The Feathered Ones

Maria Vassileva in conversation with Valentina Sciarra and Voin de Voin on the occasion of their performance in Venice.

Valentina Sciarra and Voin de Voin. The Feathered Ones (performance)

April 17, 6.30 pm, Giardino ai Giardini (Giardini della Biennale), Venice, Italy
April 19, 7, live from Venice to Rome

 

 

 

 

 

Maria Vassileva: When Valentina Sciarra showed The Feathered Ones, 2023, in the Organic Formula exhibition at Structura Gallery, they immediately reminded me of Khorugv – those church banners that are carried at the head of religious processions in Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches. They usually have an icon painted on them, and the end is divided into three. Horns remind Christians of Jesus Christ’s victory over hell, the devil, and death. Believers believe that under the protection of these banners, no enemy is fearful to them. Valentina’s “banners” had abstract motifs, but I wonder where she got the idea for them and what she originally put into them. As well, what did Voin see in them when he first saw them installed in the “white cube” space to inspire subsequent actions?

Valentina Sciarra: The bird banners fit into the entire context of the Organic Formula exhibition, where several symbolic sculptures were presented; each of them dedicated to important topics – at least for me – of our era. Therefore, the birds-banners are also symbolic sculptures, dedicated to a push towards a “collective call”. So in a certain sense yes, they have the same value as the religious banners you were referring to. Religious celebrations and large political demonstrations, since ancient times, have been displaying banners and standards, which symbolized the affirmation of an identity, of an ideology, of belonging to civil, military, or religious groups. In the beginning, it was a war banner to be displayed in the front rows during the raids or bloody direct attacks; it was the main element of cohesion for thousands of people precisely in moments of greatest military disorder. As well as having – like in religious functions – a sacred or divine aspect to protect the community.

What interested me was precisely that of creating a sculpture capable of encouraging this collective “convocation”, in a moment of total international chaos, like the one we are experiencing at the moment.
I believe that the gesture of “raising” these banner-birds is much stronger than the design represented on the fabric of the banners; for this reason, the shapes drawn are abstract, or rather, they attempt to reproduce the code – still unknown –  underlying the color of bird feathers. What they symbolize is not an imposed identity to which one must belong (or a saint to pray to); but a calling for collective action, and I think that is what we need in this moment.
As soon as they were installed at the Galleria Structura, the first thought was for someone who could bring them to life. Manipulate them, elevate them, and start this collective “march”. And Voin is the only one who could truly bring them to life.

Voin de Voin: To me, the Birds banner was a signifier of a kind of game. A game that originates in rites. Games that have been divested, to a greater or lesser degree, of their sacred character. I feel a need to play a game that the sacred envelops, and at times invertes envelops the notion of play. Play and the sacred always involve the element of sacrifices and therefore death – physical and spiritual.

Death, like any passage, entails violence.

To meet the threat of the maleficent contagion our community must recourse the universal model, to generative violence; it must attend to the advice of the sacred itself. In this particular context of the present, the community has perceived and retained the role of chance alone is responsible for the ultimate resolution of a conflict; and in the rite tries to force the hand of chance before violence has had the opportunity to act. The rite aims straight at the final result, achieving, as it were, a minimum expenditure of violence.

The wings spread, and violence is defeated.

Maria Vassileva: Do you believe we still have the power to change the present? Have we not exhausted all possibilities? The planet seems to be in a state of stupor, waiting for some higher power to free it from its tragic existence. Excuse me, but I see a lot of naivety in your actions and intentions. A ritual dance against weapons of destruction? Shamanism versus political recklessness? What can art even hope for?

Voin de Voin: It can be questioned if our work is art.
It is an act of political resistance. In times of Institutional silencing and ways of operating European and American Institutions treat and suppress art practitioners and freedom of expression and speech, I think it’s very important to voice.
Being desperate is not the right time, despite the situation we are in. We should ask how we got here, and why our work doesn’t help the state of the world. No higher power can help the world unless a result of nuclear or ecological disaster brings this civilization to an end. It is important to resist and give voice to what’s known in everyday life and activities. Even running an art gallery, you should ask yourself why you do that and if is that all you can do. Everyone should, otherwise you condemn yourself to premature death (of your mind).
I’m happy to say, that I believe in humanity, for me, it’s not over. I see more and more people awake. Unfortunately evil impersonated by capitalist and political elites has taken the power and held it to its exhaustion. But this is not humanity…This is evil! You should know its face and you should know the ways of resistance.

Valentina Sciarra: Perhaps to answer this question we should be clear on one point: if we were to retrace the history of art from its origins up to the present day, artistic thought can be associated with the definition of “mythical thought” clearly expressed by Claude Levis-Strauss. That is, a form of intellectual bricolage capable of building systems of representation that give meaning to important aspects of human experience, and therefore, like science, it has no interest in “explaining” the world through imaginative/not real hypotheses.

Just the opposite, I like to see the artist’s creative thought as capable of transforming the existing, to reorganizing it without destroying it.

Interesting, now, after having made this introduction, to continue answering your questions.

We certainly have the power to change the present, we are the present; not “something” that we have to invent or evolve into…

The paradox of the culture expressed by the artist is that today his role is not to “live” the current state of the present, but embody an overwhelming demand for constant change, change without telos (τέλος «completion, end, term»). I don’t think this approach will survive much longer.

