Press release
Spazio Thetis: A new chapter in the art project Contaminante at the Arsenal
31 August 2011 – On Friday, 23 September at 17:00 an intriguing new chapter of the project Contaminante – Per il Pensiero che sarà, which combines various art forms including installations, performances and music, will open at Spazio Thetis in the Arsenale Novissimo.
Umbrian artist Angela Occhipinti, performers VestAndPage along with German violinist Stefan Knies, and Austrian composer Gerhard Krammer will offer a reinterpretation of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt's work and his metaphysical relationship with the world. Angela Occhipinti will also present her new book-journal, marking the occasion with the donation of a sculpture created specifically for Thetis’ grounds.
The theme of the event on 23 September is the idea of the journey, viewed as an experience and source of growth for mankind. The life of Liszt is presented as an Album d'un voyageur, beginning with his childhood in Hungary and ending with his stays in different European capitals of the era, where he spent varying amounts of time studying and researching, as well as having life experiences that were subsequently interwoven into the fabric of his work.
Two of the artistic offerings at Spazio Thetis – the works of Angela Occhipinti and the performances of VestAndPage – incorporate the Faustian symbol of the modern soul, which took Johann Wolfgang von Goethe sixty years to develop.
Angela Occhipinti’s Partiture Nomadi are installations suspended from the ceiling, belying the alchemical laws of nature. They feature the angel who, at the end of Goethe’s play, explains the reason why Faust was saved – his continual longing for the eternal, reaching towards ideals having an ever-higher moral, social, and cultural level.
For the duo VestAndPage, Faust represents not merely a recapitulation of philosophical knowledge, but rather a compendium of tragic defeat and self-destruction. VestAndPage, in collaboration with German violinist Stefan Knies, perform Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, which was inspired by the Faust of nineteenth-century poet Nikolaus Lenau.
The third work is by composer Gerhard Krammer, who is Lisztian in his life and his music. His piece Appezam is a temporal inversion of the sequences of Liszt’s Etude Mazeppa, the fourth of the “Etudes d'exécution transcendante”, inspired by a story by Victor Hugo.
The event, sponsored by the Veneto Region, the Province of Venice and the City of Venice, is being organized by the group TheSeven and hosted by Thetis. Image is coordinated by ADV Ideazione, Studio Didot and Taob, Milan. A bilingual catalogue-guide of the entire project is scheduled to be released in December 2011, in collaboration with Skira Editore.
The theme of the event on 23 September is the idea of the journey, viewed as an experience and source of growth for mankind. The life of Liszt is presented as an Album d'un voyageur, beginning with his childhood in Hungary and ending with his stays in different European capitals of the era, where he spent varying amounts of time studying and researching, as well as having life experiences that were subsequently interwoven into the fabric of his work.
Two of the artistic offerings at Spazio Thetis – the works of Angela Occhipinti and the performances of VestAndPage – incorporate the Faustian symbol of the modern soul, which took Johann Wolfgang von Goethe sixty years to develop.
Angela Occhipinti’s Partiture Nomadi are installations suspended from the ceiling, belying the alchemical laws of nature. They feature the angel who, at the end of Goethe’s play, explains the reason why Faust was saved – his continual longing for the eternal, reaching towards ideals having an ever-higher moral, social, and cultural level.
For the duo VestAndPage, Faust represents not merely a recapitulation of philosophical knowledge, but rather a compendium of tragic defeat and self-destruction. VestAndPage, in collaboration with German violinist Stefan Knies, perform Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, which was inspired by the Faust of nineteenth-century poet Nikolaus Lenau.
The third work is by composer Gerhard Krammer, who is Lisztian in his life and his music. His piece Appezam is a temporal inversion of the sequences of Liszt’s Etude Mazeppa, the fourth of the “Etudes d'exécution transcendante”, inspired by a story by Victor Hugo.
The event, sponsored by the Veneto Region, the Province of Venice and the City of Venice, is being organized by the group TheSeven and hosted by Thetis. Image is coordinated by ADV Ideazione, Studio Didot and Taob, Milan. A bilingual catalogue-guide of the entire project is scheduled to be released in December 2011, in collaboration with Skira Editore.
Exhibition hours: Until 30 October 2011, Monday to Friday, from 10:00 to 18:00
Spazio Thetis
Castello Arsenale – Bacini stop
Lines 41-42, 51-52
PRESS OFFICE
The Seven Public Relations
Knowledge Management Office and Press Office
Thetis SpA
tel. 041 2406111
fax 041 5210292
www.thetis.it
Contact: Giannandrea Mencini
mobile 347 2823781
Michela Raccanello
Orange PR – Gruppo REM
tel. 0432 179 33 50
fax 0432 179 33 60
Alberto Rochira
mobile 347 3354320
Anna Maria Toldo
Artist biographies and photos can be downloaded from the FTP server:
ftp://ftp.thetis.it
User: Contaminante_SpazioThetis
Password: Thetis2011