CARE is RELATIONAL

The project ‘CARE: from periphery to centre’, combining commissioned, site specific art and material from the College Archive, was exhibited at Homerton College of the University of Cambridge between 15 and 28 October 2018. Part of the project remains permanently installed in the college, part is looked after in the college archive, and part is in the Moleskine Foundation Art Collection here .

It was discussed in an interview from 2019 with Ayla Van Der Boor in the context of the University of Utrecht’s managed Care Ethics Consortium (available here). Part of this is published in a limited edition catalogue CARE: from periphery to centre. Elena Cologni, with texts by historian of science Melanie Keene, educationalist Peter Cunningham, curator Gabi Scardi and care ethicist Virginia Held (here is the digital version of the catalogue)

The project highlighted Maud Cloudesley Brereton (formerly Maud Horobin, lecturer and Acting Principal, 1903), and Leah Manning (student 1906-08) as figures of international importance representing Homerton’s historic concern with and contributions to health, well-being, and education. A display of relevant items gave a snapshot of early 20th-century life in the College, while focusing on practices of care in society and in students’ learning, through subjects such as domestic studies, medicine, health, and physical education. These themes underpin my sculptural installation designed in response to the 1914 Ibberson Gymnasium (now the Combination Room), and echoed in the Queen’s Wing glass corridor and lawn.

During the exhibition the public was be able to attend the following accompanying events as part of Homerton 250 and the Cambridge Festival of Ideas:

Monday, 15 October: Tour and public opening of the installation, with artist Elena Cologni.

Wednesday, 17 October, 5.30-7.30PM: Workshop with artist Elena Cologni – CARE: Connecting Experiences

Friday, 19 October: Talk and workshop at Gibberd Art Gallery, Harlow

Sunday, 21 October, 2.00-5.30PM: Symposium – CARE: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

This event featured two panels on CARE in the early 20th century and CARE today. The first welcomed Peter Cunningham (Homerton College), Francesca Moore (Homerotn College), and Jessica Meyer (Leeds), and was chaired by Melanie Keene (Homerton College). The second was chaired by Philip Stephenson (Homerton College), and featured Elena Cologni, Gabi Scardi (Università Cattolica di Milano), and Peggy Watson (Homerton College).

Saturday, 27 October: Homerton 250 Festival, including a tour of the installation with artist Elena Cologni, and an opportunity to meet Archivist Svetlana Paterson.

RELATIONS OF CARE, ELENA COLOGNI (2018, PAIR OF MOBILE SCULPTURES, STEEL RODS, JUTE ROPES, 2.5 X 2.5 X 2 METRES EACH). Photographs courtesy of ARTUK.org. These are now on display on a permanent basis.

Care Proximities, Elena Cologni, installation view in front of the Ibberson Building, Homerton College, University of Cambridge (2018, installation including two sculptures and drawing on college lawn: wood + lawn marking paint, 20x100x0.5 meters)

Care Support, Elena Cologni, installation view in the Queen’s Wing veranda housing the new gym, Homerton College, University of Cambridge (2018/19, installation including three sculptures and frames: steel, 2.40×0.5×20 meters)

Documentation of the project, and presentation at Gibberd Gallery, Harlow (2018).

Mother’s Tools, (2018, compositions of 4: wood, steel, custom-made fabric labels, printing tools from the artists’ mother’s embroidery kit, 20 x 20 x 4 cm each). The labels read: CARE AS SUPPORT, RESPONSIVENESS TO NEED, PERSONS ARE RELATIONAL, UBUNTU.

Care Notes (motherhood), 2018, detail, graphite prints, pencil, laser print on paper on Moleskine Japanese album, with inserts of fabric. designs from the Architectural Review magazine, June 1939, 21cmX 120 cm).

Care Notes (architecture), 2018, detail, graphite prints, pencil, laser print on paper on Moleskine Japanese album, with inserts of fabric. designs from the Architectural Review magazine, June 1939, 21cmX 120 cm). Courtesy of Moleskin Art Collection.

