VIDEOs – THE FEAR SOCIETY – Pabellón de la Urgencia, La Biennale di Venezia.
26 MAY -7 JUNE, video documentation.
(I) TANIA BRUGUERA Autosabotage, 2009.
(II) FERNANDO BRYCE, Die Welt, 2008, Serie of 195 drawings, ink on paper, dimension variables.
(III) JOTA CASTRO Shanghai, 2009, Installation, 40 Mikado sticks, Each stick 480 cm.
(IV) MARTIN DAMMANN, SoldierStudies, 2007 – 2008, serie of 24 photograps, dimension variables.
(V) REGINA JOSE GALINDO, Confesion, 2009, video from the performance. (video, color, sound, 02:25min.)
(VI) RAINER GANAHL, I love New York / Toxic Assets, 2009, Installation, various material, dimension variable.
Wo jiao Yu Ren, 2009, video, 4:00 min.
(VII) GOLDIECHIARI, Genealogia de Damnatio Memoriae, 2009, Carved magnolia, dimension variable
(VIII) HANS HAACKE, West Bank, 1994 – 27th Year of Ocupation, 2007 – 2009, 2 text panels, each 30x42cm, 1 photo panel, 30x21cm.
(IX) ALFREDO JAAR, Le Ceneri di Pasolini, 2009, video, 37:30 min.
(X) JESUS MARTINEZ OLIVA, Tornos de acceso, 2009, installation, 45 desks, dimension variable.
(XI) JESUS SEGURA, Transportted, 2007, 2 channels video installation, dimension variable.
(XII) ANN-SOFI SIDEN, Same Unknown (Strain 1, 2 and 3), 2009, 9 channels synched video installation, HD, 9 monitors, speakers, metal pole, dimension variable.
foreplay
Annie Sprinkle, Beth Stevens and some of the other performers that will take part to the wedding performance at the Fear Society Pavilion on Friday August 28 made a colourful appearance at the Plaza San Marco tonight…
Group picture @ Plaza San Marco
Angry cop (with donkey ears) taking care of public virtue
The ecstatic artist-brides Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens
Lady Monster & group picture
From left to right: Beth Stephens, Beatriz Preciado & Annie Sprinkle
Eco-Sexual Blue Wedding To The Sea / August 28, 2009 in Venice, Italy
Two ecstatic artist-brides, Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens will be marrying the sea in a wedding like no other, at the Fear Society Pavilion in Venice. Performance artists, poets, ecologists, porn stars, prostitutes, academics, activists, and people from well over a dozen countries will gather at the waters edge to make vows to “love, honor and cherish the Sea until death do us part.” The public is invited to witness the ceremony. The vows will be officiated by Spanish “Anti-Priest” and theorist Beatriz Preciado, the calling of the directions will be San Francisco pagan pleasure priestess sexologist Dr. Carol Queen, and the homily will be given by award winning American author Michelle Tea.
The artist-brides invite people to collaborate on the creation of the wedding. Dozens of artists are busy preparing their offerings; Diana Pornoterrorista from Madrid will be a human fountain, Dutch Fluxus artist Harry Ruhé will model his Delft blue ocean underwear, Italian prostitutes rights activist Pia Covre will read a love poem written by the Venician couresan poet, Veronica Franko. Also presenting are the Swiss Mermaids, tR(ans)evolutionary eCoterrorist Graham Bell Tornado, and California painter Sarah Stolar, who will perform a watery hula-hoop dance.
The artist-brides request that everyone wear blue and dress in the themes of the ocean. The wedding will be ecologically sound—no plastic will be used.
The bride-artists have had six other performance art weddings. “This past year, we married the Earth in a magnificent redwood tree grove in California with four hundred people attending, we married the sky in the rose garden of an historic mansion in England, and we had what may have been the first queer wedding in the Balkans. For our seventh wedding we will marry the Sea as we are passionately in love with her and desire to help save her from destruction. We are ‘eco-sexuals,’ meaning we find nature incredibly romantic, extraordinarily sensual, and an exquisite lover. Additionally we are ‘sexecologists.’ We intend to make the environmental movement a little sexier.”
