tonon ignà, chronicle of the construction of an exhibit

Tonon ignà
Vajont valley and Nuovo Spazio di Casso
Chronicle of the construction of an exhibit, through notes, thoughts and images.

The exhibit Tonon ignà’s main protagonists are the artists pamela breda, lorenzo commisso, roberto da dalt, veronica de giovannelli, evelyn leveghi, nicolas magnant, lara j. marconi, stefano moras. The exhibit is taking place from August the 22nd to September the 26th. The artists have begun to work on the landscape, on the spatial and human relations in this area during the weeks before the opening, developing their refletions and artworks through various lenghts of in-loco stays. The Residency, this year, in Erto’s rectory, the meals with our friends of the “Cervo Bianco”.

Below, some notes, thoughts, ideas, fragments, and flashes.

- On July the 26th, the group went on a hike over the landslide of Mt. Toc, in the company of geologist Emiliano Oddone. Returning is fundamental to understand the real state of things. It becomes part of a growing body, one that is being shaped up, fathomed: the exploration begins with an unknown variable, and perhaps will end on the same note, but everything that can happen will become part of something bigger than an isolated experience. We take off towards Mt. Toc , together with Emiliano Oddone (geologist) and Veronica De Giovannelli, Roberto Da Dalt, Lara J. Marconi, Evelyn Leveghi, Stefano Moras, a young group of artists, and Delfino Manarin from Casso, as well, who comes back for the first time after 52 years in the place where his house used to be. We go, together, observe, discuss, eat and gather our thoughts. We’ll come back there together, too. Being present, more than observing, is the key with which the territory can be read, because being present implies live interest, implies action towards change, doing and acting over looking and merely passing by as you notice a neon sign. Neon, a minimalistic, fascinating, static object, born and dead with Dan Flavin. An object, thus, which is added to another, more important one. That love for toys which John Ruskin had condemned to the new century, and that in 1963 the minimalist movement has tried to simplify was, this way, reiterated: we’re stuck in ’63, devious moths. Where is, now, the light of the Moon? We’ll go look for it there, where we ought to go back, under the rubble.(Stefano Moras)

-On July the 30th, and the 31st, with Lara J.Marconi and Evelyn Leveghi. Three days: residency with Lara J.Marconi and Evelyn Leveghi. Drawings and notes mentally retrace the locations in which Emiliano Oddone has conducted us, new proofs confirm the work that progressively grows without losing the tension that has pushed us to confront ourselves with this valley. Evelyn rearranges and balances her project with new interations, revisiting the spaces, like the Manarin family (from Casso), but the inhabitants of Erto as well, picking up on peculiar shades and differences of character between the two hamlets: in its case the relationship between edible matter and people is constructive, if not necessary, acting as litmus paper and providing us, that way, with objective data on the present; Lara continues to draw, occasionally pricking the paper sheets in her notebook, she starts to carve in little areas of paper, but shyly: “the trees are darker when the rain is coming”. They explore Erto here, timidly. We look for a modest spring behind the “Cervo Bianco”, we take the wrong route and they suggest we go back because is we continue we’ll get to a small waterfall, in no less than two hours, though. A very big, black spider, walks the tightrope of its silk, Evelyn goes pale and runs away. After promising ourselves to visit the waterfall and having woken up very early in the morning, we change destination as we walk on the foot-cycle path of Erto, towards the big, rusted framework, deformed by the wave, but still steady in its base. Which other object  other than the dam can hold its integrity so well? Which other objects do we need? Lara draws from real life, and writes down didactic coordinates on her map, meanwhile, I gather montmorillonite clay from a landslide downstream.
(Stefano Moras)

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