HUMAN, YOU ARE INVITED TO LISTEN // FLOATING LIGHTHOUSE FOR DARK TIMES // THREE LULLABIES FOR THE ELEPHANTS IN THE LAGOON //
HUMAN, YOU ARE INVITED TO LISTEN // FLOATING LIGHTHOUSE FOR DARK TIMES // THREE LULLABIES FOR THE ELEPHANTS IN THE LAGOON //
🌊- 21 APRIL 2024 - FROM 5H30 PM - CANALI DI VENEZIA -🌊
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A NEON MANIFESTO AND THREE LULLABIES FOR THE BIENNALOCENE LAGOON
Above the surface
-ACT I-
Veniceland
From 1981 to 2022 the city of Venice lost 86,234 inhabitants (of which 29,728 on the mainland and 57,046 between the historic city and the coast). In 2023 the number of bed-places for tourists (50.016) has officially overcome the number of residents of the city (49.211).
Floating on the surface
-ACT II-
Tesvalidet
Tesfalidet Tesfom, the Eritrean migrant who kept in his wallet two poems written in Tigrinya today present in some poetic anthologies for schools. Tesfom was compared by Treccani to the great poets of the Mediterranean, in the anthology from Homer to Kavafis. He died 2 hours after arriving on the coast of Posillipo (IT), weighting no more than 18 kgs.
Below the Surface
-ACT III -
The Blue King
The blue king crab, also known as "blue crab" or "blue king", is a decapod crustacean (i.e. with ten legs).It is a native species of the Atlantic coasts of the American continent. The specimen started extending its realm to the Lagoon, exponentially: in 2022 the total quantities of blue crab caught stood at more than 95.6 tonnes, the +930% compared to the previous year that should already have represented an alarm bell. The Callinectes Sapidus is considered one of the 100 most invasive alien species in the Mediterranean.
Do you really think that these birds, that crab, these palaces are gonna be remembered?
Who do you think will survive the tide of times, at the end of the world as we have known it?
-.......
As long as creation stays alive,
it hauls around its vertebrae.
A wave will play, as if its rise
were the spine of the century
we can’t see.
O.Mandelstam, 1923
—--
We navigate in unknown waters of time, floating bodies of water,
Far from the eyes,bodies everywhere, everywhen..
—----
Yet, maybe, while we fill our cups and ears, and years with superficial noise, humans left are nowhere.
—-----
I tried to imagine of being a firefly, in a very noisy and overcrowded city floating on water.
I recalled the currents of stories passing through the canals, these liquid veins that makes us so similar to our ancient cities.
—---
Please, I just ask you not to scream out loud and to stay quiet, nobody wants you to end up in prison or beaten up for your idealism.
—---
On a rowing boat, to place “us” as humans, floating everywhere, and going anywhere again. There is no place for “foreigners”, hence, we float in the Blue King realm.
—----
Thinking about invisibility, and a human being bringing to the lagoon a sonic-firefly-neon almost seems to disappear while holding it in his hand...
—---
Your irises are mirrored in those of the herons, don't worry, you won't be locked out of the opening (again).
—------
We can make concerts out of the numbers of the disasters, it will become a symphony of waves for these old stones,
bridges and saltmarshes. The tide, will wash everything away, again and again, till the sun dries this planet out.
—
Or maybe it's just a pretext to bring a mobile lighthouse in dark times that floats through the canals, like an embolus that unblocks high-voltage ideas and slime.
---
If you stay alive for two more seconds,
leave one for yourself and another
for the world.
F.Arminio,2021
---
Our common ancestors, below the sea surface are disappearing. Our fellow specimens are disappearing swallowed by waves in the sea. Our cities are flooded away.
The only sound of disappearance is deafening silence. Underwater.
Below and above the surface.
Clouds reflects over the water surfaces; choirs are flowing above and below. Then, we need new lighthouses. Then we need lullabies. I want to sing with Barramunda and Tesvalidet, talking about common ancestors and pietas.
I tried to imagine of being a firefly, in a very noisy and overcrowded city floating on water. I recalled the currents of stories passing through the canals, these liquid veins that makes us so similar to our ancient cities.
On a rowing boat, to place “us” as humans, floating everywhere, and going anywhere again. There is no place for foreigners, Mrs. Biennale, hence, we float.
Weatherscaping Exercise BEGINS
-----
the oarsmen
begin to row, the boat leaves the shore
In the darkest times, people cannot be afraid to express the need of beauty, peace and the foundation that makes us “humans”. We cannot live in silence, because silence now, in The Lagoon, in the Mediterranean, on Planet Earth is deafening.
It is nonsense thinking of “Foreigners” in a planet where toxic clouds, water scarcity, biodiversity loss and war know no boundaries. There are no foreigners since we are 8 billion of humans, everywhere.
Yet, maybe, while we fill our cups and ears, and years with superficial noise, humans left are nowhere.
For this, we float.
In times of war, we reclaim life.
In times of flooding capitalism and mass tourism, we reclaim a house to inhabit.
We reclaim a lagoon, where lullabies take place of deafening silence.
While we stay silent, death takes place. At sea, over and below the surface.
We float, we are turbulences, with no borders and identity extending in the lagoon, as human beings.
Our planetary issues have no borders, like clouds, like water, like pollutants and toxic fumes.
Extinction and death speak with no borders.
Then, we are the sound of nowhere, and everywhere. We float. We are humans.
-Humans Nowhere-
----
the oarsmen begin to row, the boat leaves
the shore, and again and again…
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Pensando all’invisibilità, e a un essere umano che porta in laguna neon-lucciola-sonici, sembra quasi sparire mentre lo tiene in mano… (A.E.)
O forse è solo un pretesto per portare in tempi bui una faro mobile che galleggia per i canali, come un embolo che sblocca idee e limo ad alto voltaggio.
Thinking about invisibility, and a human being bringinging to the lagoon a sonic-firefly-neon almost seems to disappear while holding it in his hand...
Or maybe it's just a pretext to bring a mobile lighthouse in dark times that floats through the canals, like an embolus that unblocks high-voltage ideas and slime.
HUMANS NOWHERE FLOATED THANKS TO:
Federico Mantovan (voga)
David Angeli (voga)
Rachele Cominella (lights, logistics, electronics)
Jacopo Zanessi (director, filmmaker)
Diletta De Bortoli (photography)
IUS (soundscape I “Humans Nowhere”)
Eleonora Preziosi (mapping & logistics support)
Giovanni Dinello (l’adattatore salvavita)
Artur Elsenaar (feynmanian/hacking courage)