Each wedding is site specific, utilizes a different theme and color, and has a political thrust. The Eco-sexual Blue Wedding to the Sea will take place at the 53rd Venice Biennale’s Fear Society Pavilion, curated by artist Jota Castro. Stephens and Sprinkle explain, “The Sea has a fast growing cancer made of islands of plastic the size of Texas. She is suffocating from gasses caused by our pollution. Ninety percent of her large fish have been wiped out. She’s overheating and is brutally exploited. We simply can’t live without her. The Fear Society Pavilion is the perfect place for this wedding. Many of us fear the destruction of our beautiful environment. We want to transform this fear into loving action to care for the sea.”
Marrying the sea in Venice is an old tradition, which is still celebrated today. During the Renaissance, the Doge decreed that, “Venice must marry the sea as a man marries a women and thus become her Lord.” Each year the Doge would go out on a boat and drop a ring into the water. The artists explain, “We will appropriate this tradition, but as two women who have moved beyond the dominant-male and submissive-female dynamic, who love not lord over, and as global citizens who care deeply about the welfare of our planet. We propose loving the Sea erotically, which takes us all deliciously deep inside our primordial selves. Our bodies are made largely of water so in fact we are the Sea. At our wedding we hope that everyone will take vows to love and protect oceans with us.”
Stephens and Sprinkle call their project the Love Art Laboratory, and they are dedicated to doing art projects that “explore, generate, and celebrate love.” Their projects grew out of their response to the violence of war, the anti-gay marriage movement, and the greed causing the destruction of the planet. Their events are symbolic gestures, which aim to instill hope, to be an antidote to fear, and act as a call to action.
PRESS PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE for use free of cost at www.loveartlab.org.
Go to “press” then to “press photos.”
For information about LOVE ART LABORATORY: www.loveartlab.org
For information about the FEAR SOCIETY PAVILION: www.thefearsociety.eu
Arsenale Novissimo, Tese di San Cristoforo, Tesa 92 – Venice, Italy
Vaporetto stations: Celestia or Bacini
Press Contacts:
Carlo Simula: press@thefearsociety.eu
Christophe Halberry: christophe.halberry@gmail.com
For interviews: bethandannie@loveartlab.org
Love Art Laboratory invite you to a ECO-SEXUAL BLUE WEDDING TO THE SEA
You are INVITED.pdf / ARTISTS’ STATEMENT.pdf
DEAR LOVERS OF THE SEA, ECO-SEXUALS, & FRIENDS,
Very soon we will be going to marry the Sea at the Venice Biennale, in Venice, Italy.
You are invited to join us on August 28th. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, there will still be a few more weddings to come, each one unique. But we’d love to have YOU come to THIS one, as an honored guest, or come as a guest/collaborator.
We ask for no material gifts but welcome collaboration on the creation of the wedding. You can be IN the wedding! Be the flower girl/boy/trannie, decorate, document, object to the union, do a poem about global warming, or …whatever floats your boat.
Please do let us know if you know of people in Venice and the surrounding areas that might like to be a part of this event.
Or forward this invitation to them.
At our Love Art Laboratory web site (http://loveartlab.org) is the formal invitation for Blue Wedding to the Sea, plus what you need to know if you are coming, a detailed call for collaboration, and our artist statement about why we are marrying the Sea in Venice. Click on “now appearing” on our home page, or this link:http://www.loveartlab.org/cal.php?cal_id=75
With blue kisses, bubbles and gentle waves,
Annie and Beth
Alfredo Jaar
ALFREDO JAAR, Le ceneri di Pasolini
Alfredo Jaar \ Le Ceneri di Pasolini.mp3 Interview from www.radiopapesse.org
ALFREDO JAAR, Text by Gabi Scardi
“In his work there is an underlying sensation that there is an inalienable correlation between ethics and aesthetics… that reality can be not only related but also constructed: constructed through the energy and the critical attitude towards art and culture, through their possibility to interact with the widest possible social contexts, to transmit values and through new visions of development, to respond to the fundamental needs of contemporary life.
[...]
To Pasolini he dedicated the video The Ashes of Pasolini (2009) that the artist produced especially for the exhibition “The Fear Society”.
These are the words Alfredo Jaar uses to present his project: “I will present a short film entitled The Ashes of Pasolini. It is a modest film about the death of an extraordinary intellectual.
