From July 4 to August 30, 2023, the urban installations of the ONEFLAG project will mark the main course of Teramo with their images and colors, celebrating through the medium of flag and performance the 50th edition of the Interamnia World Cup. In this youth handball tournament, which began in 1973, the city has welcomed athletes and coaches from more than 150 nations over the years, earning the title of Open City to the World conferred by UNICEF.
Installation view, OneFlag 2023, foto di Michele Sereni, courtesy Ass. Cult. Grand Hotel
The curator Marcella Russo invited seven artists for this occasion, whose research is active about the theme of cultural and social inclusion, a basic concept of the sports event that inevitably reflects on the contemporary. Bianco-Valente, Iginio De Luca, Giovanni Gaggia, Andrea Nacciarriti, Agnese Purgatorio, Fabrizio Sannicandro and Giuseppe Stampone/Maria Crispal produced seven site-specific flags, each centering with a different sensibility the vision the project wants to convey, according to which art is a language that allows the overcoming of cultural barriers and related boundaries, both mental and physical. The seven works are installed in a path mirroring the flags of the nations participating in the tournament, uniting sport and contemporary art in the city’s historic course.
Installation view, OneFlag, 2023, foto di Michele Sereni, courtesy Ass. Cult. Grand Hotel
As we walk we see, starting from the cathedral, Ogni dove, the flag made by the Bianco-Valente duo, which on both sides shows a hand with this inscription, alluding to the concept of freedom, inherent in the existence of the individual, and which has always led him to move in order to survive and find stability, effectively annulling limits and boundaries. Also working on the continuous search for a place are Iginio De Luca and Andrea Nacciarriti, who in their two works start the first one from a tangible condition, in which the house, whose floor plan he sketches, is a material and metaphorical object, defining the status of a person and a family, which we see in a blurred image, as if in limbo between two dimensions (Expatrie, 2016). The second, on the other hand, connects to sociological reflections, to highlight how habitat and habitability are heading for a precipice, due to climatic and political events that in contemporary times make it difficult for the individual and the environment to come to an agreement. For both artists, sport and its importance, especially among the younger generation, the main target of the event, convey fundamental values that need to be attended to today.
Installation view, OneFlag 2023, foto di Michele Sereni, courtesy Ass. Cult. Grand Hotel
Among these, in addition to the right to housing, there is certainly respect for diversity, which Giovanni Gaggia emphasizes both in his flag and in the performance, held on July 13 involving 13 athletes from the competition. Each of them threw a different color fabric, all taken from the LGBTQIA+ flag, the most inclusive, as many as 71 times, like the states where today homosexuality is a crime, in many cases still punished with the death penalty. This action was carried out by the artist and participants at dawn (5:39 a.m.), symbolizing the need for renewal and rebirth to which they aspire. The throwing of the LGBTQIA+ flag that Gaggia wanted to immortalize on both sides of the work (The colors of changement, 2023) mark this change, which makes us questions. Agnese Purgatorio unites on the two fronts Les intermittences du Coeur (2023) and Perhaps you can write me (2018) to ask everyone if it is possible to go beyond a border, if it is possible to stand on it looking from one side and the other at all the implications, from the climate issue to wars. The artist uses the intermittent pulsations of the heart to present us such a line, in this case on the Dead Sea between Jordan and Israel, that holds so many open questions: within the city of Teramo they can be read at a time like this.
Installation view, OneFlag 2023, foto di Michele Sereni, courtesy Ass. Cult. Grand Hotel
Fabrizio Sannicandro traces in his OneFlag (2023) with shapes and colors that he simply juxtaposes, a flag that includes multiple identities, all connected to each other in an emblem that is perceived precisely by virtue of its totality and not of its individual components. Giuseppe Stampone/Maria Crispal concludes with the double dualism of Joker 4 fronte (2023) this walk in which each artist, with the heading of Marcella Russo, has managed to capture with his or her aesthetic spectrum the importance of relationships and their inclusive power. Each point in the network built between individuals creates a stronger climate of belonging, which can lead us toward a collective consciousness, to try to overcome the superstructures and obstacles of our time.
Info:
A.A.V.V. OneFlag
curated by Marcella Russo
04/07/2023 – 30/08/ 2023 | Corso Vincenzo Cerulli di Teramo
Bianco-Valente, Iginio De Luca, Giovanni Gaggia, Andrea Nacciarriti, Agnese Purgatorio, Fabrizio Sannicandro, Giuseppe Stampone/Maria Crispal
After graduating in Cultural Heritage, she moved to Milan and finished her studies at the IULM University, where she specializes in contemporary art and communication. She currently lives in Pescara and works in a cultural association, collaborates with an art gallery and is a contributor for Juliet Art Magazine and Rivista Segno. She is in constant exploration of the artistic contemporaneity and its multiple readings.
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