 2017; from Monday to Friday, from 02:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. Free entry.

Infoline: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org

IoDeposito Ngo, with patronage of UNESCO, unveils on Friday 17th February at ore 6.00 p.m. the exhibition NO WORDS – NO WAR / A Poli-focal interactive installation by Natalia Tikhonova, at Carinarnica -bivak urbane kulture. In the evocative location in Nova Gorica, a new laboratory and meeting point of urban cultures, it will be accommodated the series of the Russian artist's optical installations, until the 3rd March 2017: from Monday to Friday, from 02:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. Tikhonova's works of art are focused on the return of the war's human and sensory dimension. Thanks to an innovative employment of historical photos and chromatic filters, the artist could reach meanings and feelings that sometimes have been pushed aside in historical books and essays: wars were made by humans against humans and so, among dates and reports of conquests, there are death, dismay, incredulity above all.

The fil-rouge of the Tikhonova's project is that our mind can condition the perception of war until making it something distant, ephemeral and non-existent. Memory and imagination in fact are able to erase not only certain details, but also to make us forget the human presence and components of war, offering an illusory image, erasing the drama of death and leaving only a memory of a desert natural scenography. This reaction, nearly to distance oneself from the harsh reality, is revealed in the series of optical installations by Nathalia Tikhonova with a game of filters that, among the blacks and greys of ancient photos, makes appear and disappear bloody and evanescent figures of soldiers: the legacy of war are read therefore through the colours, made of bright red (which presage) and dense gray (which bewail).

The descriptive language of chromaticism needs no other explanations because is able itself to tell about who has lost everything, even life, in the Russian front (which becomes a universal symbol). In this way, the artist invites the viewer to get in touch with the war's experience through the observation from different perspectives.

Carinarnica, which was inaugurated last year by Društvo humanistov goriške Carinarnica, amplifies this artistic experience because is a very significant location: the border house on the border which split the city of Gorizia in two after the Second World War. The street where is nowadays situated the urban cultural centre is half Italian (San Gabriele street, Gorizia) and half  Slovenian (Erjavčeva ulica, Nova Gorica) and so, it brings in itself a huge symbolic meaning. The exhibition belongs to the third edition of the diffuse artistic and cultural Festival B#SIDE WAR, which is promoted by IoDeposito through numerous Italian and international events such as exhibitions, conferences and research project (www.bsidewar.org).

Contacts:

Event's link: http://www.bsidewar.org/en/upcoming/no-word-no-war/

Web: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org

Direction: info@iodeposito.org

Press&Communication: daniela.madonna@iodeposito.org

The exhibition "Memory as a Living Matter / international Artists for a Reinterpretation of the War Object" in Trieste

Press release

Vernissage: Saturday the 4th of February, at 6.00 p.m., at the Umberto Veruda Gallery, Piazza Piccola 2, Trieste, Italy (access via Piazza Unità walking throughout the main portico)

Exhibition's details: from 4th of February until Sunday 5th March; from Monday to Saturday from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. and from 5.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m., with the possibility of free guided tours every Friday and Saturday from 5.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. (bookings available at info@iodeposito.org or via B#SIDE WAR App).

Infoline: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org

In collaboration with the Municipality of Trieste and the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, IoDeposito Ngo is glad to present Memory As A Living Matter / International Artists for a a re-interpretation of the war object. The Vernissage will take place Saturday the 4th of February, at 6.00 p.m. at the Umberto Veruda Gallery (Trieste, Italy): for the occasion, a talk with the artists. The exhibition will be available for free until Sunday 5th March in the prestigious location, from Monday to Saturday from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. and from 5.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m., with the possibility of free guided tours every Friday and Saturday from 5.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. (bookings available at info@iodeposito.org or via B#SIDE WAR App). 

The event belongs to the third edition of the diffuse artistic and cultural Festival B#SIDE WAR, which is promoted by IoDeposito through numerous italian and international events such as exhibitions, conferences and research project (www.bsidewar.org).

The exhibition Memory As A Living Matter proposes new interpretations of the war object by 10 international contemporary artists, in an original concept of "artist's museography": only a few pieces, made out of poor materials, essential and almost naked in their exposure, but yet so powerful in their expression to unlock the universal meanings, awakening the collective memory and bringing us in contact with the experience of those who have lived the conflict. Between works composed of "strong" materials - iron, cement, everyday items, ready made and objets trouvé - and works composed instead of fragile materials, ineffable and powerfully organic, that bleed to death and fade away under the eyes of the visitor - paper, burned wood, ashes, graphite, egg shells, bread -, the meaning that artists attach to the event of war becomes perceptual, immediate, it brings us back to the sense of humanity, in the world of everyone's images, where the archetypal realities speak a universal language that awakens the legacies and the memories of all of us, echoing those latent legacies of the conflicts that are stratified in our DNA.

Boris Bejas, one of the exhibition's artist, argues «I am very interested in how the social crises interact with the structure of everyday life: through the use of the spectator, art belongs to all three time-lines -past, present and future». Playing a part in the reinterpretation of the war object into contemporary artworks made with war remains, and in artworks that materialise the unexpressed war heritages, the user is immersed in a multi-focal perception of history.

