Installation/action
Galleria delle Vasche, Pelanda
Admission free
Performance action Sunday 22 May from 11.00 am to 8.30 pm (last admission)
Installation visible from 24 May to 5 June, Tuesday to Sunday from 11.00 am to 8.30 pm (last admission)
Oblivion is a project that first saw the light of day in Turin at the Democracy Biennial of 2021 curated by Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and BHMF in the context of Memory Matters and it represents a temporary anti-monument, a collective ritual of construction and de-construction of historic and private memory blanks, committing itself to reappropriating the public space.
For the Prender-si Cura residency, Oblivion is declined in The Cry of the Wall; in this new research the artist calls into question the right to cry, to lament. There is a strongly perceived need for a common space in which to ritualize catharsis, to tune oneself and others into listening to one’s inner cry in a collective, public and secular dimension where intimacy is touched and at the same time veiled by the semi-transparent, visible and invisible wall of oblivion. The practice of embroidery is the medium chosen to create this wall-space of memory, a full-empty and vibrant habitat which, between one hole and another, between one lament and another, brings back to light the presence of oblivion, transcribing it. The Cry of the Wall in the sense of the passion and lament of embroidery celebrates past and present oblivion so that it does not become a legacy of the future.
The lament is seen here as the manifesto of a choral symphony free from the code of language and of gender, from geography and from social and cultural roles; it is a lament that weaves and passes through the weft of the wall to access more slender worlds.
In the days after the action, those using the installation are invited to cross and to inhabit the corridor inside the wall and to unravel the embroidery, to be active in their turn in reappropriating public and private oblivion, to carry it with them.
Muna Mussie (1978) Eritrean artist based in Bologna, investigates the performing arts and the scenic languages to give shape to the tension that arises between different expressive poles, through gesture, vision and word. She began her artistic career in 1998, as actress/performer with Teatrino Clandestino and Teatro Valdoca. From 2001 to 2005 she was an active part in the research collective Open, the project that marked her desire to investigate her own ways of being on stage. Since 2006, she has conceived, staged, and interpreted her own works. Her recent productions, including the installation and performance Milite Ignoto (Unknown Soldier) (2015), the performances Oasi (Oasis) (2018), Curva (Curve) (2019), Curva Cieca (Blind Curve) (2021), and PF DJ (2021), investigate ghostly apparitions and minor history. She designed the FFMM clothing collection with Flavio Favelli (2007-2009). Among her international theatre projects is Monkey See, Monkey Do (Chapter I-II, 2011-2012). Her object interventions include Punteggiatura (2018), sewing a project based on the practice of sewing, and Bologna St. 173 (2021), her solo show at Archive sites Milano, also presented at Savvy Contemporary Berlin, on the concepts of home, citadel, fortress and freedom. Her recent project Oblio (2021) introduces her research on public art. Her work has been presented at Art Fall/PAC Ferrara, Xing Raum and Live Arts Week Bologna, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation Turin, Marino Marini Museum Florence, Workspace Brussels, MAMbo Bologna, Màntica Cesena, Santarcangelo Festival, Viafarini Milan, Ipercorpo Festival, Museion Bolzano, Festival Pergine Spettacolo, Sale Docks Venice, ERT Bologna, Manifesta 13 Marseilles, Happening! festival NAM Not A Museum Manifattura Tabacchi Florence, Zona K Milan, Short Theatre Rome, Savvy Contemporary Berlin, Democracy Biennial Turin, Oplà/Artefiera Bologna.
Muna Mussie is part of apap – Feminist Futures for the period 2021-2024.
www.munamussie.com
OBLIO / PIANTO DEL MURO [OBLIOVION / THE CRY OF THE WALL]
concept by: Muna Mussie
sound: Massimo Carozzi
with: Muna Mussie, Carlo Santolini, Urmi Kulsum, Tania Nigar Sultana, Valeria Kone, Miriam Kone, Serigne Khadim Wade, Manuela Izzo, Fara Deme, Hagar Keshk
voices: Claudia Ciceroni, Simone Pappalardo, Carlo Santolini, Alessandra di Cicco, Laura Lucentini, Margherita Failla, Nadia Pizzuti, Paola Romoli Venturi, Aurora Orsini, Luca Spanedda, Mirta Buono, Flavio Gamboni, Alessandro Ciccarelli, Lorenzo Botteghelli, Francesco Redig de Capos, Tania Nigar Sultana, Hagar Keshk
workshop coordination: Carlo Santolini
in collaboration with: Coloriage, Roma
thanks to: Simone Pappalardo e Claudia Ciceroni and the participants in the Timbre awareness workshop of the Traiettorie/Ricreazione programme
co-produced by: Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, Mattatoio Roma | Progetto Prender-si cura