Projects for San Gimignano A Constructed World, 2000

In addition to the six artists who created works in the six different cities involved in the project, Arte all’Arte presents for its V edition a special project: the Australian artists Geoff Lowe & Jacqueline Riva, known as A Constructed World, propose a double intervention in San Gimignano.

"Since 1993, Jacqueline Riva and Geoff Lowe have been producing collaborative works under the name A Constructed World. Their projects aim to dissolve the boundaries between artist and audience, inside and outside, and even the publication of the magazine “Art-fan” is considered part of their project. In their works, they use video and other digital media, paintings, and performances that relate to the specific place where they are exhibited. They have participated in numerous international exhibitions including the Kwanjiu Biennale in Korea (1995) and the São Paulo Biennale in Brazil (1998).

Jacqueline Riva and Geoff Lowe, as a special project for Arte all’Arte, created the video installation History 3 in a room overlooking one of the most touristic streets of the city, creating a space where visitors are invited to enter and linger. The chosen location is the local headquarters of the Centro Studi sul Classicismo on via San Giovanni, which the duo transformed into a modern video room. Here, visitors are welcomed into a hospitable environment, full of cushions where they can sit and relax while browsing through magazines, images, and photographs available, choosing to watch their video, History 3. This video documents a performance by the artists in San Gimignano and its surroundings, reflecting on the concept of inhabiting different types of spaces. Precisely because of this premise, as with every other work by A Constructed World, the condition of reception becomes an integral part of their artistic work.

A painting placed in the historic medieval fountain completes their intervention in San Gimignano. In this second project as well, an “improper” use of historical sites is reaffirmed, almost to emphasize that it is possible to overturn any convention. Here, the ancient fountain—used for centuries by the women of the city to wash clothes by hand—becomes the evocative place in which to situate this painting/installation in an unnatural position beneath the water level. History and tradition are no longer moments and things to be viewed with reverence, but also with suspicion. “High” culture enters into a dialectical relationship and interplay with a culture that arises from our deepest needs to socialize, to contaminate, to be ironic, to build relationships without pre-established hierarchies. History and tradition are therefore part of us, and the intervention by A Constructed World seeks to reclaim these aspects of culture."

Roberto Pinto and Gilda Williams, Arte all’Arte V, 2000

EXPERIENCE

Where is it
This is the truth of where it is
that is, if it is
this is the True Being
it is something to rely on, something that truly exists, for which no negotiations are needed, in fact you will soon no longer want to negotiate what is because it is

The idea of an artist as someone who “knows” takes shape. A Constructed World wants to give space to other possibilities. We create a situation in which the artist “doesn’t know” and hands themselves over to a public where “everyone knows.” You can’t see or understand something if you’re not previously prepared for knowledge; only then will you experience a pattern of recognition. Only then will you know, in different ways, what you have already known as a cluster of things that previously seemed not to belong. Like when you say, “Yes, just as I thought.” When you come to know something new, it’s as if you already “knew” it—then something else emerges that you didn’t yet know.

In a video room we propose an act or an event that ultimately happens in its reception, when the audience sits down, gets comfortable, and participates in the realization of the work. As artists, it's better not to know what each person will do in order to feel free and at ease, and to observe the audience's behavior as the work unfolds. What we call “giving and receiving” will then begin to emerge.

Geoff Lowe

The tower houses of San Gimignano date back to the age of the Communes (from the 12th to the 14th century). In the Middle Ages, there were 72 towers, reduced to 25 by the 16th century and now only 13 remain. Most of the tower houses were “cut down” during the Renaissance with the rise of the Signorie, a phenomenon that also affected San Gimignano, where, however, some towers managed to survive.

During the First and Second World Wars, the town was seriously damaged and desecrated. With the "reconstruction" after the second conflict, San Gimignano was restored to the appearance depicted in prints and paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The pressures of tourism over the last thirty years have led the inhabitants of San Gimignano to abandon the ancient practice of plastering the city walls and buildings (using colors from the surrounding natural landscape), thereby reinforcing the widespread opinion among tourists that Italian medieval towns were made of stone and brick, like their contemporaries in Northern Europe.

Marco Izzolino lives in Naples and Siena, where he is attending a specialization course.

During our first visit to San Gimignano, we spoke with Roberto about how nice it would be to project something on the inner wall of the fountain, beyond the arches. Once back in New York, we started thinking about this project, but it seemed too spectacular for us. Our works aim for non-spectacularity, so we opted for a video room where the audience can enter and sit on mattresses scattered here and there and watch the videos. Maybe the audience could have floated on inflatable mattresses and watched the projection on the wall, but that didn’t occur to us at the time.

We decided to place a work underwater. The painting shows a bear coming out of a blue barrel in the middle of the countryside. Marco helped us submerge the painting in the freezing water. After a day or two, the water from the springs began to take effect. Maybe the canvas will shrink and the supports will give way, who knows, we’ll see. Instead of trying to defy nature, the painting might be overcome by it. Later, some tourists arrived at the springs and exclaimed “And what’s this?” and took photos and videos of the painting in the spring, in Tuscany. On the day we left San Gimignano, we returned to the springs to take some pictures for friends, and a woman was washing plastic containers.

Jacqueline Riva

HISTORY 3

The video features the story of what others say about Australia, what we’ve heard said about us, from 2000 back to the first colonization.

In 1999, Australia voted overwhelmingly to remain within the British Commonwealth instead of becoming a republic. Stereotypes are not very empowering or ennobling.

The reason you're so good at cricket is because you're very ignorant.

David Gower, captain of the English cricket team

Naples is characterized by pizza, its culinary symbol; the mandolin, the main instrument of traditional music; and the Camorra, a criminal organization, a modern legacy of the medieval attitude of “exploiting others,” which still thrives today.

Marco Izzolino

Near the springs lives a family “on the edge of the settlement.” The springs are their only water supply. Two children, Giuseppe and Sabrina, were wandering around during the making of the work. On the first day we asked for their opinion and both replied, “Non mi piace”; not good (in Italian in the text). The woman who was washing the containers told us it was a real shame to put such a “bellino” (in Italian in the text) painting underwater and ruin it. As algae and dust began to form patterns on the work, Sabrina said it was very beautiful and that it was a good idea, while Giuseppe remained silent.

A Constructed World dal catalogo Arte all’Arte, 2000