Care Is Relational, and Care Instructions, (2018, 2 from series of woven labels, the first of which is inspired by Virginia Held’s writings, and the latter by Maud Brereton’s revolutionary position at the time, that domestic labour should be paid)

The above were produced in the project CARE: from periphery to centre, 2018

in collaboration with:

Virginia Held (philosopher, New York City University)

Gabi Scardi (Curator and Author, Milan Italy)

THE 250 ARCHIVE WORKING GROUP

Peter Cunningham (educationalist and social historian) Melanie Keene (historian of science) Svetlana Paterson (archivist)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

University College London Library; Cambridge University Library; The Harlow Art Trust: Gibberd Gallery, Harlow. The project is part of Cambridge Festival of Ideas, was commissioned by Homerton College, and is kindly supported by the Moleskine Foundation.

Un-Spatializing. A Geography of Difference Through Caring

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Un-Spatializing. A Geography of Difference Through Caring

(sound + tracing paper + graph paper + graphite), CAA Chicago, US (2020)

Un-Spatializing. A Geography of Difference Through Caring. Elena Cologni performing (ph. by Basia Sliwinska)

Un-Spatializing. A Geography of Difference Through Caring, graphite, tracing paper, graph paper (21×28 cm)

The performance was presented as part of ‘Ecologies of Care: Feminist Activism’, curated by Basia Sliwinska, CAA Chicago, US (2020). This also included the papaers: ‘From Self-Help Mirrors to the Surveilled Self: Feminist Video and Healthcare Activism in the 1970s, by Helena Shaskevich (Graduate Center, CUNY); ‘Reclaiming Lost Histories in Lyrical Form’ by Carron P. Little (School of the Art Institute of Chicago); ‘Honey Pot Performance’s Black Feminist Praxis: Embodiments of Collaboration & Collectivity’ by Meida Teresa McNeal (Honey Pot Performance).

The performance also addresses a constant in my work and research investigating our relationship with place(s). Related presentations and publications include:

Cologni, E. (2022). Curare (con) nello spazio pubblico, in Sofferenze Urbane, L’abitare in tempo di crisi. Ed Menichini, D., Medas, B. Edizioni ETS, Pisa, Italy

Cologni, E. (2020). ‘Prendersi cura (con) e distanziamento fisico’. In Scali Urbani conference, Livorno, Italy

Cologni, E., (2019) ‘Intraplaces: Ecofeminism, Care, and Spatialized Art’, in Spatial Dialogues in Feminism panel with Guillen, Melinda, and Villarroel, Fernanda Isobel. 107TH CAA Annual Conference, New York

Cologni, E., On Care, and Finding the Cur(v)e. A Geometry of Difference Through Caring, two-part workshop in The Paradox European Fine Art biennial forum Art Future / Future Signs The future of contemporary fine art research and education 2019 in Riga, Latvia (programme)

Cologni, E., Practices of care in the city as ecofeminist and spatialized art, Critical Practice in an Age of Complexity – An Interdisciplinary Critique of the Built Environment. The University of Arizona, USA.

The Body of/at Work

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The Body of/at Work

The Body of/at Work, Elena Cologni, Piazza San Marco, Venice, 2021

The Body of/at Work series of situated interventions was premiered at resilient communities, Italian Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, on 5th June 2021 in conjunction with the exhibition Elena Cologni. Pratiche di cura, o del cur(v)are, curator Gabi Scardi May 17 – July 4, 2021, at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Palazzetto Tito, Venice

This is part of an ongoing project including a series of public interventions (and relevant publications). These take place in different locations referring to the social history of places and architecture of women labour in relation to cloth, mostly in preindustrial times, when the body was central to labour. These places include laundries and washhouses, and factories, but also public spaces where some of these works took place. The project looks at including: the concept of the threshold between public and private; the relationship with places of labour; the body as a measuring instrument.

The details of which can be found here https://elenacologni.com/projects/the-body-of-at-work/

Morning Toilette

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Morning Toilette, at Tate Modern, London (2001)

Morning Toilette, Elena Cologni, 2001 (Video Live Installation, sills from installation view , left, from pre-recorded video, right),Tate Modern, London

Morning Toilette, Elena Cologni, 2002 (5 monitor video installation), Lethaby Gallery, London

Morning Toilette was first presented in a format that I defined as Video Live Installation, at Tate Modern, in the context of a ‘Fine Art Research Network’ (FARN) event: ‘Experience of Space’ on 19th March 2001.

