 | Texto: FA+ & Ivan Ivanissevich |
| Texto: FA+ & Ivan Ivanissevich |
|
The remains of La Donna di panne were carefully transported the same night that the incident took place, back to Giudecca. Later they were taken to Milano and from there they were taken to Stockholm. These remains are now resting on swaths of dark red velvet in glass display cases, filled with hidden meaning. If you asked someone to guess their origin the answer was always the same: that they were remains of a Maya Indian or an Inca mummy from South America or holy relics stolen from Italy, or even pieces of a very old person stolen from some museum. In all of the instances, there was a request for the remains to be returned to the museum, to the public, to the people. This was also the intention. Now the only thing remaining was to close the circle by reinventing the original incident in some way.
In a gallery in Stockholm (often called the Venice of the North), an exhibition was held to display the remains for the public. A crypt was built in the gallery space with the walls and ceiling made of tissue paper. The crypt filled nearly the entire room hanging in the air by thread circa 10 centimetres from the original ceiling and floor in the room without touching them. This effect gave the viewer a feeling of extreme fragility. The tissue paper walls moved as soon as someone moved about in the room. To create a symmetry (in the sense of analogue co-narrative), the artists made gingerbread biscuits in the shape of Picassoís and Magritteís famous pigeons. Visitors to the exhibition were offered the biscuits before they entered the exhibition, which they happily and innocently ate. The three display cases with the relics were placed at the very back of the crypt. The floor was completely covered with large dry pieces of bread that the artists had baked themselves. The public had no choice but to walk across the pieces of bread that covered the floor and crunched under their feet when they entered the swaying crypt were the relics had been placed. It was a troubling and problematic episode for the majority of visitors. As one elderly woman said: "This is a sin."
In the Venice of the North people ate birds made of bread, and trampled bread to see the remains of the person made of bread who had been eaten by birds and trampled in Venice. This is where the circle was closed.
(Translation by Tsemaye Opubor Hambraeus, international journalist) |
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