sin∞fin – Performances at the Core of the Looking-Glass

source: transmutednet

SIN∞FIN The Movie

Una película dirigida, protagonizada y producida por VestAndPage; Verena Stenke [Alemania] y Andrea Pagnes [Italia].

Durante esta visita a México, los artistas de performance — y cineastas independientes — VestAndPage, presentan la premiere en México de SIN∞FIN The Movie [2010 / 2012], una película dividida en tres episodios, de los cuales se proyectarán el #1 y #3, durante su estreno en nuestro país.

En esta película, Verena Stenke y Andrea Pagnes desarrollan acciones de performance en vivo en lugares destacados en todo el mundo, analizando artísticamente el tema de las Esferas. En cada sitio, instalaciones y performances son desarrollados in situ, para formar finalmente los tres episodios de SIN∞FIN The Movie, con el propósito de estimular la reflexión sobre nuestra situación conflictiva común y contemporánea. Una pareja recorre largo y ancho por la Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, la India, Cachemira y la Antártida, en el absurdo de lo cotidiano. Ellos perciben y definen esferas y santuarios; la creación, la unión, la incorporación, el rechazo, la colisión, la invasión, la infección y la transformación de las esferas interiores, privados, sociales y universales.

DOS ESTRELLAS NO MANTIENEN SU MOVIMIENTO EN UNA ESFERA

EPISODIO #1 – Performances at the End of the World

[Patagonia y Tierra del Fuego]

El primer episodio de la trilogía, realizado en Punta Arenas y Tierra del Fuego [Chile], en 2010.

Los dos personajes se mueven por los cuartos de una casa que no tiene una dirección: es la estructura de sus espacios interiores, rellenos de visiones y recuerdos. La Patagonia es un híbrido de patetismo y la agonía. Aquí surge el sentimiento de Magallanes surrealista, un sueño de secuencias de situaciones de la vida cotidiana. Los vientos y el clima de la tierra situada en el extremo del mundo causan una desintegración continua, y la transformación consecuente de los seres. La inmensidad de la zona, su aislamiento y soledad, hablan del misterio y del surrealismo, dentro del cual el individuo se adapta en búsqueda de una casa.

Una producción VestAndPage, Chile/Italia/Alemania, 2010. En co-producción con CONFL!CTA Contemporary Art and Science Research, Punta Arenas.

Y BELLEZA, DONDE TODO ES UN ESPEJO

EPISODIO #3 – Performances at the Core of the Looking-Glass

[Antártico]

Episodio número 3 y final de la trilogía, realizado durante la participación de VestAndPage en el Programa de Cultura de la Dirección Nacional del Antártico en bases antárticas en enero-febrero de 2012.

Los dos personajes se mueven en una inmensidad desierta y helada, en un terreno onírico. Son criaturas que se debaten entre la vida y la muerte, entre ausencias y espejismos engañosos, entre la profundidad y el vacío. El flujo de la inmensa naturaleza no tiene piedad, donde el viento canta sus lamentos y el silencio su canción de cuna. Todos los paraísos son implacables en la búsqueda de una belleza en la que todo es un espejo. ¿Queda algún juego por jugar?, ¿queda algo por demandar, cuando los relojes no evidencian más el tiempo, o cuando ningún compás guía nuestro camino?, ¿Quién es el jugador y quién el peón, a quién afecta cuando la civilización ha perdido sus esquemas cotidianos, y sólo cuentan las reglas básicas? En el ambiente Antártico, un lugar donde los humanos no tienen raíces, ni futuro, sino sólo una presencia frágil y temporal siempre en riesgo, todas las preguntas conducen inevitablemente a la humildad.

Una producción VestAndPage, Argentina/Italia/Alemania, 2012. En co-producción con Dirección Nacional del Antártico, Buenos Aires y Thetis Spa, Venecia. Presentado por Zonadeartenacción, Secretaria de cultura y Educación Quilmes, Departamento de Extensión Cultural EMBA y Residencias del Sur, Buenos Aires.
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source: sinfin-themoviede

For the art film trilogy “sin∞fin The Movie”, Performance artist duo VestAndPage developed live performance actions in outstanding locations around the world. They work in episode #1 on the intimate, inner sphere of the individual and the couple, and in episode #2 on the wider sphere of society and religion, for concluding in episode #3 with the comprehensive sphere of nature and universe.