We certainly haven’t run out of possibilities or hopes, but we have to realize that entropy is not just a thermodynamic law. As in nature entropy tends to level the temperature in the Universe, so cultural entropy tends to level – low level – knowledge of our planet and of course of ourselves. So it is here, that art takes on a fundamental role: to exercise empathy in daily life. Therefore a practice not only to get closer to others / but also a practice that can teach us in an increasingly conscious how to use “our knowledge”, senses, identity, and power.

Finally – I believe – that yes, probably yes, a higher power will come and strike us.
I imagine it as a piercing-sharp-shrill sound.
To free ourselves from a tragic existence, as in sacrifice, there is a need for solidarity between the priest, the god, and the sacrificed thing.

Maria Vassileva: After Veliko Tarnovo[i], you choose to present your performance in Venice, during one of the biggest international art forums. Recently, it and other large formats and institutions have been criticized for reproducing a capitalist model without really creating something new and pointing out ways to solve the huge problems. Rather, they look back at history or analyze the present, but without looking to the future. Your choice was dictated by what – to gain greater visibility by capitalizing on the success of capitalist models, or to criticize them on the spot?

Voin de Voin: I think the answer is clear – nobody is capitalizing on success unless Jeff Koons.
I feel like going this action on the spot roots its motivation in triggering a provocation and wanting to ask people to position. It is more than important not to lose position and to set a clear stand.
It is a bit of going back in time, but self-organization to me at the moment is more important than any other way of representation.
There is a fundamental problem with the Biennale, the way the Italian government and the curatorial board reacted after activists and artists came together under Art Not Genocide Alliance, asking for the No Genocide Pavilion, and the removal of the Israeli exhibition. Remember South Africa’s being excluded from representation in Venice between 1950-1968 due to its apartheid politics?
It is gonna be a hot one, lots of actions and radical acts of solidarity and resistance are being prepared Internationally. We all had enough of it all! we will see where it will take us, this is not a safe gallery, white cube situation.…It’s not us saying if art has a voice, it’s the people who have something to say.
We indeed do a double action in Venice as a coincidence of dates, 17-20 April are the days of remembering the victims of fascism in Rome. ‘Lessons of Resistance’ will take place in April in the Quadraro District in Rome and we will do a public intervention broadcast live in Rome from Venice.
This project starts from a tragic historical event (the Nazi raid on Quadraro 17.04.1944) but can be approached from different points of view and which is an increasingly delicate theme today.

Valentina Sciarra: Yes, the motivation for presenting this work at the Biennale is exactly as Voin said, to exercise the power of taking a stand and being a performance I would like to put the emphasis precisely on this action of “being part” not just spectators. Since the Biennale is one of the most important international events in the world and judging the profound decline in the content of mainstream events in general, I believe this cry of self-awareness must come directly from the artists because we need to find creative forms – I don’t want to say new because as Voin says already widely proposed – of “exercising power”.

For this reason “The Feathered Ones” is a self-organized work, it received the precious support of the Singer-Zahariev Foundation[ii] which ensured total financial independence and freedom of expression for us artists.
– We rarely ask ourselves who subsidizes artists in exhibitions and how much those subsidies can influence the message conveyed by arts -.
Furthermore, it is no coincidence that The Feathered Ones will have a double action during the pre-opening days of the Biennale, exactly to combine the international and the local expression at the same time.

– This too is, in my opinion, a “creative” aspect of the exercise of power -.

The first is on April 17th with a live performance inside a “Garden”, since we are talking about birds; and on the 19th again from Venice in live streaming to Rome, we will participate in Quadraro’s “Resistance Lessons”; an artistic festival dedicated to a symbolic event of the abuse of power. On 17th April 1944, the Nazi-fascists wanted to punish one of the stronghold neighborhoods of the partisan resistance, called “Wasps Nest” due to how deeply rooted anti-fascist sentiment was in Quadraro.

So they deported all men between 16 and 60 years old; as you can imagine, only a few returned. Therefore, every year through the collective participation of artists and the inhabitants of this area, it does not forget to show support for freedom of expression.
I believe our current situation, in Italy as in the rest of the world, has elements in common with that day 80 years ago.
The use and abuse of power first of all against the collective interest; as well as the loss of a collective conscience that believes in its expressive power.
This performance was conceived with these two basic principles in mind: being a “collective call” because without physical participation the action cannot be defined as such;

as well as stimulating individual reflection on how we exercise power, and what is our participation both individually and as a society into the construct of power.

Of course will also present other layers of research.

Voin told me, people will be able to find out the truth that evening.

I add that they probably will feel the sensation of not be any more resilient; because be careful, this word not only means the ability to deal with traumas but contains

the rotten germ of an unconditional acceptance of what happens around us.

Maria Vassileva: Can you define more clearly the political agenda that the artwork supposedly serves: anti-fascism? anti-capitalism? anti-colonialism? All of the above?

Voin de Voin: Fight for freedom.

Valentina Sciarra:

“To keep yourself
in spite of all forces
to never bend over,
to show yourself powerfully
will call the arms
of the gods to you!”

(J.W. Goethe, Lila. Singspiel, 1777)

The project is realized with the financial support of Singer-Zahariev Foundation.

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[i] Positions. Curator Voin de Voin. Organized by DOMA Art Foundation in partnership with the “Hadj Nikoli Inn” Museum Art Gallery, Veliko Tarnovo with the support of the National Culture Fund.

[ii] https://singer-zahariev.eu

Photo documentation of the performance The Feathered Ones in Venice: