“MARE MOTUS”
FROM PUGLIA ACROSS THE WORLD: THE ANCIENT AND THE CONTEMPORARY
#archeologia, #installazioni #video, #mapping
Opening: September 21, 2018, @ 7 pm
Foundation Pino Pascali and Pugliapromozione – on the occasion of the Red Bull Cliff Diving world championship’s finals in Polignano a Mare – present “Mare Motus. From Puglia across the World: the Ancient and the Contemporary”, opening in Polignano on September 21, 2018, at 7 pm (runs through November 3, 2018).
As an essential constituent of humankind, the sea fascinates generations of artists, from prehistoric rock paintings to modern and contemporary art. Among the four classical elements, water is the symbol of fertility and thus of artistic inspiration for its transparency, its fluidity, and for its strong representational significance. The sea is synonym with force and strength, as well as freedom and nostalgia. It is stunning, moving, and frightening: its multifaceted shapes and sensations are an inexhaustible source of interpretations and depictions.
The “Mare Motus” exhibit suggests a dialogue between contemporary and ancient art, where current languages merge with history, strengthening the present through the past. The Pino Pascali foundation will also showcase the famous Il nuotatore (va troppo spesso ad Heidelberg), [The Swimmer (going too often to Heidelberg)] created by the Studio Azzurro collective of artists in 1984. Twenty-four tv monitors, thirteen videos and twelve cameras are set along a pool board at water level. The swimmer and his strokes appear on 24 monitors, alternated with unexpected micro-events, as a naked woman or a ball, by the embracing notes of Peter Gordon’s suite. Flowing images pass from one screen to another, circled by a halo of cold blue light, estranging at times. To the left, another screen shows a slow running clock.
Facing the Studio Azzurro screens there’s a showcase of precious archaeological pieces from Museo Ribezzo in Brindisi, and Museo Castromediano in Lecce. Vases, amphorae and domestic handicraft, telling stories from the past and of timeless myths. Amphorae were found in our seas, including pottery with evocative images, the silent testimony of century crossing dialogue.
Outside the Foundation’s building, artist Raffaele Fiorella (born in Barletta, 1979) will inaugurate his video mapping work called Paesaggi Liquidi, screened on the sea cliffs of this charming town. It’s a 15-minute looping clip where water takes the centre stage, meant as a metaphor of a new life, of birth and rebirth, as a sheer allusion to the amniotic fluid and its meaning. The Museum façade is turned into a music box, a surreal scene meshed with real world hints, with 2D & 3D short animations mixed with photographs of water symbols, intertwined with one another.
This initiative is part of a wide plan aimed at promoting and valorising tourism across the Apulian territory, adding value through the effective language of contemporary art, aiming at a learned and serious viewer, as international travel influencers. This collaboration between Fondazione Pino Pascali and Pugliapromozione-Regional Tourism Board is funded through the Regional Operational Programme ERDF-ESF 2014-2020, Axis VI – Environmental protection and promotion of natural and cultural resources; Action 6.8 – Interventions for the competitive repositioning of tourist destinations.
Raffaele Fiorella, “Paesaggi Liquidi”, 2018