It is mostly based on documentary material discovered after 1975, the year of his death, and before. As you know, it is still unclear who killed him. But for me, it has always been clear why: it was because of fear. Fear of his voice, fear of his life style, fear of his ideas, fear of his opinions, fear of his intellect. He was the totally complete intellectual: a filmmaker, a poet, a writer, a journalist, a critic, a polemist. He was totally involved in the cultural and political life of his time. As an artist he took risks, broke the rules, he created his own rules. Pasolini wrote one of the most beautiful poems of the 20th century titled The Ashes of Gramsci (2005), a eulogy to another great Italian thinker, Antonio Gramsci. The title of my film is based on this poem by Pasolini but I chose it to write a eulogy to Pasolini himself. In these dark times in which Italy finds itself, Pasolini’s voice is sorely missed.”[...]
see entire text in PHOBIA PAPER
The Fear Society – Rassegna stampa – L’espresso
The Fear Society – Rassegna stampa -
L’espresso – PDF file << clik to see the pdf. file
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pleaseteachmechinese@yahoo.com
Purchase online at pleaseteachmechinese@yahoo.com
Rainer Ganahl & “I-love-NY” T-shirts. (see more on web-site ganahl.info)
Regina José Galindo, Confesión.
(City of Guatemala, 1973. Lives and works in City of Guatemala).
The artist made her first international appearance in 2001, in the Venice Biennale curated by Harald Szeemann and received the Golden Lion as young artist at the 51st Venice Biennale.
10 June, Second war bomb detected next to the Pabellón de la Urgencia.
We were walking to the Pavillion, but…
the way was closed.
The police man told us that we couldn’t pass
because there was a bomb!
We were walking to the Pavillion, but… the way was closed.
The police man told us that we couldn’t pass because there was a bomb!!!
Tania Bruguera, Autosabotage, 2009
(Havana, 1968, lives and works in both Chicago and Havana).
Interdisciplinary and political artist, Tania Bruguera focuses on behaviour as the main source of her work and studies the methods of information transmission in art, such as rumours or small talk.
photo by César Delgado Wixan
Tania Bruguera, performance 15:00h, 05.06.09 (before)
photos by Simona Homorodean
photo by César Delgado Wixan
Alfredo Jaar’s lessons
(Santiago, 1956. Lives and works in New York).
Jaar believes in a relationship between ethics and aesthetics, placing great emphasis on the society, that should be active and socially responsible regarding culture.
photos by César Delgado Wixan
reception hotel Danieli
Juan Carlos Verme & Jota Castro
photo by César Delgado Wixan
Gonzalo Alarcon & Marco Segurado preparing the wall for Fernando Bryce
photos by César Delgado Wixan
Ann-Sofi Siden
(Stockholm, 1962. Live and works in both Stockholm and New York).
Two words well describe the works of Ann-Sofi Sidén: intensity and existence. Intensity because her works attract the viewer, Existence is instead, a recurring theme in the videos and installations of the artist, who confronts the images of life and death.
photos by César Delgado Wixan
Hans Haacke
(Cologne, 1936, lives and works in New York).
Golden Lion in Venice in 1993, ex-aequo with Nam June Paik, for the German Pavillion.
photos by César Delgado Wixan
Martin Dammann
(Friedrichshafen/Bodensee, 1965. Lives and works in Berlin).
The series on show “Soldier Studies” focuses on the soldiers of the Second World War, involved in bizarre cross-dressing situations, a way to depict stereotyped situations of respectable matrimonial life, a sort of projection of petty-bourgeois life into the context of daily life during war time.
photos by César Delgado Wixan
Rainer Ganahl
(Bludenz, Austria, 1961. Lives and works in New York).
The work of Rainer Ganahl investigates the inquiries related to the production of knowledge and educational policies. Ganahl is particularly interested in the position and the political role of intellectuals inside the modern and democratic world.
photos by César Delgado Wixan
goldiechiari
(Eleonora Chiari, Roma, 1971; Sara Goldschmied, Arzignano (VI), 1975. They have been working together since 1997).