From my PhD thesis:

In this work, the action of washing the face applying make-up, a ritual in a woman’s daily routine. I documented the action on five mornings and, although I have not timed myself, the shots are similar in length, between 12 and 14 minutes. I then started to look at the recordings and noticed the little differences in the same pattern of the acts constituting my quotidian morning toilette. The first set of acts a rewashing the face, applying tonic lotion and moisturising cream, brushing teeth; the second set of acts are applying make-up on the skin and the mouth. Focusing on such ordinary actions repeated everyday in front of the mirror – here replaced by the camera- made me consider the relationship between myself and the image of myself that I see mirrored while applying the mask and also what to repete an action means.

…

Performance to me is a symbolic and cathartic action which can be read at different levels, but the result of which depends on its genuinety…

The repetition of a performance so far has always been a different experience for me who was interacting with a different environment or audience, but while performing I was also detaching myself from the environment and getting in touch with my inner side. As a consequence, the performance worked to me because I felt that it had an effect on myself and therefore the audience […]’

Cologni, E (PhD thesis, 2004) The artist’s performative practice within the anti-ocularcentric discourse

University of the Arts London

ISNI: 0000 0001 3560 8938

https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.413242

…AND ENCOUNTER

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…AND ENCOUNTER

by Elena Cologni

curator Eliza Gluckman, assistants Maria Azcoitia and Seana Wilson

Women’s Art Collection (then New Hall Art Collection) at Murray Edwards College of the University of Cambridge

20 October 2017- 7th of January 2018

This was one of the outcomes of the project Seeds of Attachment developed in collaboration with Prof Susan Golombok, then Director of the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, and Dr Robbie Duschinsky Head of the Applied Social Science Group, University of Cambridge.

Exhibition view

45C5F671-AC0F-4301-A11D-4139F7F842C8

Margaret Lowenfeld Mosaic Test
Box (1938) book and record forms (1954)
Courtesy Margaret Lowenfeld Library, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge

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339282.580645 Barleycorns Away…
Installation: collages on paper, wooded shelves and fabric

Untitled (Prop) , Plywood and fabric, 100 x 100 x 2 cm closed / 200×300 cm open

During a residency at the Margaret Lowenfeld Library, Centre for Family Research University of Cambridge, to devise a strategy for engagement, artist Elena Cologni developed a nomadic and dialogic sculpture inspired by the Margaret Lowenfeld’s Mosaic Test box and related book (1954). The prop was used in a series of encounters in the city over the period of a year under the umbrella project Seeds of Attachment.

The exhibition … And Encounter marks the conclusion of the project in the UK, and includes the sculpture, together with traces of the process in the form of drawings, collages, and constructions.

Cologni’s artistic research and interdisciplinary approach explored the bond between parent and child, in relation to the experience of place attachment.

While Cologni set out to investigate the emotional, psycho-geographical condition of motherhood, the work also highlighted the crucial role of non-linguistic forms of dialogue at the core of processes of identity construction, and in relation to place.

The exhibition includes traces of the process adopted by the artist and the nomadic dialogic sculpture inspired by the Margaret Lowenfeld’s Mosaic Test box and book (1954), also on view, courtesy of the Lowenfeld Library, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge. The prop was used in a series of encounters in the city over the period of a year under the umbrella project ‘Seeds of Attachment‘.

Also New Hall Collection Curator Eliza Gluckman oversaw Assistant Curators Maria Azcoitia and Seana Wilson selecting works from the collection, specifically to contextualise Cologni’s project into ecofeminism. Looking to ideas of ecology, the mother, place and identity, on display are pieces by Monica Sjoo, Judith Tucker, Mary Cassatt, Celia Paul.

Further material: video essay by Cologni on research background here and 8 minutes interview with Phil Sansom here

Exhibition events include

Nomadic and Dialogic: Art and Ecofeminism, New Hall Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge

20 October 2017

The round table, part of the Festival of Ideas in Cambridge , was chaired by New Hall Curator Eliza Gluckman, with artist Elena Cologni, author Susan Buckingham and Murray Edwards’ fellow Jenny Bavidge. It positions motherhood in relation to ecofeminism, ‘deep’ environmentalism, the caring role devalued in neo-liberal societies, to discuss the space between us, inter-corporeal space, micropolitics and haptic communication. (Edited video recording available here)

Attachment & Intraplaces: Discussing a Nomadic and Dialogic Approach in Spatialized Art Practice, Freud Museum, London

Artist Talk by Elena Cologni introduced by Curator Jamie Reurs on 21 January, 2018

Plate No. 11, Elena Cologni (2017/18), from the series Intraplaces

On the research background of Cologni’s artistic project Seeds of Attachment, which looks into the attachment between parent and child (Ainsworth, 1973; Bowlby, 1969; Freud, A.,1967) as crucial to place attachment (Seamon, D., 2013). We get attached to a place through our attachment to our family (Gordon Jack, 2010), but how troubling can it be to be detached from a place and our loved ones (Bowlby, 1998)?

