A year on after the successful experience in Slovenia, I was invited by an Italian curator to take part in an Arts Festival which will be held in Schio, Vicenza, Italy. Pulsart is a festival created to bring together the different forms of contemporary arts and it is being organised by Type Creative People, Yourban, Sezione H and Daamstudio.
This is the first such Arts Colony which is being organized in Vicenza, Italy and it is curated by Anna Zerbaro Pezzin. This event, also being referred to as Art Contest will bring together 75 artists, both Italian and international which were selected form a total number of 350 artists, with the exception of 6 artists (one of them being myself) who were invited directly by the curator. These 6 artists will be staying in an arts residence in Schio (Vicenza), which will be used as living grounds and as art workshop. Although not all the 75 artists taking part in the contest would be able to produce their art at the residence, all their works will have the same theme in common and will be exhibited under the same space. This project will move through the various aspects that characterise America and it’s society and for the residential artists the task will be even complex since their art will be made up of wasted materials since America is the land of consumerism.
The artists have been given a theme to work on which is called America ‘Lato A – Lato B’. Geographically America offers an incredible variety of landscapes: forests, endless plains, lakes, mountains, rocky deserts, volcanoes, oceans. Thanks to the large size and geographical diversity climate differs considerably from coast to coast and in the various areas of the country. Extreme weather events are therefore to be expected. Considering the purely geographical aspect, moving from state to state, one might think to be even halfway around the world. The history and economy of America was born from the merger of so many cultures. This merger has created an amazing place, an explosive mixture that has been able to create movement and is imbued with a strong cultural concept: the literary movements, peace, art, and music. Among the countries of Anglo-Saxon and Latin America there is a considerable difference in the cultural, social and economic development.
The image we have of America is so often contradictory: with regards to North American we think of promises of wealth and fortune, of the American myth; to what our grandparents dreamed of when they sailed in search of new fortunes on the oceans aboard ships which were definitely not cruise ships; we think of music, freedom, festivals, social and literary movements; we think of the carnival in New Orleans; to the Pop architecture that explicitly takes the form of the activities they offer, such as fast-food in the form of Hot Dog. To all this and more, today we have the contrasting images of bankrupt banks collapsing, children who at only 16 years of age may have a driver’s license, at 18 can hold a gun in their pocket, the death penalty, horrific stories of children serial killers, unbridled consumerism, abuse of medicines, food problems, redundancy, the homeless, religious fanaticism, plastic surgery taken to an excess. And then think of the mystical and colorful Latin America, despite severe poverty and many social problems, political, crime, and a thousand other horrifying situations, which is able to contrast all this with the bright colors, music, smiles, folk festivals, dances, delicious food, ancestral rituals, which marked the avant-garde artistic movements of the twentieth century, fine poets, designers and architects with a sophisticated taste. The proposed work to us artists, therefore, is to investigate and interpret, even emphasizing, the dual “personality” side A and side B of this continent.