ISABELLA PERS
(Palmanova - IT 1963)
vive e lavora a Trivignano Udinese - IT
lives and works in Trivignano Udinese - IT
Present - 2016
video 9’29’’
Present - 2016
video 9’29’’
Present documenta un’azione collettiva sulle trincee della Prima Guerra Mondiale, al confine tra Italia e Slovenia, attraversato nel 2016 da centinaia di profughi provenienti dalla Rotta Balcanica. Per quasi un anno, da artista e attivista, ho dialogato con persone che in tempi e luoghi diversi hanno dovuto abbandonare la loro terra o hanno vissuto scenari di guerra, terrorismo e dittature. L’azione si svolge in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Alcuni testimoni della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, dell’esodo Istriano, della guerra nei Balcani, del regime sovietico, delle violenze nel Congo, nel Pakistan, in Afganistan e in Sudamerica hanno così ripercorso le tracce di conflitti che nessuno di loro ha vissuto. E hanno condiviso preghiere, parole, canti e silenzi per dirigere il pensiero verso una visione comune, donando(si) la testimonianza del loro vissuto.
Per molte religioni e percorsi spirituali, preghiera e parole di consolazione generano energia trasformatrice, avviando un cammino verso la contemporaneità attraverso la momentanea perdita di confini, geografici, di razza o religione, nella comprensione e nella consonanza dell’azione. La distanza tra storie, comunità di appartenenza e trascorsi individuali differenti trascende così in muta sinfonia corale su passi e luoghi ormai storici per interrogare ciascuno di noi sul senso primordiale dell’incontro.
courtesy l’artista
https://www.isabellapers.com
︎
Present is about a collective action on the trenches of 1st World War, at the Slovenian-Italian border, crossed by hundreds of refugees from the Balkan route in 2016. Through almost a year, I have discussed, as both an artist and an activist, with people compelled to leave their homeland, or having gone through war, terrorism, and dictatorship. The action took place in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Thus, some witnesses of 2nd World War, of the Istrian exodus, the Balkan war, the Soviet regime, the Congo, Pakistan, Afghanistan and South American strifes, have revisited the traces of conflicts that none of them had experienced. And all did share prayers, words, songs, and silences, to address their thoughts towards a common vision, and to give themselves the witness of their life experience.
Many religions and spiritual paths are said to engender through prayer and caring words a flow of transformative energy, by which a journey towards contemporaneity is set in motion by the temporary earmarking of geographic, religious, race differences, and their supersession by mutual understanding and the consonance in action. The gap among stories, communitarian belongings, and personal pasts, thus transcends into a silent coral symphony beyond now historic passes and sites, while anybody is asked about the primordial meaning of the encounter.
courtesy the artist
https://www.isabellapers.com
Per molte religioni e percorsi spirituali, preghiera e parole di consolazione generano energia trasformatrice, avviando un cammino verso la contemporaneità attraverso la momentanea perdita di confini, geografici, di razza o religione, nella comprensione e nella consonanza dell’azione. La distanza tra storie, comunità di appartenenza e trascorsi individuali differenti trascende così in muta sinfonia corale su passi e luoghi ormai storici per interrogare ciascuno di noi sul senso primordiale dell’incontro.
courtesy l’artista
https://www.isabellapers.com
︎
Present is about a collective action on the trenches of 1st World War, at the Slovenian-Italian border, crossed by hundreds of refugees from the Balkan route in 2016. Through almost a year, I have discussed, as both an artist and an activist, with people compelled to leave their homeland, or having gone through war, terrorism, and dictatorship. The action took place in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Thus, some witnesses of 2nd World War, of the Istrian exodus, the Balkan war, the Soviet regime, the Congo, Pakistan, Afghanistan and South American strifes, have revisited the traces of conflicts that none of them had experienced. And all did share prayers, words, songs, and silences, to address their thoughts towards a common vision, and to give themselves the witness of their life experience.
Many religions and spiritual paths are said to engender through prayer and caring words a flow of transformative energy, by which a journey towards contemporaneity is set in motion by the temporary earmarking of geographic, religious, race differences, and their supersession by mutual understanding and the consonance in action. The gap among stories, communitarian belongings, and personal pasts, thus transcends into a silent coral symphony beyond now historic passes and sites, while anybody is asked about the primordial meaning of the encounter.
courtesy the artist
https://www.isabellapers.com
︎