GEO-GRAPHIES: Identity Rituals and fragile Ecosystems

GEO-GRAPHIES: Identity Rituals and fragile Ecosystems

Curated by Dores Sacquegna

From 7 to 21 March 2020
Opening day Saturday 7 March at 17,30 h
Palmieri’s Foundation in Lecce, Italy

Opening March 7th  at 17,30h, is the contemporary art exhibition of Art Woman 2020 entitled  “ GEO-GRAPHIES: Identity Rituals and Fragile Ecosystems” curated by Dores Sacquegna and promoted by Primo Piano LivinGallery. The show is under cultural patronage of Lecce’s Municipality and held at the Renaissance church of San Sebastien, place of Palmieri Foundation in the old city. This exhibition it is a dialogue between cultures, which, specifically on World Women's Day, reflect on the contemporary world, on environmental issues, on women's rights and on the dynamics of non-acceptance towards human and cultural diversity.  Geo (earth) and Grafia (writing), is the writing of the earth, and through art - a powerful tool at the service of society, the environment and life - the artists on display, express their point of view on the world and on the relationship with others. San Sebastiano, a welcoming place from the past, confronts these new geographies, evoking its history between echoes and references, between discoveries and listening. An illustrated catalog is available.

For edition of Art Woman, twenty-seven international artists exhibit their works and testimonies, with social, environmental, identity and cultural diversity issue. A multi-voice dialogue that from Europe to Asia, from the Middle East to America, arrives in Lecce, with a multiplicity of interventions that embrace the visual arts and performance. The opening ceremony begin with the presentation of the exhibition , followed by a Conversation about Feminism ‘70s with LeoNilde Carabba, Italian artist of Black Light Art and live performance "Travesia" by Colombian artist Sandra Miranda Pattin, action that tells the journey and the pain of migrant women who, to reach a peaceful place, find death at sea.  Representing the event, two great artists of XXI century: Louise Bourgeois and LeoNilde Carabba.

On National Preview two films about the life and works of Louise Bourgeois, - thanks to Bourgeois Studio in New York. The first entitled "Partial Recall" of 1982 - Produced by and ©The Easton Foundation, NY, 1983 - regards the first main retrospective at MoMA in New York which consecrates the artist on an international level, but is also the first solo exhibition that the museum has ever dedicated to a woman. The second entitled "The Spider, The Mistress and The Tangerine" of 2008 -Produced by and © Art Kaleidoscope Foundation, NY, 2008 - is a 97minutes film,  by Marion Cajori and Amei Wallach shot over the course of 15 years. The film is an intense portrait of the French-American artist, shot following the artist, with unrivaled access. A sincere, intimate and dramatically  cinematic human journey into life, memories, emotions and genius of Louise Bourgeois, a true Icon of Modern and Contemporary Art.  Poster Photo Louise Bourgeois: Peter Bellamy.

Conversation with LeoNilde Carabba, Italian artist of Black Light Art, co-founder of the "Women's Library" in Milan in the 70s, artist and activist during the period of the "Women's Movement". Supported by great artists - such as Fontana, Chin, Crippa, Baj, Turcato, Tancredi, Fautrier, Manzoni, Christo and Jeanne Claude, Accardi - Carabba has exhibited in many place parts of the world and is present in prestigious public collections including:  Museo Sperimentale in Verucchio, Italy; Pinacoteca di Civitanova Marche; Pinacoteque in Bari, Italy; Italian-American Museum a San Francisco in USA;  The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Josè in USA; Bolivar City Museum in Venezuela; First Museum of Modern Art  in a Asyla in Morocco; Ibiza Museum of Contemporary Art in Spain; Civic Museum of Taverna in Italy, MUSPAC-Museum of Experimental At in L’Aquila, in Italy and more. An illustrated catalog is available.

The event is divided into two research sessions of which: Identity Rituals and Fragile Ecosystems. In the first corpus of works,  the evocative ancestral power of the Phoenix by Sandra Miranda Pattin; the installation on women victims of race violence by Christine Palamidessi; the fragment and the archetypal figures of children by Maria Luisa Imperiali; the identity in the era of technology with Eva Clone in augmented reality by Pey-Chwen Lin; the women of San Sebastiano by Beatrice Hansson. Fragile identities by Zhiwei Pan; literature, eros, myth by Kohlene Hendrickson and by Laetitia Ambroselli. Imaginary theaters and anthropomorphic bodies by Agnieszka Laskus, and  by Bikkel. Women's solidarity by Aristi Hadjisavva, and environmental problems about the Amazon by Sal Sidner.  Symbols, writing and archetypes, by Margot Reding-Schroeder.  In the second corpus of works about "Fragile ecosystems", the attention of the artists is focused specifically on environmental issues, such as the reduction of Arctic Ice with works by Brigitt Müeller Hunziker, or the consequences of global warming and pollution by Christel Sobke. Landscape-body and unity and fragment by Valérie Novello; extinct animals by Catherine Bercusson; relationship between man and urban space, by Tomomi Sato. All the artists on display have a good CV and works in private and public collections.

Videos by Iraqi artist Sama Alshaibi are part of the "Silsila’s series” and consisting of a total of 7 performances, made in 15 Muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the Maldives islands in Southeast Asia. The artist examines the different ecosystems in the human dimensions of migration and the strength of women. She spent much of her youth as a political refugee during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s-'88s moving between Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In 2000, she became an American citizen. She taken part in several exhibitions and museum collections including the MoMa in New York. İrem Çoban - through the ritual of Turkish coffee - reflects on her origins and culture, offering its body as a container. Kacie Lees, studies natural phenomena, assembling extracts from 1902 on the study of human nature by William James and her personal vocal traces, in a dialogue between past and present. Her scientific projects have been exhibited among others at Necessary Phenomenon O'Project Space in Los Angeles, CA, at the "Feminist Ecology: Women and the Earth" at the Koehnline Museum of Art in Des Plaines, Illinois. Tanja Ravlic reflects on water as a psychic factor, while Sihui Shao about water as a purifying element, a film that recently participated in the Wuzhen International Theater Festival. Sall Lam Toro - of Papuan origin - explores the dichotomy between life and death, with allusions to the anthropocene and rituals of evoking the divine. This project was recently included in the Kunsten Modern Art Museum in Aalborg in Denmark.The exhibition promises to be interesting and full of stimuli for visitors. An illustrated catalog is available.

Sama Alshaibi (Iraq), Laetitia Ambroselli (France), Catherine Bercusson (Uk), Bikkel Artist (The Netherlands), LeoNilde Carabba (Italy), Pey-Chwen Lin (Taiwan), İrem Çoban (Turkey), Aristi Hadjisavva (Cyprus), Beatrice Hansson (Sweden), Kohlene Hendrickson (Switzerland), Maria Luisa Imperiali (Italy), Agnieszka Laskus (Poland), Kacie Lees (Usa), Daria Makarenko (Russia), Brigitt Müller Hunziker (Switzerland), Valérie Novello (France),  Christine Palamidessi (Usa), Zhiwei Pan (China), Sandra Miranda Pattin (Columbia), Tanja Ravlic (Croatia), Margot Reding-Schroeder (Gr.Ducky of Luxembourg),  Tomomi Sato (Japan),  Sihui Shao(China), Sal Sidner (Usa), Christel Sobke (Germany), Sall Lam Toro (Portugal).