Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011
The official Icelandic representation at the 54th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia is the Spanish-Icelandic duo Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, whose collaborations explore the political, socio-economic, and personal forces that affect life in the present day. Their work, which has taken them to cities around the world, and often develops out of their personal interactions with people and places, can be characterized as an interpretation of culture and the complex relationships that compose it. The 2011 exhibition is organized by the Icelandic Art Center in Reykjavík, Iceland, under the commissionership of Dorothée Kirch, and is curated by Ellen Blumenstein. The Pavilion of Iceland is located in the former laundry house of the Palazzo Zenobio at the Collegio Armeno Moorat-Raphael in Dorsoduro.
Castro and Ólafsson’s exhibition for Venice, Under Deconstruction, unveils current sociopolitical issues in Iceland and elsewhere, using video, performance, sculpture, sound, and music interventions. It features: three new iterations of their ongoing project, Your Country Doesn’t Exist (2003-present); a music-video, Constitution of the Republic of Iceland (2008-2011), showcased within the pavilion and made in collaboration with the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service; as well as a sound sculpture, Exorcising Ancient Ghosts (2010), installed on the roof terrace of the pavilion.
From the opening of the Pavilion. On facade Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011
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Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste, 2011 (Your Country Doesn´t Exist) (ongoing from 2003)
Your Country Doesn’t Exist is an ongoing campaign, begun in 2003, for which the artists have traveled the world spreading the message, “Your country doesn’t exist” in different languages and through various visual modes, including billboards, TV advertisements, and wall-drawings. In Venice, Castro and Ólafsson are presenting the project in three iterations. Preceding the Biennale, the artists staged and recorded a public performance that while singing the phrase: “This is an announcement from Libia and Ólafur: Your country doesn’t exist”. The vocalist (mezzo-soprano Ásgerður Júníusdóttir) sang the phrase in several languages, and was accompanied by both trumpet (David Boato) and guitar (Alberto Mesirca).
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The lyrics were composed by the artists, and included appropriated phrases from a text by writer and curator Antonia Majaca, about the Your Country Doesn’t Exist project. The score was composed by Icelandic composer Karólna Eiríksdóttir. For the duration of the Biennale, a video installation of the performance is displayed in the Pavilion of Iceland. On 2nd and 3d of June, performances will also be staged in the canals of the city. The gondola will follow a route passing the national pavilions in the Giardini di Castello, in the city center and in the canal in front of the Icelandic Pavilion in Dorsoduro. Additionally, a neon sculpture reading “Il tuo paese non esiste” (“Your country doesn’t exist” in Italian) is installed on the façade of the pavilion. The final part of the series is a “Do-it-Yourself” painting the artists made in February 2011 in collaboration with the Icelandic ambassador to Germany, Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson.
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From the opening of the Pavilion. On facade Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011
Installation-view from the video work Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011. Video-still from Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011
Video-still from Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011
Video-still from Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011
Installation-view from the costumes of Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011 and Constitution of the Republic of Iceland 2008-11
Installation-view from the costumes of Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (Your Country Doesn´t Exist), 2011 and Constitution of the Republic of Iceland 2008-11, in background view of Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste (video)
Installation-view from Constitution of the Republic of Iceland 2008-11
Constitution of the Republic of Iceland, 2008-2011
Constitution of the Republic of Iceland represents Castro and Ólafsson’s first collaboration with Icelandic composer Karólína Eiríksdóttir. For this piece, the artists worked with the composer to create a score to which the Icelandic Constitution would be performed by soprano and baritone vocals, piano, double bass, and a mixed chamber choir. The composition was first publicly performed in March 2008 in Iceland, six months before the collapse of the country’s banking system. The video presented in Venice is a recent performance of the work, which was staged at The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service Television, and broadcast on Icelandic national TV in February 2011. The video was aired two times, the first of which having been the day the new elected Constitutional Assembly was set to begin revising the Icelandic constitution.
Performed by: Ingibjörg Guðjónsdóttir, soprano; Bergþór Pálsson, baritone; Tinna Þorsteinsdóttir, piano; Gunnlaugur Torfi Stefánsson, double-bass; Hymnodia, chamber coir; Eyþór Ingi Jónsson, conductor.
Installation-view from Constitution of the Republic of Iceland 2008-11
Installation-view from Constitution of the Republic of Iceland 2008-11
Installation-view from Constitution of the Republic of Iceland 2008-11
Installation-view from Constitution of the Republic of Iceland 2008-11
Installation-view from Constitution of the Republic of Iceland 2008-11
Installation-view from Your Country Doesn´t Exist – Do It Yourself, 2011. Painting made in collaboration with Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson, the Icelandic ambassador to Germany.
Installation-view from Your Country Doesn´t Exist – Do It Yourself, 2011. Painting made in collaboration with Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson, the Icelandic ambassador to Germany.
Detail from Your Country Doesn´t Exist – Do It Yourself, 2011. Painting made in collaboration with Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson, the Icelandic ambassador to Germany.
Detail from Your Country Doesn´t Exist – Do It Yourself, 2011. Painting made in collaboration with Gunnar Snorri Gunnarsson, the Icelandic ambassador to Germany.
Installation-view from the audio sculpture Exorcising Ancient Ghosts on the roof terrace of Pavilion of Iceland
Exorcising Ancient Ghosts, 2010-11
Two audio recordings; length 33:10 min (Italian spoken – played through speakers) and 31:51 min (English spoken – played through headphones), A4 text pages/script (Italian and English) hung on wall(s), audio-equipment, speakers (in main installation space) and headphones (in main installataion space, balcony and in the building ́s main staircase). The work Exorcising Ancient Ghosts originated in Naples, after a research on Greco-Roman imaginary in the area and feminist archeology, focusing on pornography, sex and gender depiction in ancient times.
The work is an audio-recording from a performance of a a local Neapolitan woman and a Balinese man, reading a text-collage in Italian while they have sex. The text is composed from ancient Greek (juridic-, literary- political and philosophical) text fragments on women and foreigners and their position in society, A second audio recording registers a performance of a native English speaking couple, woman and man, reading an English translation of the same text, also while having sex.
In ancient Athens married women had restricted rights and were to stay at home and foreigners residing in the Polis had as well restricted rights. Racial contamination was of great concern to the patriarchal society. The work was triggered by this friction and an ancient Athenian law, dating back from 5th century B.C., attributed to the orator Demosthenes, prohibiting Athenians and foreigners to live as husband and wife “in any way or manner whatsoever”, since their relation might produce impure citizens.
For the text-research we had the help of a team of PhD Researchers in ancient history and gender studies at the Federico II University in Naples, under the direction of Prof. Claudia Montepaone. For the preparations of the performers in Italy we worked together with an actress of experimental and concrete theater. The Neapolitan couple, a law-student and a cook, were not professional performers.
Installation-view from the audio sculpture Exorcising Ancient Ghosts on the roof terrace of Pavilion of Iceland
Installation-view from the audio sculpture Exorcising Ancient Ghosts on the roof terrace of Pavilion of Iceland
Installation-view from the audio sculpture Exorcising Ancient Ghosts on the roof terrace of Pavilion of Iceland
Installation-view from the audio sculpture Exorcising Ancient Ghosts on the roof terrace of Pavilion of Iceland