** My Ruhr Residence farewell event on Wednesday 9 November at Kunsthaus Essen was the occasion for a first screening of the Ruhr artworks for the public and also for a revelation for me. The program started with a large projection of the “New Experiments on Vacua” video trilogy in my studio, then in the Cafè of Kunsthaus a selection of previous video. But I started installing my video about Stars and Stripes flags, an on-going work I started in 1999 that now fits AGAIN perfectly.
While I was showing last video works and talking suddenly I had clear in my mind an influence specifically recognizable in these works: the one of Michael Snow I met during my postdoctoral fellowship in video art in Toronto. Talking about influence, now I’m crossing Germany back to Italy and the radio keeps spread news about vogelgrippe, bird flu or avian influenza.
Again, ten years after first massive panic. At that time I did a project about this, crossing Germany… an other coincidence. http://www.birdfluartifice.com
Next Ruhr steps? I will be back to Ruhr area for the closing of the whole residency project together with other artists at Künstlerhaus Dortmund on December 16 for a public event. But before, I was asked to present a new Ruhr piece – it will be a photographic work – in a group show opening in Milan on next weeks about Anthropocene…
photos: Stephan von Knobloch