Their works are characterized by a surrealist matrix, halfway between reality and imagination. They emphasize paradoxical situations, associated with a sadly all-too-frequent reality, picking the most tragic and contradictory aspects of our everyday life.
photos by César Delgado Wixan
Jesús Martínez Oliva
(1969, Murcia. Lives and works in Murcia).
Jesus Martinez Oliva works on the process of collective construction of some uncomfortable themes (eg. masculinity) through popular rites.
photos by César Delgado Wixan
“que bonito!”… “se llama Shanghai”
JOTA CASTRO
(Jurimaguas, 1965, lives and works in Brussels).
Winner of the 2004 Gwangju Biennale, in an interview with Jérôme Sans he said: «My role as an artist became clear when I understood that the artist is a man like all others, that decides there are things to say and do, and has no time to waste. He feels that his time needs interpreters and recognizes himself in the world that surrounds him».
photos by César Delgado Wixan
advertisement; advertising; publicity; sign
A project by the Region of Murcia
Collateral event of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
artists invited: Tania Bruguera, Fernando Bryce, Jota Castro, Martin Dammann, Regina José Galindo, Rainer Ganahl, goldiechiari, Hans Haacke, Alfredo Jaar, Jesús Martínez Oliva, Jesús Segura, Ann-Sofi Siden.
4 June – 4 October 2009
from 4 to 7 June, open 10am to 8pm
from 8 June to 4 October, open from 10am to 6pm. Closed on Tuesdays
Curated by Jota Castro
FREE ENTRENCE
Ann-Sofi Siden searching positions & the boys with poles
photos by César Delgado Wixan
fear of natural disasters
… the house in front of the pavilion just go down…
photos by César Delgado Wixan
press release THE FEAR SOCIETY
http://www.thefearsociety.eu/press_release_THE_FEAR_SOCIETY.pdf
THE FEAR SOCIETY . Pabellón de la Urgencia
A PROJECT FROM THE REGION OF MURCIA
Collateral event of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Curated by Jota Castro
Artists invited: Tania Bruguera, Fernando Bryce, Jota Castro, Martin Dammann, Regina José Galindo, Rainer Ganahl, goldiechiari, Hans Haacke, Alfredo Jaar, Jesus Martinez Oliva, Jesus Segura, Ann-Sofi Sidén
Press preview and opening:
THURSDAY 4 JUNE, 2009 AT 4PM
Location: Arsenale Novissimo, Tese di San Cristoforo, Tesa 92, Venice
Exhibition dates:
4 JUNE – 4 OCTOBER 2009
Opening hours: from 4 to 7 June, open 10am to 8pm
From 8 June to 4 October, open from 10am to 6pm. Closed on Tuesdays
TANIA BRUGUERA PRESENTS AUTOSABOTAGE 5 JUNE – 15PM
Murcia Cultural, cultural no profit association of the Autonomous Community of Murcia Region, presents, with the occasion of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, an international group show of artists who work or have worked on the theme of fear.
The world has changed in the last six months. Many of our convictions have collapsed, and we get hit by a new reality everyday. One thing can be sure: our society is governed by fear.
Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. The capacity to fear is part of human nature but the experience of fear is affected by historical and cultural influences.
What do people fear most? Change, the other, financial chaos, spiders, death, terrorist attacks, unemployment, being a failure, immigration, being alone, the future…
The fundamental idea of this project is to show an art that could mirror the frightening times we are living in.
The Fear Society – Pabellón de la Urgencia is a project by the Region of Murcia, venue of the 8th edition of Manifesta – European Contemporary Art Biennial, scheduled for fall 2010.
Organization: Región Autonómica de Murcia, Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, Murcia Cultural
www.carm.es/ctyc
www.murciacultural.org/mcultural
Coordination:
Chiara Agnello, Roberta Tenconi
info@thefearsociety.eu
Press office: Carlo Simula +39 347 7973217
press@thefearsociety.eu
CATALOGUE AND NEWSPAPER WILL BE OUT SOON, PUBLISHED BY MOUSSE.
Reaching the venue: Take the Vaporetto ACTV to Bacini stop (about 30 minutes from Piazza San Marco). Walk from the main entrance of the Arsenale, following signpost (about 15 minutes) During the Biennale opening days, a free boat service connecting the Arsenale with the Arsenale Novissimo will be available.
Admission: FREE