Cologni attempts to investigate this through the adoption of a nomadic (Braidotti) and dialogic sculpture though a non-verbal approach, she designed based on the principles of the Margaret Lowenfeld Mosaic Box (1954). Aspects of this process were exhibited at New Hall Art Collection at Murray Edwards College of the University of Cambridge, for which she developed the series ‘Intraplaces’.

Intraplaces: Dialogues without words, Freud Museum, London

Elena Cologni facilitates an active engagement, followed by a discussion with ecofeminist geographer Susan Buckingham, 15 September 2018

Cologni has previously discussed at the Freud Museum the research background of her artistic project ‘Seeds of Attachment’ (2016/18), looking into the attachment between parent and child (Freud, A.,1967; Ainsworth, 1973; Bowlby, 1969) as crucial to place attachment (Seamon, D., 2013). Cologni brings the dialogic sculpture into the museums gardens to facilitate its activation with participants and to discuss its possible implications with Buckingham. This is done by considering issues of ecology, feminism and place, ad to ground the definition of ‘Intraplaces’.

The active engagement at the Freud Museum concludes a series of encounters in London’s public spaces, the implications of which are then discussed with author Susan Buckingham, whose research and publications address gender and environmental issues.

Museum Curator Jamie Reurs wrote:

Seeds of Attachment is timely because it transcends the difficulties and bypasses issues of misunderstanding. The artwork seems to acknowledge the gendered nature of language by accenting a different way of bonding. We are not bound to the rules of language, we are not limited by culture or geography. Language can be linked to a geographical place or a certain culture and, as we have seen, it is limited by the gendered social order. This detail of Seeds of Attachment, seemingly minute is representative of major themes in the work.

Seeds of Attachment, humble in its make-up, is a sophisticated example of the visual arts transcending the confines of language. It possesses a universality that transgresses the social order and the gender bias of this discourse. It is capable of evoking more than what is said, written, emailed or texted. Instead, you feel it, you experience it, and it is liberating.

Relevant background

Cologni’s in(ter)disciplinary research approach with a consistent interest in artist/audience/participant relational and perceptual dynamics has been centered around memory in the present for sometime, and in collaboration with academics (psychology, philosophy, cognitive science). Relevant projects include Present Memory and Liveness in Delivery and Reception of Video Documentation During Perfornance Art Events (AHRC funded 2004/06) in collaboration with Thomas Suddendorf, on ideas of mirror self-recognition using video delays; based on same issues, RE-MOVED, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow (ACE funded 2008); GEOMEMOS, Yorkshire Scukpture Park (ACE 2009); rockfluid in collaboration with Prof Lisa Saksida, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, when a more specific interest in place in relation to memory is addressed, including the live installation Spa(e)cious (Wysing Arts Centre, MK Gallery, Bergamo Scienza) related to James Williams’ concept of Specious Present (various Arts Council England grants 2011/); more recently Lived Dialectics, Movement and Rest at MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, was developed in dialogue with David Seamon and on place attachment (discussed at the Leonardo Laser series of talks in London).

prizes

The ROYAL SOCIETY FOR PUBLIC HEALTH (RSPH) in collaboration with the Royal Society of Sculptors awards Elena Cologni with the fist prize of ‘The Shape of the Public’s Health’ (2019) for the sculpture untitled (prop) in Seeds of Attachment !!!, details in the link

Dr Ranjita Dhital, Committee member of the RSPH Arts, Health and Wellbeing Special Interest Group states:

‘Elena Cologni’s award winning sculpture Prop, seeds of attachment expresses the importance of space in public health. Particularly spaces which promotes meaningful communication about both the physical and emotional aspects of health. The vibrant purple and its soft sheen fabric are inviting and draws you into its positive energy.’

exhibitions

Project statements section show in PARALLEL VIENNA Sept. 24th–29th curated by Gulsen Bal and Walter Seidl Open Space, Vienna

