portal for creative expression
The Alma Zevi gallery sits in the centre and is currently presenting drawings by Berlin-born/London-based painter Frank Auerbach, for his first solo exhibition in Italy since he represented Great Britain in the 42nd Venice Biennale of 1986 – winning the prestigious Golden Lion prize.
The work that struck me hardest for was a fishing boat, which on April 18, 2015, more than 800 refugees died. The surprisingly small, brightly coloured yet distressed vessel was designed for a crew of 15 people. It was installed as an art exhibit by Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Büchel and titled Barca Nostra (Our Boat).
ITINERANT was created in 2010 by interdisciplinary artist Hector Canonge. Since then the festival has introduced, and featured the work of local, national and international emerging and established artists introducing and featuring their work at local museums, art galleries, performance art spaces, and public parks.
I discover that the audience had been packed full of brilliant artists, some of whom are exhibiting in the exhibition and across Venice during the Biennale. There are many professors from the arts and sciences and we talk until the early hours.
This show brings together spiritually nomadic sex-positive radicals working in the mediums of fabric, installation, herbalism, healing, new media, glitch, sound and ritual performance.
As agreed, we perform for one hour in order to enter a meditative zone. I wear a blindfold to help focus on the soundscape and movements and I work on paintings which are on the pavement and also hung along the wall opposite the gallery, where Paul is set up on a table with his equipment.
The karmic destiny indicates that the feminine needs to be acknowledged and established as a vital source of wisdom in our societal discourse. Inherently, the Cosmos tells us we need to tune to the planetary awareness of the Great Mother Earth, and the womanly nurturing, compassion and creative juno (juno is the feminine version of the Roman genius).
Although it took Paul Morgan a great deal of time to assemble, the synth is built for an improvised performance with very little post-production, he will conjure a soundscape in conversation with my live-drawing performance, essentially using me as a proxy painter to draw the sounds.