PRODUCTION
VestAndPage (DE/IT)

CO-PRODUCTION
CONFL!CTA Contemporary Art and Science Research, Punta Arenas (CL)
Sarai CSDS Centre for the Studies of Developing Societies, New Delhi
Dirección Nacional del Antártico, Buenos Aires
Thetis Spa, Venice

The film recalls the rules of Performance art also in its cinematic technique: all is based on authenticity. There is no script or storyboard, the artists’ actions evolve in direct response to the surroundings in which they find themselves, and are plan-able only up to a certain degree. These single moments shape an organic cycle with an autonomous story, to be read by each viewer in a personal way.

The artists reciprocally record their actions, or leave it to a tripod to statically record what happens. The set is given by the chosen venue with its natural light. The camera’s eye sees what a possible spectator of the action would see. No zooms, close-ups or shifting angles are used. The editing is reduced to basic cuts with a few means of overlapping, leaving the actions in their original length as much as possible. The lack of color or contrast adjustments, and the use of natural sound contribute to making the movie the most performatic also in its cinematic aspects.
VestAndPage experiment on the ridge of the ephemeral.The entire methodology of the sin∞fin The Movie project is subdue to process, shifting perspectives and finally life.
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Read what they say about “sin∞fin The Movie”

THE TRILOGY PROJECT
SCHEDULE
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VESTANDPAGE

EPISODE #1 PATAGONIA & TIERRA DEL FUEGO
EPISODE #2 NORTHERN INDIA & KASHMIR
EPISODE #3 ANTARCTICA
To produce this trilogy, the couple has roamed far and wide through Antarctica, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, India and Kashmir, diving into the absurdness of the quotidian. They perceived and defined spheres and sanctums: creations, unions, incorporations, rejections, collisions, invasions, infections and trans-formations of inner, private, social and universal spheres.
Installations and performances were developed on site, to finally form the three episodes of sin∞fin The Movie — a film on the ephemeral form of Performance art, outside any filmic genre, an art project set between reality and vision to stimulate reflection on our common, conflictive contemporary situation.
Being based on live performances, the two protagonists are primarily themselves — there is no acting in their actions, that appear artistic, but are based on real life. And still sin∞fin The Movie is not a documentary, as the single acts are finally puzzled together organically, to generate a new story that enfolds through the dynamics that have been created instead of through imposed intentions.
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source: vest-and-pagede

Verena Stenke and Andrea Pagnes have been working together under the name of VestAndPage in Performance art, filmmaking, visual art, writing and as independent curators since 2006. Their works, recordings and live performances have been presented across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Their art originates from a here-and-now interpretation of the fragility of the individual and its surroundings, researching private, social and environmental spheres through precariousness, transformation, liminality, loss of control and authenticity. The socially or environmentally orientated live performances are process-led and conceived psycho-geographically for architectures or in response to natural surroundings and historical sites.

VestAndPage collaborate with international theater companies and humanitarian organizations in production and education, i.e. for the recent street-children workshop project Fear is Fear. Love is Love. in Mexico City. They further present a methodological workshop series, which works on memory activation and stimulation of the personal, inner library for creative use. Their theoretical investigations have been published in various books and magazines of contemporary art, and in the book The Fall of Faust – Considerations on Contemporary Art and Art Action by Andrea Pagnes (2010).
They have been active as independent curators and organizers, such as of the Venice International Performance Art Week and the on-going global art initiative FRAGILE global performance chain journey.
Between 2010-2012, VestAndPage produced the experimental art film trilogy sin∞fin The Movie in Antarctica, India, Kashmir, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, combining the ephemeral art form of Performance with filmmaking.

Verena Stenke (b. 1981, Germany) is trained in dance, athletics, martial arts and as makeup artist. Her work combines situationally induced movement and filmmaking, and her studies in Oriental and Social Theatre further contribute to a highly corporal artistic exploration based on the conditions of here and now. Having grown up in a culture rooted deeply in discipline and progress, she is interested in the concepts of loss of control, liminality, collective memory, conditioning and the idea of union. Her performance Speak That I Can See You has been rewarded with the Art Kontakt Prize (Tirana, 2007). Her videos have been rewarded with the Treviglio Video Poetry Prize (Italy, 2011) and the Nassauer Kulturpreis (Germany, 2011) and her art films presented on numerous festivals.

