Pera + Flora + Fauna: The Story of Indigenousness and the Ownership of History @ 59th La Biennale di Venezia
Collateral Event of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 23 April -27 November 2022, Archivi della Misericordia, Venice, Italy
People of Remarkable Talents (PORT), an arts and culture agency under the Perak State Government, with support from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, and the National Art Gallery Malaysia, announces its commission of the exhibition Pera + Flora + Fauna, as an official Collateral Event at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. PORT is honoured to present at this prestigious international art event, the artists and artworks that have been inspired by the rich histories and context of the state of Perak, Malaysia.
Pera + Flora + Fauna engages with the discourse around how indigenousness and nature are affected by mainstream cultural attitudes of industrialised nations, the very nations contributing to existing environmental problems. This leads us to question, can aesthetic thinking support the conservation and restoration of nature or indigenous rights and ways of life? Can indigenous populations across the globe challenge the mainstream documented (art) history written by the non-indigenous? Can indigenous populations achieve the liberty to collectively claim “their own history and narratives”, antagonising the dominant discourse? Pera + Flora + Fauna intends to address these questions drawing on different perspectives of man, nature, and their interrelation.
The exhibition features Malaysian artists and collectives, and an Italian artist, from multiple disciplines ranging across performance, film, sound, sculpture, and new media. The artists are Azizan Paiman (MY), Kamal Sabran (MY), Kapallorek Artspace (MY), Kim Ng (MY), Projek Rabak (MY), Saiful Razman (MY) and Stefano Cagol (ITA), with the contribution and participation of the people of the Semai tribe from Kampung Ras, Sungkai, Perak.
Pera + Flora + Fauna will take place at Archivi della Misericordia in Cannaregio, Venice; commissioned by Nur Hanim Mohamed Khairuddin, General Manager of PORT, and curated by appointed lead curators Amir Zainorin and Khaled Ramadan, and associate curators Annie Jael Kwan and Camilla Boemio.
The team is advised by Alfredo Cramerotti, the president of IKT and the director of MOSTYN, Wales.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the discourse expands through a forum where invited panelists Alfredo Cramerotti, Dorian Batycka, Henry Meyric Hughes, and Jo-Lene Ong, along with the curators and artists, will share their observations and interpretations around the concept of Ownership of Nature and History; attempting to contextualise the notion of the natural and the historic and why it cannot be independent of the intellectual, artistic, emotional, and technological resources available to us in the industrialised world. In addition, there will be three on-site performances by the artists; one which explores sound and body movement to heal the internal psychic and spiritual body based on Malay traditional healing rituals; the others inviting the audience to engage with the ongoing contest between capitalist-driven narratives of extractivism towards land and indigenous peoples, and the agency and creative resilience of indigenous communities in sharing their histories and holistic principles of coexistence with nature.
For the Love of Air Liquid
Opening exhibition 18th – 30th April 2018, Chamber of Public Secrets’ new media art production and exhibition space, Media Art Research Center (MARC), Antalya
Fernissage 18th April 2018 at 17:00 – 19:00
Artists: Ferhat Ozgur, Stefano Cagol, Ursula Biemann, Oliver Ressler, Khaled Ramadan and Hanna Ljungh
Curated by Khaled Ramadan and Alfredo Cramerotti
For the love of air liquid
Water’s impact on human happiness
I his book, Blue Mind, biologist Wallace J. Nichols published the surprising science showing how being near, in, on, or under water can make us happier, healthier, more connected and better at what we do.
Nichols analyzes the emotional, behavioral, psychological and physical connections that keep humans so mesmerized by water. He studies seas and oceans, lakes and rivers, and even swimming pools, and urges people to get closer to water if they wish to change their neurological, psychological and emotional experiences. Nichols draws on science, art, and narrative, as well as plenty of experience, to explain his blue mind in detail. Not just what it is, but how we can enter into this state, and, perhaps most importantly, why we should do so.
In order to know why water is one of our sources of happiness, or even a source of misery, we need to observe and analyze a very complex social science in conjunction with natural science: human relation to nature and the natural.
