Lavinia Xausa’s Portfolio Page 1-B

Lavinia Xausa - Portfolio

I’m an Italian media artist based in Rotter-dam, recently graduated in the Master ofPhotography at Akv St Joost. My work in-volves a motley research based on the prac-tice ofConvergent Cultures and Participatory Art.Starting with the interest of raising questions and discussion around crucial topics such asintegration, migration and citizen equality, I aim to engage the urban community into my projects,reconsidering the role of the artist as an ac-tive member of the city.

Artist Statment

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Title The word of the worlds, 2017, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Video installation, 2 channels, Performance, Text

Settlers, Missionaries, Secularists and Rap-pers. The Gospel has been preached and the Claim has already risen. As antique spokes-men of a sacred message, rappers have become the witnessing voices of the City of Rotterdam. A group of Spoken Word art-ists, whose family are native from the former Dutch colonies, have intervened on my pro-ject with their poems and claims. What would you teach if you were the ones just landed in Rotterdam? What would it be your message to spread on these Nordic lands? Few lines to establish their thoughts and a sharp rhythm to provoke the audience. The spectator is subjected to a mystical experience, from the preaching of a vanishing Gospel to the affir-mation of the Poem: among the Word of the Worlds.

In the beginning of 2017, I undertook a re-search about the different communities that live in Rotterdam. Rotterdam is a multicultural city and a side of this aspect is due to the colo-nial background of the Netherlands. Many of the foreign families who have been settling in the urban areas are first, or second, or third, generation of people who migrated from the former Dutch colonies. I was personally inter-ested in how people of my same age would address their experience as minorities commit-ted to integrating with the city. As an enthusiastic fan of Rap music and Hip-Hop culture, I started my investigation through the youngers who would practice those dis-ciplines and that would include socially en-gaged thematics in their works.

Approaching conscious-Rap in Rotterdam opened up a door into the world of Spoken Words culture. Spoken Words is a practice based on the live performance of a poem in front of the audience. Similarly to Rap, the poems are spoken loudly and with pathos, sometimes are even improvised as in the most exciting rap battles. In Rotterdam, this discipline is a popular tool that engages youngers on talking and ques-tioning on social issues such as identity, femi-nism, and integration. For my project, I took in account three spo-ken word artists and a Rapper whose family were native from the former Dutch Colonies. I asked them to write a poem as if they were the ones colonizing Rotterdam, if they were the ones imposing a new message for the na-tives. It came out a sort of reenactment of a situation already experienced in the past. My young spokesman would spread their mes-sage, as the missionaries would perform the Sermon to the native people of the colonies. But while those Missionaries represented a higher authority imposing a discipline on the people, my rappers would rise their own voice from the people up to the authority. As antique missionaries spreading the Word in the Dutch empire, my spokesman would teach their own philosophy among the listeners. From the comparison of the laical poem with the sacred message, my project aimed to sug-gest a sacred validity to the message of the spoken word artists, as relevant and efficient as the one professed by the Church.

Material

Description

Credits

Video’sscreenshot

Participants: Adilson Evora Lima, Neusa Gomes, Bellita CarolVideo diting assistance: Mihai Gui Sound production and editing: Ismael Lo Copy revision: Gherardo Santi Graphic Designer: Ada Favaron Research advisor: Christopher Block, Martine Stig, Noud Heerkens, Philippe MorouxVoice over: Robert Glas

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Title The word of the worlds, 2017, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Performance recordings

PerformanceCard

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you! And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”.

“You are a chosen race, a royal priest-hood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not re-ceived mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

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Title The word of the worlds, 2017, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

PerformanceScript

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Title The word of the worlds, 2017, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

PerformanceScript

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Title The word of the worlds, 2017, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Installation Performance

Sound Installation

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Sound Installation

Title The word of the worlds, 2017, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Sound Installation

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Title Nowhere / Now,here; 2016; Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Booklet; Found-footage video, single channel, 5min; Poster series.

“How is it possible to create images of the sacred if it is, by definition, something alien from human experience?The book of Genesis suggests an anthropo-morphic view of God: “God created the hu-mans in his own image and likeness”, there-fore humans can imagine god in their own image and likeness. Surely the expression of the sacred cannot be anything but a mix of ex-isting, visible, known elements put together to create something new and unreal, just like a centaur. The sacred is unattainable by reason of lack, of course, it has to be represented in an anthropomorphic way and that can only happen through referring to already existing historical models. It is logical to assume that every seer is conditioned by his own cultural background that allows him to see and im-agine only what is already part of this back-ground. Therefore it is very likely that the first representation of Holy Mary, was the result of an encounter with a common runaway hu-man being: a mother, a simple mother like any other”.