Contacts:

Event's link: http://www.bsidewar.org/en/upcoming/memory-as-living-matter/

Web: www.iodeposito.org; www.bsidewar.org

Direction: info@iodeposito.org

Press&Communication: daniela.madonna@iodeposito.org

"Is the purpose of geography to make war?" An exhibition of Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche in Treviso

Panorama - Montello hill

"Is the purpose of geography to make war?" This is the question coming from the exhibition at Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, curated by Massimo Rossi and held in Palazzo Bomben, Treviso (Italy). The exhibition will be open from Sunday November 6 2016 to Sunday February 19 2017. Through three closely linked layouts that remain in constant dialogue, maps, atlases and works of art speak of the great communicative and persuasive force of geographic maps. Maps are a powerful means of non-verbal communication and the scenario of the celebrations of the Great War offers a valid opportunity for investigating their ability to condition public opinion when they back the point of view of the Major Nations. This is why the layout of the exhibition focuses on the historical period between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, but which actually spans from ancient times all the way to modern day, to tell the story of another possible geography and not necessarily based on military logics.

1918 - Italian positions along the river Piave

The exhibition begins with "Rocks and water", where we see how maps use a simple and preemptory sign - the natural border - to turn mountains and rivers into tools that are able to separate and offer physical shape to ethnic, linguistic groups, nations to transform them into the “geographical expression” of states. The second section, "Human signs", recounts the use of geographical knowledge for propagandist purposes to forcibly convey the idea of nation even before its official political proclamation. The third part, "War maps", highlights the co-existence of two seemingly irreconcilable cultural approaches, in the context of the First World War: graphic symbols representing the vast war industry disseminated on the Piave front, along with signs that bear witness to the presence of thousands of homing pigeons that by flying at more than one hundred meters of altitude and travelling great distances in short amounts of time, inform and send orders. 305 mm mortars that discharge projectiles weighing 400 kg and as big as a man, and tethered balloons suspended hundreds of metres above the ground «swaying in the sky in a long line along the Piave» as described by writer-tenant Fritz Weber, the enemy on the opposite bank.
 

A picture of the exhibition

At the exhibition visitors can appreciate how the maps provide order in an otherwise chaotic world, making it more understandable and familiar, distinguishing the objects, but most of all naming the places allowing us to recognise every single one of them. In every era, as quintessential social and human products, maps have also told the story of places through toponyms, sometimes playing an aggressive power over them. Especially when they alter the original spelling of centuries-old names or replace them altogether with new ones to make them more akin to the most recent dominators: the Dutch Niew Amsterdam becomes the English New York; the German Karfreit turns into the Italian Caporetto to then become the Slovenian Kobarid; the Hapsburg Sterzing becomes the Romanised Vipiteno. Or yet, to fulfil impellent social urgencies and to give a voice to hitherto unexpressed territorial hopes: “Alto Adige”, “Venezia Tridentina”, “Venezia Giulia”, or simply, in the case of a river, by changing its gender.

 

The century-old Piave of the log drivers changed gender in 1918 to offer greater virile resistance to the Austrian invasion, becoming “Il Piave” (male gender), to reassure the collective imagination of the young Italian nation.

 

But is it actually true that the purpose of geography is to make war? Certainly, without geography wars would not even be conceivable, but man has always been the one to make war, and is willing to use all the available knowledge of physics, chemistry, geometry or mathematics to achieve his objectives.

 

NASA Blue Marble from Apollo 17 (December 1972)

This exhibition also looks into another possible geography, a geography that urges us to reflect and act on the world when we try to observe it from above when leafing through the pages of the renaissance atlas of Abramo Ortelio, or pondering The Blue Marble, the first photograph of planet Earth taken from the lens of the astronauts of Apollo 17. A geography that multiplies its potential every time an artist decides to partake in a dialogue with a geographic map - and the exhibition displays geographic rugs and a number of works by contemporary artists.

But most of all it offers the opportunity to consider another geography, that is able to teach us to know places through an uninterrupted dialogue with the historical processes and to persuade us through the example of two authoritative pieces of evidence dating back by a century, geographer Cesare Battisti and historian Gaetano Salvemini, that «there are no natural political borders, because all political borders are artificial, meaning that they are created by the conscience and will of man».

 

Finally a few words about the set-up created by Fabrica: it is an experiential journey, on the discovery of the various geographical maps and the places that inspired them, through the creation of areas that urge visitors to follow them and interact with them. Elements with a linear and clean design, minimalist to focus solely on the works on display, combined with a graphic design that reinterprets the elements of traditional cartography in a modern style.

 

The entire design of the exhibition - set-up and communication - is combined with the spaces of Palazzo Bomben, rich in frescoes and history, in a dialogue of mutual accentuation.

 

The event, funded by the Regional Government of Veneto, is part of the programme commemorating the centenary of the Great War.

 

Info:

La geografia serve a fare la guerra?  
("Is the purpose of geography to make war?")
Representation of human beings

an exhibition of Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche

curated by Massimo Rossi and with the partnership of Fabrica

inauguration Saturday 5 November at 6:00 pm

open from Sunday 6 November 2016 to Sunday 19 February 2017

Tuesday-Friday 3:00pm-8:00pm, Saturday and Sunday 10:00am-8:00pm

Treviso, Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, via Cornarotta 7

tel. 0422.5121, fbsr@fbsr.it. www.fbsr.it

regular entry: 7 euro, discounted entry: 5 euro, school discount: 3 euro 

Press Office:

Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche

Silvia Cacco, tel. 0422.5121, cell. 331.6351105, silvia.cacco@fbsr.it

Studio ESSECI, Sergio Campagnolo

tel. 049.663499, gestione2@studioesseci.net (Simone Raddi)