When we intend to shape nature, it changes and influences our living conditions. Due to this out-of-balance climatological interrelationship several vital elements of our survival are being affected. Water is becoming scarcer in some parts of the world while in other parts people suffer from the extra quantities of water falling from the sky or pumping from underneath.
In the scenarios of the world’s water bodies, only 3 percent of the water on the earth’s surface is fresh and drinkable, while 97 percent of the water is salty. The 3 percent fresh water is shared amongst the billions of the world’s population. Water shortage will soon hit cities and towns across the world, and the problem is increasing as populations are increasing. Industrialization and pollution are causing damage, and the greenhouse effect is having a negative impact, which leads to climate change that directly affects water sources. In an increasingly crowded and congested world, water supply has become scarcer and more contaminated.
Waste from industries and human settlements in most underdeveloped countries are drained into rivers and seas, leading to dying oceans. A good example of this is the Mediterranean Sea. Another example is one of Asia’s longest rivers, the Mekong River, where thousands of people have settled by the riverbank. The same analogy can be applied to the Nile River in Africa and to other rivers across the world. Lakes, rivers, seas and oceans used to be a source of human happiness and prosperity, but mass contamination, overfishing, and water scarcity have reduced many of them to transportation highways.
The exhibition,For the Love of Air Liquid, presents an opportunity to address the issue of water in a time of a crashing climate. The works of the invited artists examine our fascination with the water scene in detail. They are dedicated to helping us understand and enjoy a selection of contemporary art that provides inspiration and knowledge.
Curators
Khaled Ramadan and Alfredo Cramerotti
More information here.
‘697 MADRI’ by Stefano Cagol presents a lecture by Alfredo Cramerotti
In the frame of the solo project ‘697 MADRI’ by Stefano Cagol, Alfredo Cramerotti holds the lecture ‘The expanded image. The mutation of the role of contemporary photography’
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‘The expanded image. The mutation of the role of contemporary photography’Lecture: August 6, 2016, 18.00 hrshttp://www.697madri.eu |
THE PROJECT
697 MADRI (697 mothers) refers to the 697 young soldiers died in the First World War in this border area of Trentino South Tyrol and buried by the Austro-Hungarian Monumental Military Cemetery in Bondo.
On July 2nd, 2016 the artist Stefano Cagol called all the women to come to the small village of Bondo (700 inhabitants) in the middle of the Alps and the Dolomites for a participatory performance. Hundreds of women came from all the region and outside and walked and staid on the monumental granite stairs recalling the personal and family suffering beyond flags, troops and belongings. They became part of a new monument to life and this action has been fixed by video and photographic images by the artist.
Now the artworks are on view till September 17th, 2016 by the Antica Chiesa di San Barnaba – Ancient Church of Saint Barnaba in Bondo, together with an installation (aluminum and sound) that recall, with sharp edges, the extreme conditions of the soldiers waging war on the top of these mountains that actually appear as a natural paradise.
THE LECTURE
In this border region, in a small village in the middle of the Alps, in a symbolic place recalling the continue conflicts and the human consequences of wars, it is extremely relevant the presence of Alfredo Cramerotti for a lecture about the role of images nowadays. Lecture: August 6, 2016, 18.00 hrs
Alfredo Cramerotti is the Director of MOSTYN, the main art center in Wales; he was born in Trentino and this is the first time he comes back for an art event. Cramerotti and Stefano Cagol had the chance to collaborate for the Maldives National Pavilion at 55th Venice Biennale: Cagol as participating artist and Alfredo Cramerotti as part of the curatorial collective CPS-Chamber of Public Secrets.
The lecture ‘The expanded image. The mutation of the role of contemporary photography’ by Alfredo Cramerotti is realized with the participation of Franco Marzatico, Superintendent for Cultural Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Trento.
THE PROMOTING INSTITUTION
The project and the collateral program are promoted by the Scuola Musicale Giudicarie: www.scuolamusicalegiudicarie.it
With the support of the municipality of Sella Giudicarie, BIM Valle del Chiese, BIM Sarca-Mincio-Garda, with the participation of Associazione Nazionale Alpini and Osterreichisches Schwarzes Kreuz.