It’s a project about migration and about the sacred.Mary and the sacred attached to her, are the connotations that lie on our collective memo-ry. The recognition of the icon comes naturally to western recipients.Assuming that our life is characterized by a sort of everyday-manifestations of the sacred, how do we approach media information but as they were a holy apparition themselves?In my video-essay, Umberto Eco explains how visions are influenced by our cultural visual background. If we recognize a mother with a child as a sacred Icon, why don’t we apply the same process to all those women crossing the borders?Holy Mary’s back, and she’s a migrant.

Research advisors: Frank Van der Stok, Flip Bool, Martine Stig, Juul Hondius.

Material

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Video’sscreenshot

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Title Nowhere / Now,here; 2016; Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Video’sscreenshot

Book ‘s image

Link Youtube

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Title Roundabout Love; 2015; Tehran, Rotterdam

HD video, single channel, 7min

“There is a traditional Persian proverb that says: Imagine yourself on the roof of your house and try not to fall down. You’ll see that the harder you try to not fall from one side, the easier it will be to fall from the other” Ten years ago in Iran, it wasn’t accepted at all to have a relationship or a girlfriend. Now-adays, it is the exact opposite: we are falling from the opposite side”.

During my visit in Iran, I asked some kids to talk about love, sex, and relationships. The memory of their witnesses remains vague and confused. But what actually continues to lin-ger in my mind is the sound of the traffic in the city and the cars running along.Cars are not just vehicles anymore: they are now loyal holders of the hidden, secret things that happen inside.

Participants: Sahara, Mohamed, Ahmet, Amir, Farzam, Sanyar, Mohamed Sound production and editing: Ismael LoVoiceover recording: Ivas LiberisMain voice: Hanna KalverdaTehran sound samples and editing assistance: Mihai Gui, Nikos Kostopoulos Copy revision: Gherardo Santi

Material

Description

Credits

Video’sscreenshot

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Title Roundabout Love; 2015; Tehran, Iran - Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Video’sscreenshot

Video’sscreenshot

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Title Roundabout Love; 2015; Tehran, Iran - Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Video’sscreenshot

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Title Antonietti; 2015; Verona, Italy

Book

There’s nothing left but silence among the properties of Antonietti’s family, my mother’s. The past is vague, locked up behind the bleak walls of the different properties,laying calmly on the furniture and on the few trinkets left in the dark of the deaf rooms.These precipitates represent just misty memo-ries to me.Reminiscences passed down generationally that persist like an echo through the faces of those who lived, l laughed and loved in those now empty spaces that I never lived myself. Though I feel these memories live through me, they are part of me.

Participants: Alessandro Antonietti, Lavinia Gemma and childrenEditor: Alice Lamperti

Material

Description

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Picture

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Title Antonietti; 2015; Verona, Italy

Picture

Picture

Found footage

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Title Antonietti; 2015; Verona, Italy

Picture

Picture

Found footage

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Education

2015 - 2017 | MA, Photography, AKV | St. Joost, The Netherlands2014 | BA Erasmus in Art and Media studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany2011 - 2015 | BA in Visual culture and media studies (Cum Laude), Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna, Italy2012 | Certificate, Digital Photography, Spazio Labò, Bologna, Italy

Exhibition

Solo 2016 | Who the heck is Benjamin? , St. Oberlholz Ballroom, Berlin, Germany

Group 2017 | Hubbub Le Scope, Rotterdam2017 | Really Real, Organ Vida, Zagreb, Croatia 2017 | Really Real, Roodkapje, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2016 | There is something about my family - Research Lab, EYE Film museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2015 | Replay, AKV St. Joost, Breda, The Netherlands

Residency

2017 | Foundation B.A.D., Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2017 | 168H Project, Web, The Netherlands2016 | Derivé, Beius Foundation, Berlin, Germany

Experience

2017 | Artist talk, Frontline club, Tbilisi, Georgia2016 | Artist talk, Conversas, Berlin2016 | Moderator at Philip Toledano’s presentation, Fotodok, Utrecht, The Netherlands