DIS – APPearance

2023

performance
basin, unbaked clay figure, water

My performance is a simple action: holding a basin containing water motionless with an unbaked clay figure. The performance lasts as long as it takes for the water to wet the uncooked clay and dissolve the statue of the Madonna. The image changes slowly and forces the observer to exercise patience, especially today when one is accustomed to a quick consumption of images thanks to social media.

This performance dates back a few years ago as a comment on power i.c. religious power. The action was a comment on the Marian apparitions (among the most recent the one still present in Medjugorie in Bosnia-Herzegovina) and on the power exercised by the church in recognizing these apparitions for its own advantage. It is the first time that I performe this action in a place originally dedicated to religious worship and this makes it more interesting to record the reactions, both from me and from the public. 

(Credits photographs: Osvaldo Heredia)

Public exhibitions:

BEELD EN STORM in de Oosterkerk (2022)
Oosterkerk, Amsterdam.

(link to the event )

EXCHANGE MADE LIVE (2014) 
(collaborative work in progress – Royal College of London & Master Artistic research The Hague)
Walden Affaire project space, The Hague  

(link to the event at the Royal College of London)

See my other work

Pierfrancesco Gava

Atelier
Wilhelmina Pakhuis
Veemkade 596
1019BL Amsterdam

Phone: +31(0)6 41681139
Email: pierf_gava@hotmail.com

Want me to get back to you? :)

Contact Form