My artistic practice has always been focused on the relationship between religion and power, using video-installations and sculptures. I’m interested in the manifestation of the secular power of religion and in the blurred boundaries between the public performances enacted by political and religious leaders in the media.
Contemporary media images, spread by political or religious leaders, are conceived to gain popularity and to increase power. How does the media confer power to a leader? And what is the role of the audience in giving power to him?
I’m interested in the strategies with which institutions, as politics and religion, use the public contemporary media to influence public opinion, that in return legitimate the leader’s power through consensus: the support given to a leader by the applause of a yelling crowd, legitimize the power of the performing person. According to Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, power is given to leaders by acclamation (cheering and applauding masses). He states that public opinion is the modern form of acclamation which is a powerful tool that survive in modern society from early christianity and roman empire.
Through the footage of the last meeting of Barak Obama and Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2014 and the Pope’s speech given to the European parliament on the 25th of november 2014, I investigated the blurred boundaries between the sacred and secularized strategies used in the media. The religious institution shares the same media technique with many other areas of modern secular society, from politics, to entertainment to information. What are the different tasks of the religious and secularized institutions? Are they that different, or do they overlap and almost meld in to one another?
Selecting public footage of the meeting and accompanied them with the voice of a narrator, my video essay A Glorious society reveal the manipulative and staged nature of the public images, so that the viewer’s perception can be disturbed and be challenged. In my work I also question the value of leader’s speeches in relation to their voice and image. What gives power to the leader’s speech, his voice, the content of the speech or his image?
2022 – BEELD EN STORM, vijfdaags Kunst-festival, Oosterkerk Amsterdam
2022 – PAKHUIS WILHELMINA’S first BIENNALE, Wilhelmina Pakhuis Amsterdam
2021 – ARCHITECTURES OF NOISE, Oscillations between knowledge and realities, W139, Amsterdam (W139)
2018 PAKHUIS WILHELMINA VIERT FEEST – 30 JAAR, Open Atelier, Pakhuis Wilhelmina, Amsterdam. (Pakhuis Wilhelmina)
2017 PIERFRANCESCO GAVA – Artist talk, introduced by Marco Nember. ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE, Amsterdam in collaboration with STICHTING BLUE 439
2014 EXCHANGE MADE LIVE, ‘Live and in-situ collaborative work in progress'(Royal College of London & Master Artistic research The Hague)
Walden Affaire project space, The Hague (waldenaffairs.nl)
2014 EXCHANGE MADE LIVE, ‘Live and in-situ collaborative work in progress'(Royal College of London & Master Artistic research The Hague)
Walden Affaire project space, The Hague (waldenaffairs.nl)
2018 The Ongoing Conversation, publication of the conversation between Angel Orellana and Pierfrancesco Gava for the exhibition
The Ongoing Conversation 5#7 at the gallery 1646, The Hague. Published by the Gallery.
(The ongoing Conversation 5#7)
What gives power to the leader’s voice and consequently to the leader’s speech? The support given to a person by the applause of a yelling crowd, generate and legitimize his power. The acclamation of masses is the source of this power. In modern democracy, media is important because it allows control and governs public opinion and in this way distributes glory and therefore power. Leaders use the media to increase their popularity. Their continuous presence on the network make their image credible in viewer’s perception, conferring them with even the ‘divine’ quality of omnipresence. As a consequence, the viewer can accept without resistance their voice and their message. Since people possess the capacity to give power through acclamation, can the masses break this spell and regain their power?
2015 International Day of Peace, text by Jacob De Jonge, The Hague Peace Project.
(http://thehaguepeace.org/2015/10/09/international-day-of-peace-2015/)
2015 Mangiare (IL) bene, catalog exhibition at the SPAZIO ELICA, Milan, Italy. Publisher Capponi – Ascoli Piceno. (Review)
2015 Publication Graduation Show The Great Escape, text by Maziar Afrassiabi & Jack Segbars, publisher Andi Druk, Maastricht
2015 The Ongoing Conversation, publication of the conversation between Pierfrancesco Gava and Aernout Mik for the exhibition
The Ongoing Conversation 2#2 – In Principio erat Verbum at the gallery 1646, The Hague. Published by the Gallery. (The ongoing Conversation 2#2)
2010 Speaking things, Annelieke van Halen in ArtOlive J.T. XXL 2010, catalogue, Amsterdam.
2002 (nr.4), Jong Holland-Art magazine The contacts between J. Van Looy and Italian artists (graduation thesis)
Atelier
Wilhelmina Pakhuis
Veemkade 596
1019BL Amsterdam
Phone: +31(0)6 41681139
Email pierf_gava@hotmail.com