The iconographic and historical research is curated by Giulia Robol.
#697madri
Alfredo Cramerotti: Alternative Mapping @ CRITICAL WAYS OF SEEING 2014, Goldsmiths College, University of London
CRITICAL WAYS OF SEEING 2014
Visualizing Knowledge and the Digital: Tool, Politics, or Art?
21-22 May 2014
Goldsmiths (University of London)
New Cross, London SE14 6NW
Hosted by the Global Media & Transnational Communications Program and Radical Media Forum, Department of Media & Communications
Hashtag: #criticaleyes
With Philippe Rekacewicz (Le Monde diplomatique/Visions cartographiques), Giulio Frigieri (The Guardian), Alfredo Cramerotti (MOSTYN, Wales’ Contemporary Art Centre), Mushon Zer-Aviv and Galia Offri (Media Activists, Tel Aviv/New York), Stefano Cagol (Contemporary Artist, Italy), Davina Jackson (D-City Network, Australia), Sean Cubitt, Lorenzo Pizzani (Goldsmiths, UK), and Alex Gekker (Utrecht University, NL)
Organizers: Marianne Franklin, Elinor Carmi, and Paola Crespi
Venue: Richard Hoggart Building (RHB) and the New Academic Building (NAB), Goldsmiths
Thursday, 22 May
2-3.15pm: Alfredo Cramerotti
Alternative Mapping (RHB 137)
The session will explore our drive to ‘make sense’ of things we know and those we don’t. Starting from the very notion of curating as: organising / scouting / selecting / taking care of / making space for / creating links between, I have developed over the last couple of years a pinterest stream that attempts to ‘map the mapping’: http://www.pinterest.com/alcramer/alternative-mapping/. There are about 330 ‘alternative maps’ on this stream – from the downright bizarre obsession to the most thorough and scientific charting approach one can think of; from kitchen utensils to animal tracks. The session will open up a discussion about our drive to map, need to map, desire to map and, ultimately, what is mapping all about: has the map exceed (finally!) the territory? Has the mapping outgrown the mappable?
Talk at Open Studio VIR Viafarini-in-residence, MIlan: Alfredo Cramerotti, Stefano Cagol, Isaac Contreras [Italian / English]
VIR Open Studio
Stefano Cagol, Isaac Contreras
opening Monday September 30, starting at 6.30 pm
VIR Viafarini-in-residence, via Carlo Farini 35, Milano
viafarini@viafarini.org | +39 0266804473
Stefano Cagol presenta opere video e installative realizzate durante la residenza in continuità con la ricerca sviluppata per la sua partecipazione alla 55. Biennale di Venezia 2013, Padiglione Maldive. Viene anche presentato il libretto THE ICE MONOLITH Platform con 34 interviste realizzate dall’artista.
Alle ore 20 Alfredo Cramerotti (direttore del MOSTYN, Galles) racconterà l’esperienza del Padiglione Maldive, del quale è co-curatore come parte del collettivo CPS – Chamber of Public Secrets. Cramerotti è anche co-curatore del Padiglione Galles alla 55. Biennale di Venezia 2013.
Bouvet Island è una delle isole più remote del pianeta (si tratta di un’isola norvegese situata però agli antipodi, nell’area antartica) costituita di rocce vulcaniche coperte per il 93% da bianchi ghiacci permanenti, ‘incontaminata’, è al tempo stesso stata protagonista di uno degli esperimenti nucleari più misteriosi, il caso ‘Vela’, un’esplosione avvenuta nelle sue acque e mai rivendicata da alcuna nazione. L’installazione ne prende il titolo e la ‘forma’ metaforica.
