Marianne Heier, This is What Creates the Seasons and the Passing of the Year, and That Rules over All Visible Things
06.05.2017 from 12:00 to 16:00
Gneiss quarry Morina di Montoso, Bagnolo Piemonte (CN)
As part of the ABITARE IL MINERALE project, produced by a.titolo in collaboration with the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, on Saturday, May 6, in the spectacular setting of the gneiss quarry Morina di Montoso, found 1,300 meters above sea level, the Traveling Symposium will begin with the performance by the Norwegian artist Marianne Heier, This is What Creates the Seasons and the Passing of the Year, and That Rules over All Visible Things. With a title that alludes to the myth of Plato’s cave, Heier explores the role of art in Western culture through a parallel between an aesthetic and political dimension from Antiquity to today, touching upon some of the key questions that concern our contemporaneity, marked by the crisis of the democratic paradigm.
The performance, by the artist with the dance collective Kunstgress, stages six iconic sculptures of art history like the Nike of Samothrace or the Laocoön group, interpreted by four dancers dressed in technical sportswear. Like a guide who accompanies visitors inside a museum or an archeological site, similarly, the artist leads the public into the cave while reciting a text inspired by, among others, writings from Michelangelo Buonarroti, the art historian Ernst Gombrich, the feminist theorist Griselda Pollock, and the Norwegian poet Tor Ulven. In her words for the audience, Heier engages each “sculpture”, comparing Greek-ancient statuary and defining Western canons and socio-political structures. The text highlights how the aesthetic development of sculpture—from the archaic period (600–480 B.C.) to the classical style (480–330 B.C.) and the Hellenistic age (323–50 B.C.)—engages dynamism and the presence of physical and somatic details that increase hand in hand with democratic development and individual participation in political life. The point of view of the guide—Marianne Heier—constantly shifts in the cave/cavea, emphasizing the many interpretations of art history and its meanings.
The performance, which underlines the importance of art for humanity and its role in history, indirectly explores the conditions of contemporary art practice related to its autonomy and survival on a local and international level. In the context of the ABITARE IL MINERALE project, this performance alludes to political, aesthetic, and narrative potentials that inhabit matter, be it either the immanent mass of a mountain or the structure of a society.
ABITARE IL MINERALE offers a reflection on overcoming an anthropocentric outlook in our relationship with our habitat and on the concept of creativity in light of new philosophical and scientific theories that have extended the notion of agency—that is, the “ability to act”—to the non-human, inorganic world, by considering matter, human beings, and their communication tools in interdependent relations. From observing processes of matter formation and transformation to those concerning human society, between the Greek agorà and the virtual one where new forms of the democratic paradigm unfold, along with its pitfalls, the project is aimed to be a fluid platform where matter, in the words of the philosopher Karen Barad, is “an entanglement of agents, morphologically active, responsive, generative and articulate.” Each event in the Traveling Symposium will attempt to offer different interpretations on issues raised by the ABITARE IL MINERALE project, aiming to salvage the experience dimension also thanks to the specific locations where the performances and encounters are held.
The performance is held by Marianne Heier with the dancers Ida Frømyr Borgen, Hanne Frostad Håkonsen, Maaike Croles Fitjar, and Amanda Bach, with the collaboration of Tobias Leira on lighting, Erlend Hogstad on sound, and Kari Berge on production. Installation technical and logistic support by Lookout Comunicazione ed Eventi.
The event is made possible by the contribution of the Arts Council Norway, KORO Public Art Norway, OCA Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Bergenstiftelsen, Andre Jahres Stiftelse,Norske Kunstforeninger.
TThe performance will be held on Saturday, May 6, 2017 at two times : at noon and at 2:30 p.m. ( duration : 40′; in Italian). At 1 p.m. participants will be offered a light lunch.
Free admission to the event.
Reservations required at abitareilminerale@gmail.com
Upcoming events:
- Wednesday, May 17 – conversation between Giuseppe Penone and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Teatro del Castello di Rivoli
- Saturday, May 27 – dialogue between Giovanni Anselmo and Massimo Bartolini, Rocca e geosito di Verrua Savoia (TO)
- Friday, June 16 – lectio magistralis by the American philosopher Karen Barad, Teatro del Castello di Rivoli
- Saturday, June 17 – cognitive exploration The Quarry Experience, with Andrea Caretto and Raffaella Spagna and the geologist Marco Giardino, gypsum quarry of Moncucco Torinese and clay pit of Munlab Ecomuseo dell’Argilla di Cambiano (TO).
ABITARE IL MINERALE is a project by a.titolo in collaboration with the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, curated by Francesca Comisso, Luisa Perlo, and Marianna Vecellio, with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo as part of the “Ora! Linguaggi contemporanei, produzioni innovative” competition.