STàMNOS
“STàMNOS” di ELISA ZADI- 28 gennaio 2017-Torre degli Asinelli, Strada Maggiore, 2– Bologna.
Link al blog: http://zadielisa.blogspot.it/2017/01/stamnos-torre-degli-asinelli.html
On the occasion of Arte Fiera Bologna 2017, the most anticipated contemporary art event in Italy, in the context of the appointment with OPEN FOR ART Temporary Gallery, we present a double unmissable appointment: from 21 to 31 January Vittorio Spampinato will curate the exhibition IN THE TOWER by Maddalena Barletta, Myriam Cappelletti and Simona Ragazzi; on 28 January Marco Palamidessi will present STàMNOS the interactive performance by Elisa Zadi.
During the Art City White Night on Saturday 28 January, at 20:00 Elisa Zadi will present her latest performative work with the significant title STàMNOS to the public of the Bolognese White Night, in which archaic echoes and cosmic symbolism will lead the participants to interact in a mysterious atmosphere full of charm, moreover in one of the most extraordinary places in Italy: the Asinelli Tower.
With STàMNOS Elisa Zadi proposes a performative installation that intends to involve the public to make them participate in a series of symbolic and initiatory actions, which lead to meditate on the values related to shapes, numerology, colors and elements. The work is inspired by the square shape of the base of the Torre degli Asinelli in Bologna, a geometric shape that since ancient times has been taken as a symbol of earthly life, which with its four sides and as many angles is linked to the natural elements. Starting from this assumption, Elisa Zadi decided to design a circle in which to ideally inscribe the square of the tower, so as to bring together the materiality of the square with the spirituality of the circle, in order to make them complete one in the other according to tradition. To do this, the artist focuses on the corners of the building, where a vase specially made on a lathe is placed near each of them. Of archaic inspiration, due to the shape chosen, the container is called STàMNOS, a large jar but with a lid that conceals its contents. Each STàMNOS is dedicated to a very specific natural element, distinguished by its color and content, it will perpetuate its meaning to the participants on whom they are called to reflect. At the beginning of the performance, four large candles are progressively lit, placed at the corners of the Asinelli Tower. After this operation, placing the vases one at a time, starting from the first vase symbolizing fire, the artist begins to draw the aforementioned circle on the ground, dropping a white combustible powder. Once the circle is finished, the vases begin to open: a long ribbon is tied to each of them, to which scrolls are applied, which is unrolled and entrusted to the spectators. Each vase-element, and the ribbon it contains, therefore has a specific color and dedicated messages. Distributed the various ribbons, held by the participants around the tower, the circle of white powder is finally lit to create a design that lights up the night. While it is consumed in an ever more feeble fire, the tapes held by the audience are cut into several parts and each spectator can thus become the guardian of a scroll and interpret its precious message.
Marco Palamidessi, curator of the performance, writes: “Elisa Zadi's contemporary research on symbolism and its reflections on human life and culture continues with renewed enthusiasm, now more than ever at the center of the artist's interest. Retrieving his own secret essence, manifesting and fulfilling himself in a situation open to infinity, in STàMNOS Zadi becomes the absolute protagonist of the poetic action, of the performative process, through which archaic forms, sensations and mysterious alchemy interpenetrate in an original and well defined spiritual physiognomy. By means of STàMNOS i the performer manifests her own point of balance, creating original perspectives in which to insert and guide the participants, highlighting the changing colors of existence as well as of artistic experience. The profound meaning of the performative-installation work is to reflect and make people reflect on what are the values that have always linked man to the elements of Nature, in an attempt to regain an essential gestural language, through which to witness a return to origins, at the primary source, with roots that sink into a past or ideal dimension in which nature, religion and are once again one as an indivisible body. A return to the purity of original, refined and sinuous movements, full of universal energy, which prelude to extraordinary yet simple elegance, inspired by the value of a silent tale, and above all to the rediscovery of a sort of primitive aesthetic: everything brings about a regeneration of the spirit starting from a primordial spell, in which to get lost in order to be projected into a dimension other than the everyday one. A momentary finding in a time before itself, but always with that concreteness far from vain of a ritual in itself completed, which smoothes the air like the river does with stones, like light with darkness, like the soul with the body and matter ".
In the realization of the vases in archaic style Elisa Zadi made use of the collaboration of the sculptor Alfredo Quaranta, with whom she developed the idea of the union of the vases themselves with the four elements, differentiating them in the different colors as in the specificity of the messages contained .
Thanks: Comune di Bologna, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Cà La Ghironda, CNA Associazione Bologna, Arte Fiera Bologna, Open for Art Temporary Gallery, ArtigianArte, Art City Bologna, Art city White Night.