Andrea Pagnes (b. 1962, Venice, Italy) translated among others Jurassic Park into Italian, and has been working as independent curator, writer, founder of culture magazines, painter, glass sculptor, and artistic director of a Murano glass factory. He holds degrees in Modern Literature and Philosophy, and certificates of high studies in Museology, Art Critic, and Creative Writings. His publications have been translated into German, Italian, English, Spanish, Hindu, Chinese and Finnish. He obtained the diploma of Social Theatre operator, working as actor and writer with psychic patients, former drug-addicted as well as physically disabled people. This experiences determined his approach to arts working on the conflict of personal and social responsibilities. He has been awarded among others with the Strasbourg Robert Schuman Silver Medal (1990), Millennium Painting Award in representation of Italy (Windsor & Newton, 2000), and the literary prize Storie (Rome, 2008).

bio/cv

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“VestAndPage create profoundly poetic images that sometimes appear as allegories, and other times stripped off all pretension, being confronting in what they show. There’s cruelty crowned by the sober aesthetics of beauty in form and content, expressed through actions that seem disquietudes of existence, from the depth of being. VestAndPage’s investigation leads to the essence: to reveal this vital impulse, which gives movement to the body. To be conscious of that divine spark that lights up for a moment giving life to movement. To be a testimony. Where does it come from? Where does it lead us? It comes from mystery.
A strong state of humility has to turn flesh from within, to carry towards this. The content of VestAndPage’s work reveals mystery, it is the fruit of knowledge of oneself, and this gives breath through art. Ana Alexandra Moreno, Caracas (2012)”
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source: omissisfestivalit

ideazione e interpretazione: Verena Stenke e Andrea Pagnes
testi: Andrea Pagnes
disegni, registrazioni sonore, suono: Verena Stenke
registrazioni sonore delle foche antartiche: Douglas Quin
produzione: VestAndPage
co-produzione: Direzione Nazionale dell’Antartico, Buenos Aires, e Thetis Spa, Venezia
con il supporto di: Zonadeartenaccion, Residencias del Sur, Spin Conectora Cultural e Pro Antartide, Buenos Aires

VestAndPage, vincitori della residenza artistica indetta dal Programma Culturale della Direzione Nazionale dell’Antartico dell’Argentina, hanno lavorato nei mesi di gennaio-febbraio 2012 in alcune basi scientifiche dell’Antartide, per realizzare il terzo episodio della loro trilogia filmica sin∞fin, basata sull’arte della Performance.

La nuova performance TERRA NOVA (AmundsenScottOates), presentata a OMISSIS in prima mondiale, è ispirata a quest’esperienza, alla ricerca che gli artisti hanno condotto nel continente bianco, e prende spunto dalle storie degli esploratori antartici d’inizio Novecento.

“I am just going outside and may be some time” (Vado solo fuori e forse ci resto per un po’), si dice a un certo punto.
Nel linguaggio intensamente corporale che contraddistingue l’opera performativa di VestAndPage, non viene mai privilegiato il semplice racconto, se non viaggi esperienziali da vivere visceralmente attraverso passione e disperazione, luce e buio, vita e morte, combattendo ed arrendendosi, riferendosi all’impermanenza, agli spazi liminali e agli stati mutevoli, agitando riflessi mitici sull’essenza e sulle ambizioni umane. La condizione conflittuale dell’uomo moderno qui è contestualizzata in un estremo: il ghiaccio bianco, eterno, e l’isolamento completo. Come si può vivere in un mondo nel quale conta solo il primo e il secondo già niente? Rimane qualcuno da chiamare, quando gli orologi non scandiscono più il tempo e nessuna bussola serve più a guidare il proprio cammino? Che succede quando la civiltà perde i suoi schemi quotidiani e contano solo le regole basiche della sopravvivenza, o quando l’uomo entra in luoghi dove non ha né passato né futuro? Quanto estremo è l’estremo?
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source: marjorie-wikide