Isaac Contreras ha investigato le modalità di circolazione degli oggetti smarriti quotidianamente nelle città, collaborando con gli uffici oggetti smarriti e rispondendo ad annunci privati in città. Il progetto, dal titolo O.O.O è una ricerca sulle raccolte accidentali di oggetti, frutto dell’errore e della dimenticanza. Questi accumuli di oggetti rappresentano detriti del nostro tempo, sedimentazioni del caos e costruzioni entropiche della quotidianità nelle metropoli. L’artista presenta una serie di sculture realizzate con materiali trovati e sculture in gesso basate sulla somma del volume degli oggetti smarriti e recuperati in città.
“I see my work as an evolving system of forms in which instability, precariousness and emptiness exist not only as given conditions but as triggers for the work to happen. This involves learning to negotiate with the empty, rendering the void, looking for matter in empty places and using available materials and unstable situations as mechanisms to open space for the uncertain, the overlooked and the fragile. I’m interested in open systems that in-form the work and allow it to exist in shifting configurations during the exhibition. This way of proceeding, responding to a system that is not dependent on me, allows me to develop a practice in which negotiation plays a central role.”
Durante l’Open Studio si potrà visitare lo studio condiviso da: Enrico Boccioletti, Roberto Fassone, Toni Fiorentino, Pasquale Gadaleta, Luca Resta, Sebastiano Sofia, Federico Tosi, Carloalberto Treccani.
Biennale Updates: cronache dall’effimero per la prima volta del Padiglione Maldive in Laguna
Artribune.com [Italian only]
30 May 2013
by Francesco Sala
Alle otto del mattino non c’è nessuno lungo Riva di Ca’ di Dio. Pochi temerari in tenuta da jogging, i ragazzini che si trascinano a scuola, un paio di turisti. E poi un blocco di ghiaccio. Sbarca dal Canale dell’Arsenale, trascinato a forza di muletto; prende a sciogliersi, inesorabile, una goccia alla volta. È il monolite con cui Stefano Cagol significa la sua partecipazione alla Biennale di Venezia, ospite di quel Padiglione Maldive che ha trovato casa –alla sua prima volta in Laguna –in uno stabile semi-abbandonato in viale Garibaldi. Verrà il giorno in cui le Maldive non si saranno più, sommerse un centimetro alla volta dall’innalzamento del livello degli oceani; la raccolta messa insieme dal collettivo CPS – Chambers of Public Secrets indugia sul titanico precariato di una terra in crisi di identità, storica piattaforma tra Oriente e Occidente che esorcizza nell’arte la sua eutanasia.
Aggressività post-espressionista per The Disappearance di Wael Darwesh, che colpisce sulla tela con antica disperazione; gli fa da controcanto l’installazione di Patrizio Travagli, tetris di superfici specchianti che illudono e alludono in una straniante frammentazione dello spazio visivo. Inevitabili i riferimenti allo tsunami, che ha portato il suo carico di brutalità anche alle Maldive: sul tema arriva l’installazione di Thierry Geoffroy, mentre a ragionare su una ricostruzione più o meno possibile sono Christoph Draeger ed Heidrun Holzfeind.
Island Nations Seize the Venice Biennale Spotlight to Decry Climate Change
Blouin Artinfo
06.12.2013
by Kate Deimling
CONCILIO & PUBLIC OPINION by Stefano Cagol
Influence and control of media, balance between different senses of belonging, changing of beliefs, persistence of events and symbols, political borders, natural borders, mental borders. These are the topics present in Stefano Cagol’s artworks and faced in his new mid-career monograph that is the most comprehensive up to now, spanning from early works to current ones.
The book will present essays by: Iara Boubnova, Gregor Jansen, Michele Robecchi, Andrea Viliani, and is designed by Thomas Desmet.
Contributions by Alfredo Cramerotti, Achille Bonito Oliva, Andreas F. Beitin, Blanca de la Torre, Cis Bierinckx, David Elliott, Esther Lu, Francesco Bernardelli, Giacinto di Pietrantonio, June Yap, Kamila Wielebska, Kari Conte, Luba Kuzovnikova, Micaela Giovannotti, Nicola Trezzi, Pier Luigi Tazzi, R. Bruce Elder, Raúl Zamudio, Shane Brennan, Stefan Bidner, Trevor Smith and Veit Loers.
Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti] 
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