Film and Performance by Rossella Biscotti (work in progress)
The Journey is a performance of a ship navigating a GPS content-related route inspired by time, history and current geopolitical data researched together with different experts and communities in an area of the Mediterranean Sea between Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Libya. The narrative is centered on the decision and consequences of dropping a 17-ton marble block awarded to the artist by the iconic Michelangelo quarry in Carrara, Italy, yet left untouched. In fact, Rossella Biscotti uses the block as a mechanism to unpack the political, economic and environmental layers of a complex body of water. The point of departure is the island of Malta, a country located in between Europe and Africa, and a collection of maps showing different information comprising data on shipwrecks, cabling, military checks, licenses for energy and oil companies in the deadliest migration route of the Mediterranean Sea. The Journey will evolve in a layered mixed media composition exposing the politics of visibility and invisibility, off-shore exploration and exploitation.
Courtesy the artist, Blitz Valletta and KunstenFestivalDesArts Brussels.
Photos by Alexandra Pace