‘The Shape of the Public’s Health’ prize show at ROYAL SOCIETY FOR PUBLIC HEALTH with the other shortlisted artists including Steve Hines and Lucy Glenndining, details in the link

PARALLEL LINES: Drawing and Sculpture, group show curators Jo Baring and Caroline Worthington (The Ingram Collection + Royal Society of Sculptors), 22 June – 25 August 2019, The Lightbox, Woking.

conferences/presentations/workshops

On Care, And Finding The Cur(V)E. A Geography of Difference Through Caring, performance, in Ecologies of Care: Feminist Activism panel curator Basia Sliwinskal, 108TH CAA ANNUAL CONFERENCE, Chicago, February 12–15, 2020

On Care, and Finding the Cur(v)e. A Geometry of Difference Through Caring, two-part workshop in The Paradox European Fine Art Biennial forum Art Future / Future Signs 2019 in Riga, Latvia, program

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Prof Susan Golombok Director Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, and Dr Robbie Duschinsky Head of the Applied Social Science Group, University of Cambridge, who supported and advised on the scientific aspect of the project. Thanks to New Hall Collection Curator Eliza Gluckman for her incredible support, Maria and Seanna, and the participants for having entrusted the artist with their invaluable input.

‘Seeds of Attachment’ is funded by Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England.

It was supported by Art Language Location, Anglia Ruskin University; Lowenfeld Library, Centre for Family Research University of Cambridge; New Hall Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge; Eleanor Glanville Research Centre, University of Lincoln; Freud Museum London.

images courtesy of New Hall Collection at Murray Edwards College of the University of Cambridge, and the Margaret Lowenfeld Library, Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge

U VERRUZZE’ (BALANCING)

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U VERRUZZE’ (BALANCING)

DOPPELGAENGER 7/27 March 2014

including drawings, sculptures and a textile installation

From the press release

Balancing is the second phase of a site specific project developed in the context Radio Materiality, curated by cultural association Vessel in Bari in the summer of 2013. For the latter, the artist engaged through dialogues with mums living and working in the city, instrumental for an investigation into the sociological aspect of the notion of trust. The dialogues, translated in a collection of sound documents, have been presented at the Athens Biennale in 2013. The second phase, brings various elements of the project together as a performative installation. The artist has realized ten custom made wooded spin tops with a graphite finished point. The spintop – in the local jargon ‘Virruzzo’ – better than any other object represents a tension towards an alterable balance, never still, just like the one between a mother and her own child. The public will be able to participate in the performance as a game, allowing the spintops to draw their journey down a fabric made slide Cologni will construct on the two flights of the staircase in the Gallery. The project Balancing is manifestation of, and search for, equilibrium at the same time. It points at a social realm in constant evolution, where that very balance becomes unstable and precarious. Within this context mothers act as axes of rotation for taking history forward in new terms

CONTEXT

Balancing is based on a series of dialogues between Elena Cologni and mothers based in Bari. The project’s research was part of Vessel’s curatorial and artistic process of investigation Radio Materiality, started in 2012. At the heart of this is the European Mediterranean area, with the geopolitical and social dynamics. The Apulia region, more specifically Bari, is the starting point for a dialogue expanding on notions of sameness, proximity, conflicts and distances. A project opening up through narratives and alternative self referential stories, other’s voices at times discordant with the dominating discourse: voices of women, mothers, migrants, and from diverse sexual orientation too. All of these define a multi-centric and fragmentary landscape. The radio thus becomes a metaphor for a collective of diverse voices from individuals. This happens within a process of re-appropriation of the discourse and the ‘word’ therein, the very concept of expressing oneself

PUBLICATIONS

Balancing (Catalogue), Doppelgaenger Gallery, 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

The project was supported by Arts Council of England, and VESSEL, Bari. The exhibition has been sponsored by Carvico SPA (www.carvico.com)

MNEMONIC PRESENT, UN-FOLDING

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Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding #3, 2005, video live installation (3 projectors + 1 live video feed+ 2 video delay video feed + 3 screens + paper + 2 trestles) Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy

This is one of the two versions of the piece presented in 9 venues, and part of the project PRESENT MEMORY AND LIVENESS IN DELIVERY AND RECEPTION OF VIDEO DOCUMENTATION DURING PERFORMANCE ART EVENTS, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and conducted as post doctoral Research Fellow at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London.

Dealing with the presentness of memory through recollection in relation to technology long before today’s technology forces us to do so.

