Kristien de Neve

Walkabout – Under the Same Roof

Maria Korporal’s contribution to the collective installation “Under the Same Roof”

The video wall “Walkabout” is Maria Korporal’s contribution to the collective installation “Under the Same Roof”, created with artists Marina Buening, Kristien de Neve and Anita Guerra.

The video above shows some excerpts of the projection during the exhibition in Sala 1, Rome, in May 2018.
The project is a work in progress. A new, independent version is entitled “Songlines”, click here to see info and trailer, and has been shown in various exhibitions, among which “Under Another Roof” in IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC.

description:
In the culture of Aboriginal Australians, the long walks in the desert of individuals who undertake the Walkabout* (as mentioned by Bruce Chatwin in “The Songlines”, 1987) play an essential role in allowing contact and exchanges of resources (both material and spiritual) between populations separated by enormous distances. In my work, I let myself be guided by the idea of the Aboriginal Australians to see a “territory” not as a determined piece of land, but as a dynamic network of paths, tracks, and songs – so well described by Chatwin.
The video sequence begins with a projection across the entire surface, so the video extends into the inner part of the installation, and falls partly on the work of Anita. The initial image is the seashore with the eternal fluctuations of water, rendered in circular form, and the white line of the waves’ foam is transformed into spirals and concentric circles. After a few minutes the water leaves space to the sand, the concentric circles become dashed lines and the projection becomes a video-mapping on the 4 white canvases. On every panel a different thing happens: one hand digs a bone from the sand while another hand buries a leaf, one pulls out a folded piece of paper, opens it and reads the word “life”, the letters fly away and turn into other languages, one hand throws a stone from one panel to the other – in short, it is a game of transformation and exchange of objects and words between different panels. After a while everything is flooded by the sea water again and other scenes arise out of the sand.

* “Walkabout” has come to be referred to as “temporary mobility” because its original name has sometimes been used as an inappropriate term in Australian culture, ignoring its spiritual significance.

technical description: Looped video projection on four quadrilateral canvases that are connected with hemp ropes to the general bamboo construction of the installation – see also Under the Same Roof
sizes and materials: 4 quadrilateral canvases of ca. 50cm2, a video projector and two small loudspeakers. The projection surface is variable, 150 x 200 cm approx.
video length: 13’41” in loop
year: 2018
sound © kangaroovindaloo (earth) and Maria Korporal (water)
installation “Under the Same Roof” © Marina Buening, Kristien de Neve, Anita Guerra, Maria Korporal
video “Walkabout” © Maria Korporal

Photos during the exhibition:

Walkabout by Maria Korporal – photo by Anita Guerra

Walkabout by Maria Korporal – photo by Anita Guerra

Some videos and photos of the work in progress:

 

 

Under Another Roof

Exhibition in IA&A at Hillyer
9 Hillyer Court
Washington DC

August 3 – September 2, 2018

Marina Buening, Kristien De Neve, Anita Guerra, Maria Korporal

Under Another Roof is an exhibit based on the site-specific installation, Under the Same Roof designed for the Gallery Sala 1 in Rome (Italy) and realized in May 2018. Four artists born in four different countries choose to focus on the desire and on the need for a harmonious coexistence, while dealing with the difficulties and the fears of this endeavor.

In Rome, they construct a common building, octagonal in shape, with four entrances and four walls, as a strong visual metaphor of cohabitation. Each of the four vertical walls show how each artist connects earth with heaven through a personal visual vocabulary and message. As human beings we all live in a standing position as particular intersections of two fundamentally shared planes.

In Washington D.C., the work of the four artists once again shares the same sky and the same ground while the four walls are differentiated by the traces of each individual’s visual language. Another “roof”, the roof of the IA§A Hillyer Gallery, generously hosts their proposal.
On each of the four walls the observer can now find some traces of the former site-specific installation, re-elaborated for IA§A in a more synthetic version, without any pre- meditated or direct interactions between them. The relationship between the different artistic proposals is left to the sensibility of the observer.

Nevertheless, one hint of correlation between the messages of the artists can be given:
in each of the artist’s works there is a clear invitation towards self-investigation as a condition for living more harmoniously with other people and with our environment in its broadest sense.

Marina Buening presents images of branches entitled, “In the Wild”. She encourages people to get in touch with the vulnerability of nature. For her, self- investigation has to do with healing the profound relationship between man and nature, necessary for a harmonious existence. In Kristien De Neve’s work on mirrors there is an explicit request to go beyond superficial self-images, personal masks that limit our capacity to relate to people in a new and profound way. In Anita Guerra’s work a floating identity is indicated, which can only be rooted in our physical bodies (“Corpus-Domus”). The body, viewed as that constant home which follows us around wherever we live, thus becomes an indicator or our own limits/limitations and resources. Only by knowing ourselves can we begin to know each other. In Maria Korporal’s work – “Songlines”, a video inspired by the ritual Walkabout* of Aboriginal Australians – self-knowledge emerges through a long and intriguing journey made up of many exchanges, creating networks between people that transcend territorial and personal limits.

* “Walkabout” has come to be referred to as “temporary mobility” because its original name has sometimes been used as an inappropriate term in Australian culture, ignoring its spiritual significance.

click here to see Maria Korporal’s work for this exhibition, “Songlines”

Under the Same Roof

A collective installation created by
Marina Buening, Kristien de Neve, Anita Guerra, Maria Korporal

Exhibition May 16-30, 2018
Sala 1, Piazza di Porta San Giovanni 10, Rome

Sala 1 hosted the collective installation Under the Same Roof, (Sotto lo stesso tetto) a project conceived and constructed by four artists of different nationalities.
Marina, Kristien, Anita and Maria were inspired by the challenges and fears that can emerge when sharing a common living space, expressing in this work the desire and the need for a harmonious cohabitation.
As a visual metaphor, they have chosen a bamboo structure of a simple building, octagonal in shape, with four entrances and four walls. The vertical planes, like walls, act as a diaphragm dividing inside from outside and intersect with the corresponding horizontal plane, replicating our human condition: living beings in an upright position, as communicating elements between heaven and earth.
Each artist connects the horizontal plane that touches the ground with the one touching the sky with her vertical wall, and in turn, interprets and interacts with one another’s vertical structures.

The images projected by Maria Korporal skim the sheer gauze fabric of Anita Guerra’s piece; the hexagonal mirrors by Kristien De Neve reflect part of the installation by Marina Buening that uses the selfies of the four artists involved. The different works, within their diversity, share the space of the common building, which assumes the autonomous value of a collective work.
At first glance the structure might seem complete, but it is conceived by the artists as a work in progress.
Some questions are left unanswered and the public is asked to interact: the building lacks the roof so that together we can decide whether it should be built or not. The octagonal installation could be the nucleus of a larger and more expanded structure built according to our will and our actions. It remains for us to decide whether to enter and join in, building a new collective work together.

Sala 1 – Centro Internazionale d’Arte Contemporanea
Piazza di Porta San Giovanni, 10 – 00185 Roma.
www.salauno.com

Images of the four artists’ walls:

Click here to see more of Maria Korporal’s contribution, “Walkabout”

 

Video of the opening:

NEWS:

From August 3 – September 2, 2018 there will be a new exhibition “Under Another Roof” in IA&A at Hillyer, Washington DC.
Read the article about the exhibition