A Global Art Initiative On The Argument Of Fragility
Online, September 21, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Can one fragile object, in times of email, chat and mobility, pass one time all around the world safely - from hand to hand, charging itself with stories and people? Will it be the same when it returns?
These are the questions that Verena Stenke and Andrea Pagnes (VestAndPage) were considering when they designed their current global art project FRAGILE-global performance chain journey .
Now the project has turned real. More than 750 artists from 62 countries joined the project, among which some of the most renowned contemporary artists and performer.
The action that animates the project, even if presenting for its nature a certain degree of unpredictability, is simple: a fragile object travels from hand to hand, from artist to artist, and in this way step by step one time around the globe, through all continents and various cultures.
The travel has started in the first week of September, when the idea-makers Verena Stenke and Andrea Pagnes brought the object from its departure point in Florence, Italy to Belgrade. It was consigned to another artist there, the first participant, and she on her side brings the object to Germany, to give it to the
next participating artist. This way, the mechanism of "travel from hand to hand around the world" has begun.
The object is a glass-plate, handmade in Murano, Italy, of 25cm in diameter. Inside the transparent glass are gold leaves. A simple but precious object, which for the idea-makers expresses the spirit of the actual project: it is something fragile like the world we live in, and we are forming this whole by being part of it.
The aim of the project is to raise visibility and consciousness about our continuous fragility of life and planet, because everything is pure and extreme fragility. This project opens a creative and artistic dialogue on the argument- every artist, once he or she is in hold of the object, realizes a work of art with the object. Performance Artists create live actions, musicians compose pieces around the topic, while visual artists approach it with paintings, installations or sculptures. All works conceived for the project will be part of a final catalogue of FRAGILE-global performance chain journey, a sort of kaleidoscopic logbook of contemporary art. On the project's website all art works are visible, and the single steps of the journey are to be followed in real-time.
The importance of the initiative is not just circumscribed by contemporary art with its multitude of expressions and approaches, but also on investigations on phenomena like globalization, ecology, on what nowadays tolerance means for us, on the under standing among nations and the need of peace in our world, and the benefits that cultural exchange can arise within a necessity of democracy on an International perspective.
FRAGILE-global performance chain journey is a people-project, based on interpersonal exchange and individual creativity and responsibility because, in all this, the goal is to make the fragile object return safely and intact to its place of departure, after having passed the hands of all participants around the world.
The idea-makers of the project VestAndPage work together since 2006, mainly on the field of Performance and video art. They present their works all over the world. They origin artistically from different backgrounds: the Venetian born Andrea Pagnes started working in visual arts and writing, whereas the German Verena Stenke worked in theatre and dance. Uniting their experiences, they speak about a poetry based on the concepts of transformation, fragility and unity.
FRAGILE-global performance chain journey is a project supported by a network of International organizations and cultural institutions in Europe and South America.