List of the Performances

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 1, ‘Performance Studies international # 11, Becoming Uncomfortable’, Brown University, Providence, RI (USA), 2005.

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 2, ‘International Conference Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts’, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK, 2005.

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 3, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAMeC), Bergamo Italy, 2005

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 4, proposal per PARIP, Breton Hal Leeds University

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 5, ‘Diverse Attitudini’, a cura di BOArt, Villa delle Rose, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Bologna, Italy, 2005.

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 6, ‘Transversalities: crossing disciplines, cultures and identities’, Departments of Film, Theatre & Television and Fine Art, University of Reading, 2005.

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 7, ‘Warmhole Saloon’, curator Joel Cahen, Whitechapel Art Gallery London, 2006.

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 8, in ‘Wonderful (Ibiscus section)’, Trieste, Italy, curator Maria Campitelli, June 2006

Mnemonic Present, Un-Folding # 9, Tapra Conference, Central School of Speech and Drama, London, October 2006

THE PIECE

action: I fold the paper, stop, recollect and describe places I lived in

projections: the three projections are live feed with a progression of 8 second delay

CONTEXT

…. #3 was presented and supported by Alessandro Rabottini and presented by Giacinto di Pietrantonio, then Director of the GAMeC Museum, who stated

‘Her work, combining various techniques and artistic practices, aims at analying the relationship between memory and past not only through the use of the sense of sight, but also trying to stimulate the multiplicity of the senses of our body, referring to the totality of the human being. A human being looking for the sense of life within the places of life, places activated or re-activated through art. In this sense, she belongs to that thread of research proposed by artists like Bruce Nauman, whom, in the relationship technique-body-action-psyche, wants to understand the essence of beings within a world where there is the need to reactivate archaic energies and react to the superficial society of spectacle’

EXTRACT

Performance Transcript (translation from Italian)

The spoken text (as is all following italics) alternates with the action:

the main entrance with a glass door and steel, the yellow glass door

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

As I walk in on the right a staircase two flights

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

Walking up the stairs, on the right a door to the bedrooms, through the door on the left a bedroom, on the right another one, on the left the bathroom and in front of me a bedroom

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

With an orange carpet, two beds very low in relation to this massive white wardrobe with golden reliefs

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

That wardrobe, before going to bed at night, would get enormous and I had the impression of it being like a wideangled photograph falling over me, it isn probably just a dream, and not even so

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

My bed was next to the window, my sister’s close to the door

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

Norsi Isola D’elba

At the top of the stairs a door to the left, as I walk in on the right the living room

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

Where the was a sofabed on the right the television, a table in the middle, a small balcony in front of it, then going tot eh left a room with two ..beds, three of us used to sleep in there

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

Walking out of our room on the left there was a bathroom and ahead my parents’ room with awindow onto the balcony with a beautiful seaview

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

77th Street Upper East Side

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

A three floor townhouse, walking in there is a staircase in front going tot the first floor, on the right hand side the entrance door,

As I walk in there is a large empty space, a folding bed in the corner, in front of me a door tp a bedroom without the bed and there is a bathroom,

on the left of this room there is a bowindow connected to the upper floor from where you can look down

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

This large room have green walls and to walk up to the upper floor one has to go out and walk up stairs where there is another big room which I believe is now the living room

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

I can’t remember the walls’ colour

Entering through the main door of the upper floor in front of it there is the kitchen,

a lot of space, my own space is tiny

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

Lincoln Square

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

A very tall building, as I walk in I go straight to the elevator andto the 8th floor, out of the elevator: on the right the main door, walking in on the left the very small kitchen with things I don’t know and in front the living room with a sofabed and a table for eating

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

On the left, no on the right of the hallway there is a bedroom with roughly half a metre around the bed and on the left…. there is the bathroom with shower curtains with ehhm… the shower has got a transparent plastic shower curtains with little fish and sea waves

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

Warren Street, Warren Street

A five floor townhouse with no lift, as I walk in the staircase is… red carpeted, walking up to the fifth floor, the door on the right, very small corridor, the first door on the left is the, the first on the right is a studio and bedroom,the second on the right is my bedroom, in i ton the left there is a fitted wardrobe with no doors, but a curtain hiding what’s behind, on the right a comfortable bed, and two windows overlooking the street, very noisy, walking out there is a living room with a kitchen