VestAndPage ist ein Künstlerduo, gegründet 2006 von Verena Stenke (geboren 1981 in Bad Friedrichshall) und Andrea Pagnes (geboren 1962 in Venedig). VestAndPage arbeiten vor allem in zeitgenössischer Performance, Bildende Kunst und Video Kunst, und untersuchen Sphärologie und Unbeständigkeit, Fragilität, Transformation, Erinnerungsaktivierung und Kommunikation.
VestAndPage sind präsent in Galerien, Museen, Biennalen, Theatern und Festivals in Europa, Asien, den USA und Lateinamerika. Sie sind Initiatoren und Kuratoren von FRAGILE – global performance chain journey, einer globalen Kunstinitiative mit über 750 teilnehmenden Künstlern aus 63 Ländern, die gemeinsam arbeiten um ein zerbrechliches Objekt einmal um den Globus reisen zu lassen.

Werk

Filmposter von ‘sin∞fin – Performances at the End of the World’, Eine VestAndPage Produktion, Chile/Italien 2010
VestAndPage erforschen die Grenzen der Kommunikation sowie die der privaten und sozialen Sphären. Das Werk Balada Corporal (2010), eine Performanceserie in vier Teilen, enthüllt die zeitgenössische Idee, dass die künstlerische Repräsentation auf klassischem Träger ausdatiert ist, da in Performance das Bild direkt auf den menschlichen Körper übertragen ist.
Die Performance Speak That I Can See You (2007) ersetzt unrelevante, mechanische Kommunikation durch Rituale, welche zu erhöhter Klärung führen können. Viele Werke, wie La Promenade du Sceptique (2011), Places to Fall and Rise (2010), Skin Deeper (2008) und Bist du glücklich? (2008) sprechen von einer persönlichen Version des Umgangs mit dem Gefühl der Fremdheit und dem Bedürfnis nach Einheit, oft die Körperausdauer der Künstler an die Grenzen treibend. Die interaktiven Performances Fratres (2008) und SUITEnovus (2008/2010) enthalten meditative Elemente, und verbinden Raum, Körper, Zeit und Live Musik. One Earth’s Dreaming (2009), In.Sight.Out (2009) oder Endangered Species (2008) sind vorwiegend Installationen, die auf performatische Weise mit dem Körper im Raum arbeiten.
Die Filmserie sin∞fin (“Performances at the End of the World” Chile/Italien, 2010 und “Performances at the Holy Centre” Indien/Italien/Deutschland, 2011) ist von Peter Sloterdijk’s Triologie Sphären inspiriert. Hier testen und definieren VestAndPage Sphären und Sanktums durch das Treffen und die Kollision, Kreation, Destruktion, Infektion und Transformation von inneren, privaten, sozialen und universellen Sphären. sin∞fin ist ein Beispiel für die Verbindung von Performance mit Film.
Neben ihrer kontinuierlichen Praxis untersuchen VestAndPage auch die theoretischen Aspekte der Kunst und Kommunikation. Das Buch The Fall of Faust – Considerations on Contemporary Art and Art Action von Andrea Pagnes (VestAndPage press, Florenz, 2010, in englischer Sprache) entschlüsselt verdeckte Strukturen der Kunst und des Kunstschaffens.

Biografien

Verena Stenke ist Performance Künstlerin, Tänzerin und Videokünstlerin. Sie studierte Freie Kunst, Maskenbild und Kampfkunst, sowie Zeitgenössischen Butoh Tanz in Berlin. In Florenz studierte sie in Riten und Tänze des Sufismus und Orientalisches Theater mit dem irakerischen Meister Kassim Bayatly, und Theater nach Grotowski und Barba mit Isole Comprese Teatro.
Andrea Pagnes ist Performance Künstler, Bildender Künstler, freischaffender Kurator und Schriftsteller. Er studierte Kunstkritik und Museumswissenschaften, Anglistik und Moderne Literatur. Er erhielt Ausbildung als Schauspieler im Sozialen Theater, im Kreativen Schreiben und hat Kunstessays, Prosa und Poesiebände veröffentlicht. Er arbeitete als Übersetzer, Journalist und Koordinator mehrerer Projekte der Biennale von Venedig gearbeitet. Als Bildender Künstler stellt er seine Bilder, Skulpturen und Installationen international aus.