INFINITE VILLAGE A social sculpture

MANIFESTA 13 MARSEILLE/NICE - Paralleles du Sud

Concept by Cora von Zezschwitz & Tilman

Presented by The(He)artfor(He)artprogram, Nice

Curators: Cora von Zezschwitz, Francisca Viudes, Tilman

Artistic director: Francisca Viudes

Round tables: Sigrid Pawelke

28.08.2020 - 05.12.2020

INFINITE VILLAGE

The premises of the INFINITE VILLAGE were established in 2016 by artists Cora von Zezschwitz & Tilman as an abstracted architectural sketch, in form of a social sculpture, that manifests and introduces dwellings of subjective multiplicity, grouping together various units of diverse inhabitations in a common share of sharing

INFINITE VILLAGE, echoing the perimeters of a village, forms around a central Agora where the various participants of the Village are invited to share their knowledges through performances, music, workshops, conferences and round tables. INFINITE VILLAGE is a place of co-creation and participatory actions, in which the public becomes a participant of the various discourses.

INFINITE VILLAGE welcomes around forty participants from all over the world: artists, curators, architects, composers, performers, filmmakers, philosophers, creators, activists, will gather together to address subjects from the Anthropocene to a possible constructive transformation of today`s urgent issues regarding humanity` and it`s sustainability.

The workshops, round tables, participatory performances, shared meals, will provoke a sense of community to stimulate our perception and establish an "upgrade" of our thinking process and actions. The social sculpture: INFINTE VILLAGE aspires to promote the idea of ​​creating a community, to discuss various points of view of the present time and of our future in the making. This "social sculpture" aspires to introduce the idea of the village as a vivid microcosm, which evokes the ideas of an engaged, inclusive rather than exclusive society. The public is invited to participate physically and mentally to engage in talks and activities, to be the change and to convey the propagation of this social sculpture. The ambition is to encourage an expanding creative archipelago of sharing.

INFINITE VILLAGE works like a diagram. A diagram is a simplified and structured representation of concepts, ideas, constructions, relationships and different aspects of human activity. A diagram makes it possible to describe a phenomenon, to highlight correlations between certain factors or to represent parts of a whole. It traces a dynamic journey, an evolution, the continuous variations of the same phenomena and a multitude of points of view. INFINITE VILLAGE is an invitation to embark on a journey, an indefinite journey.

What is not determined has no limits, what has no limits, can be turned into the possible.

How do you imagine your future village?

The project INFINITE VILLAGE was realized in three parts and in three different locations in Marseille and Nice as part of MANIFESTA 13/Paralleles du Sud.

INFINITE VILLAGE, PART 1, Espace Jouenne, Marseille, 26.08.2020-04.10.2020

 At Espace Jouenne in Marseille the conceptors and artists Cora von Zezschwitz & Tilman adapted the core idea, the work `INFINITE VILLAGE/when `I` becomes `Us``, a social sculpture, to the constraints of the given location What was originally conceived as an outdoor `sculpture`, had to be transformed into an abstracted architectural intervention echoing the basic idea of an village, as a form of habitation.

Here, this loosely woven architectural structure occupied mainly the center of the exhibition space forming an agora providing a platform for discussions, artist talks and round tables. The round tables were curated and organized by Sigrid Pawelke, offered discussions on the subjects:

-       L’ eau – or Bleu Précieux et Maltraité / Water – a precious and misg-handled resource

-       L’ architecture d’urgence et ecologique / Architecture and ecological urgency

-       Utopies sociales et artistiques / Social and artistic utopias

-       L’Art, La Nourriture et la Biodiversité alimentaire / Art, Nutrition and  alimentary Biodiversity

For these open discussions Sigrid Pawelke invited local associations, local politicians, local activists and thematically engaged artists to share their viewpoints with a broader audience on subjects of:

In this constellation of INFINITE VILLAGE, artworks by Petroc Sesti, Douglas White, Perrine Lacroix, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Dimitri Mallet, Hilario Isola, Shiva Lynn Burgos, Amir Habibi, Lucy&Jorge Orta Cora Von Zezschwitz and Billy Gruner were integrated into the `social sculpture` as well as into the space. Screenings and performances have been facilitated on a weekly base (Flore Saunois, Choeur Tac-Til, Shezad Dawood, Yifat Gat, Elizabeth von Samsonov, Blond&Gilles, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Mostapha Romli, Roth & Brandlhuber+, Jakob Knudsen & Lorenz von Seidlein, Arjuna Neuman & Denise Ferreira da Silva, Collectif DING,Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Phil Niblock & Katherine Liberovskaya, Studio DRIFT, Gwenola Wagon&Stéphane Degoutin&Pierre Cassou Nogués, Lucia Leistner, Guillaume du Boisbaudry, Filip van Dingenen, Hilario Isola.

During the presentation of INFINITE VILLAGE Collectif DING (Lyn Nekorimate&Jean-Paul Labro) produced ESPACE TEMPS featuring the participants of the project.

INFINITE VILLAGE, PART 2, LE 109, Nice, 16.10.2020-30.11.2020

At Le 109, the artists realized a full-scale `social sculpture `, existing of 5 large scale modules, arranged in a semi-circle, around the “Black Palm” by Douglas White, evoking the idea of a village.

 This structure and autonomous work of art, holds artworks by Perrine Lacroix `Words of Today`, Billy Gruner `Collective Monochrome` and Shiva Lynn Burgos “Mariwai” participative works.

Furthermore this structure will be used as a platform for performances, concerts and talks during the period between mid-October until end of November.  Besides the participants invited by the curators, INFINITE VILLAGE also encourages local artists and related associations to `inhabit` this open structure, promoting the idea of inclusion rather than exclusion.

in a second location of the building a screening facility is installed to host presentations of a manifold of videos which are integral part of the project, namely of Shezad Dawood, Gwenola Wagon, Stéphane Dégoutin & Pierre Cassou-Nogués, Christopher Roth & Brandlhuber+, etc.

PART 3, Hotel Windsor, Nice, 16.10.2020 – 30.11.2020

The presentation of INFINITE VILLAGE at the hotel Windsor in Nice is subtitled `trans-formations`. The structure, which transforms the lobby of the hotel, can be understood as a visual expansion of the `social sculpture`, constructed at Le 109.

INFINITE VILLAGE /trans-formations` forms a more cerebral structure, a place which represents the flux of possibilities and choices which cross our minds in each present moment and invite us to intervene the trajectories of these thoughts, to guide and upgrade our thought process, thus our future.

The vase by Suzanne Husky, integrated in the structure by Cora von Zezschwitz & Tilman represents a sort of an icon, a recipient for the multiple possibilities of the evolution of the village, a point of departure.

Besides the video projections presented in the lobby (Perrine Lacroix, Arjuna Neuman&Denise Ferreira da Silva, Amir Habibi, Cora von Zezschwitz,Elizabeth von Samsonov, Eric van Hove, Collectif DING) and the `Passport Office` by Lucy&Jorge Orta, 4 rooms on the ground floor are dedicated to artworks by Petroc Sesti, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Shiva Lynn Burgos and Dimitri Mallet.

This architectural / artistic intervention coincides with OVNI festival organized by Odile Redolfi of Hotel Windsor.

IMAGES OF `INFINITE VILLAGE / WHEN I BECOMES US`

INFINITE VILLAGE @ Espace Jouenne, MARSEILLE

ÌNFINITE VILLAGE / WHEN I BECOMES US``, LE 109, NICE

ÌNFINITE VILLAGE / TRANS - FORMATION`, HOTEL WINDSOR, NICE