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

…a little old

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

Going back to my room from the living room and on the left there is a bookcase and two stones: one is a quartz and the other has got a blur which looks like a sunflower

Action: folding the stripe of paper from either sides

The above extracts are from the following Book

Cologni, E, ed, Mnemonic Present, Shifting Meaning, Mercurio Edizioni, Vercelli, 2009, introduction by Helena Blaker, texts from Amelia Jones, Kelina Gotman, Andrea Lissoni, Giacinto DiPietrantonio, Aurelio Andrighetto, Lib Taylor

further publications

Cologni, E. (2005).Fruition: perceptual time ‘gap’ as location for knowledge – Mnemonic Present Un-folding, Perspective section of Body, Space & Technology, (05)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Arts and Humanities Research Council (Grant for Creative and Performing Arts)

AUTORITRATTO – IN ASSENZA

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performance-for-camera,
action 1out of 3(1’36”), 3 stills from DVD, 30×40 each;
London 2004.

part of the exhibition LA POLVERE NELL’ARTE,
Curator Elio Grazioli,
Assab One, Milan, Italy,
July 2004 with artists:
MARINA BALLO CHARMET, VINCENZO CABIATI, GIANLUCA CODEGHINI, ELENA COLOGNI, GIULIO LACCHINI, MARCELLO MALOBERTI, EVA MARISALDI, AMEDEO MARTEGANI, PIERPAOLO PAGANO, LUCA PANCRAZZI, LUCA MARIA PATELLA, FRANCESCO SIMETI, LUCA VITONE, ITALO ZUFFI.

weblink

METTERE OGNI SIGNIFICATO…

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METTERE OGNI SIGNIFICATO SOTTO-SOPRA, DIETRO-DAVANTI, ALTO-BASSO

”Turn every meaning upside down, inside out, back to front.”

video live installation, 2006 (typewriter+ tracing paper+ videocamera+ 2 projectors + live delay system)

in Dissertare/Disertare, curators Associazione START, Gaia Cianfanelli & Caterina Iaquinta, at Centro Internazionale per l’Arte Contemporanea, Castello Colonna di Genazzano, Roma, June/September 2006

Artists: Elisabetta Alberti, Alessandra Andrini, Elisabeth Aro, Atrium Project, Fabrizio Basso, Sara Basta, Bianco&Valente, Annalisa Cattani, Silvia Cini, Elena Cologni, Francesca Cristellotti, Simona Di Lascio, Christine De La Garenne, Simonetta Fadda, Mariana Ferratto, Valentina Glorioso, Ulrike Gruber, Alice Guareschi, Goldiechiari, Koroo, Lorenza Lucchi Basili, Sabrina Marotta, Libera Mazzoleni, Amanda McGregor, Dessislava Mineva, Motaria, Sabrina Muzi, Sandrine Nicoletta, Valentina Noferini, Anita Timea Oravecz, Paola Paloscia, Benedetta Panisson, Laurina Paperina, Arianna Pecchia Ramacciotti, Chiara Pergola, Luana Perilli, Maria Vittoria Perrelli, Michela Pozzi, Giada Giulia Pucci, Moira Ricci, Cloti Ricciardi, Francesca Riccio, Fiorella Rizzo, Stefania Romano, Anna Rossi, Ivana Russo, Nika Rukavina, Erica Sagona, Lucrezia Salerno, Guendalina Salini, Maria Salvati, Monica Stemmer, Federica Tavian, Adriana Torregrossa, Francesca Tusa, Sophie Usurier, Marta Valenti, Marcella Vanzo, Anna Visani, Elisa Vladilo, Cristina Zamagni.

THE PIECE

Sitting down at one end of the bridge I write on a piece of paper as long at the whole bridge (about 30 meters), using a typewriter. I transcribe from my breastfeeding diary recordings, reawakening memories of the attachment to my baby back then. The live video is played back through two projections indoors: one is live and the other is delayed by 8 seconds.

I then stated ‘The piece refers to my interest the time in live documentation of performance, its reception and processes of memory construction’.

‘November 2004, 2.00. I get up, and go to his room because he is crying, he has eaten from both breasts and has fallen asleep immediately afterwards

2 30. I go back to bed to sleep. I sleep on my side, towards the edge of the bed, next to the door. So, I’ll be quick

5.50. He rumbles. He’s not crying yet. Maybe he’ll go back to sleep….

6.00. He Cries. He’s hungry. I go to his room and feed him from both breasts. He falls asleep on me. I try to put him to bed. Maybe he continues for a while. No way. I put him into his cot to fully wake him up with his things. He’s getting used to his music box and the pictures behind the bed, which he probably sees as blurry shades. Then I turn on the music box and he smiles at me. […]’

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND

(the curators referring to the project in the book below)

PUBLICATIONS

Jill Fields (2012), Entering the Picture: Judy Chicago, The Fresno Feminist Art Program, and the Collective Visions of Women Artists, Routledge, page 303

This was also presented and an extract performed on 27 January 2023 after a long time, within my #feminist #careaesthetics input in the context of ‘Maternity and Care’ at Drew University (NY) in a colloquium for Medical Humanities and Health organised and chaired by the brilliant Merel Visse and with the amazing care ethicist Prof Inge van Nistelrooij and Melanie Miller (lactation educator).

this performance was discussed as part of the colloquium:

in Cologni, E., Towards a Feminist Care Aesthetics (in progress), in Maternity & Care
a Medical and Health Humanities colloquium with Professor Inge van Nistelrooij and Melanie Miller (MA IBCLC), lactation educator and doctoral student, chaired by Merel Visse, Medical Humanities Director, Drew University.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Soprintendenza alla Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

more here

ANCORA CERCA

Posted on by ecologni@gmail.com

1999, site specific mediatised performance, National Portrait Gallery, London (still from one out of eight cameras recordings)

Eight channel Installation at Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia 2002, Curator Enrico Depascale

THE PIECE

The screen of the monitors is a meeting point for myself artist and audiences in this following work, marked by a continuous change of position from in front and behind it. In the making of the piece Ancora Cerca, I was able to experiment with cctv systems, issues of documentation and time as well as self-representation. The work was performed at National Portrait Gallery, NPG, London 12-14 March 1999 and presented as an 8-monitor video installation at the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia, Italy, between the 6 and 24 April 2002. For this piece I worked with the existing video security system of the gallery. After having done some research on the ideal location for the performance within the space, I looked at the monitors to which the video-cameras would send the captured video information and made notes.

Cologni, E.,

Floor plans of the top floor of the NPG with notes for production, 1999

‘…room 17-cam.24 -coming from18-stop between sculpture and entrance-watch camera; room 19- cam25 – stop watch camera between glass case and sculpture; room21-cam26 – standing behind sculpture watching camera; room 22-cam 28- walking from 21 in the middle and out; room 18- sitting on sofa…’. This enabled me to visualise the space from the viewpoint of the cameras – the space I would physically enter while performing. The performance took place on the 12^th of March, the recording of it from the documentation on the 14^th.

12 March – performance: I would stage an encounter with the warden watching the surveillance monitors in the NPG, by walking towards it and watching the video-camera of each chosen room. As I address the camera in each room, I become a ‘picture’ in the gallery, yet the camera, fantasised as the Gaze of the Other is also, as it were, ‘pictured’ as the spectator sees me imaging what it is seeing and giving myself the things I lack and are looking for (meaning of ancora cerca).

14 March – video recording: I went back two days after (as required by the gallery for security reasons) and played back the tapes that were stored. I was surprised to find that the system reduced the footage by half, so that not all frames were kept. As a result the quality of the recording was poor. However, I placed the video camera in front of the screen to record the half an hour of the performance from each of the monitors: the recording of the action went through a number of filters. In the resulting video, the viewers see the evidence of the performance through the ‘eye’ of these surveillance cameras, that have videoed me walking from room to room barefoot, clad in a beige dress, and evoking a romantic spirit of the gallery by carrying a red rose. The spectators, at this stage positioned as the camera when watching the surveillance video or see stills from it, are pictured by myself as I look at the camera. The spectators project what I might have seen from my vantage point in the gallery space. In this gallery dedicated to the construction of identity through picturing it, this performance makes the deep structures of that identity construction emerge, so we all become aware of how much both the artist and the spectator never fully or comfortably, inhabit the illusory space of identification.

Cologni, E. That spot in the ‘moving picture’ is you, (perception in time-based art), in Blood, Sweat & Theory: Research through Practice in Performance ed. John Freeman, Libri Publishing, London, 2010, pp. 83-107

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

National Portrait Gallery, London

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London