Ekonization: Crazy Holidays
2018 Tart Gallery, Stereoskop performance festival, Zurich
2019 Varazdin Performance Festival, Varazdin, Croatia
2019 Aica int. – Populism and Nationalism, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin

The performance Ekonization: crazy holidays is part of a several works based on a personal experience in a spontaneous refugees camp in 2016 near the city of Polykastro: Eko camp.
This work presented as performance or theater display is a focus on post traumatic syndrome for people involved in an humanitarian role. In this context of Syrian exodus, a lot of help have been managed and created by independent volunteers, mostly European citizen who went in Greek’s Island or at the border with Macedonia. This phenomenon contributed to have first aids and to not overwhelm official NGO. Also it have created personal interaction between people that became friendships and more deep connections by sharing long period of stress and intense situations.

Crazy Holidays want to share in public psychotic consequences that western people might have once back home and to exit from the usual iconography of glorifying humanitarian workers. The way back home isn’t so evident and might created disorders to refund serenity and balance. In the performance irony as a tool to create distance, to be able to face some situation is here short circuited in front of faith irony. The title of the performance « Crazy Holidays » is in fact the name of the bus company that remove people from Indomeni spontaneous camp to Military camps.
From that moment a crisis of humor produced a more personal implication with the whole situation, is the start of an emotional roller coaster that continued several month later.

The performance share intense moments, a struggle for balance and the need to make this story part of the collective memory.

Photo archive Stereoskop festival, Tart Gallery, August 2018, Zurich

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Video archive, Varazdin performance festival, 3rd june 2019, Croatia

Ekonization: t-shirt, séléctioné au Prix Photoforum, Photoforum, 2019

Cette série photographique fait parti de la série d’expositions, Ekonization qui traite de la mémoire et la documentation d’un camp spontané de réfugiés en Grèce près de la localité de Polykastro, Eko camp, printemps 2016.

C’est par hasard que j’ai commencé à faire des photos de T-shirt que les réfugiés portaient. Au départ car l’un d’eux m’a semblé résumer l’absurdité de la situation : j’ai alors photographié le t-shirt sans montrer le visage de la personne qui le portait. Sur la photo, il est à peine possible de reconnaitre qu’il s’agit d’un camp. Suite à cette première photo, j’ai remarqué d’autre t-shirts similaires, provenant de plusieurs pays d’Europe, souvent humoristiques ou qui dans ce contexte le devenait. Les réfugiés que je photographiais ont commencé à me questionner sur cette collection et après leur avoir traduit certains t-shirts et leur avoir dit que peut-être ces slogans expliquaient l’histoire du camp, certains ont commencé à m’aider dans mes recherches ou venaient me voir lorsqu’ils avaient un nouveau t-shirt. 

Le critère de sélection des t-shirts était d’abord son image/message imprimé et le contraste produit entre le message, le contexte et la situation de la personne qui le portait. L’ensemble raconte à la fois l’histoire de ces personnes et se démarque avec une certaine ironie : comme si ces t-shirts dégageaient de l’humour noir involontaire de la part des donneurs. 

Le cadrage suit presque un protocole, définit par l’anonymat et la mise en valeur du message sur le t-shirt. 

D’une certaine manière, cette démarche, commencée de manière très spontanée m’a permis par la suite de retrouver une certaine lucidité vis à vis de ce que j’étais en train de vivre et j’ai alors pu commencer à documenter d’autres aspects de la vie du camp. 

Cette recherche documentaire a été fondamentale pour la réalisation d’une première exposition, qui retrace une partie de cette expérience et de la vie du camp, sans toutefois montrer une seule photo. (Ekonization, la rada, locarno, février 2017)

A ce jour, je n’ai jamais montré aucune image prise dans le camp de manière publique, je considère que le traitement photographique de ces évènements est déjà bien présent et souvent cela est fait dans une logique spectaculaire ou qui recherche l’émotion à tout prix. 

Après une longue réflexion et à la vue de mes précédentes études sur la photographie documentaire, j’ai décidé de proposer ce travail, car je pense que cette collection de photographies de t-shirts, en plus de documenter une situation, porte une réflexion sur comment photographier et transmettre une telle situation. 

Je considère aussi que cette collection de t-shirts ouvre une réflexion sur l’individualité et la masse, dans la mesure où le t-shirt peut-être considéré comme un moyen de se démarcation et d’identification. Dans le contexte du camp, il pose indirectement la question de l’individualité des personnes qui vivent dans ces conditions et qui sont habituellement identifiés comme une masse homogène. 

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Ratatata, Boom, Bang, Wroooam, Stadt Galerie, Bern, 2018

This works produced in 2016 for exhibition in Dienstgebäude (Zürich) « Che c’é di nuovo, sguardo sulla scena artistica ticinese », have been part in 2018 in group show for BONE festival in Bern Stadt Galerie.

Ratatata, Boom, Bang, Wroooam is an installation presenting 4 DIY bags in which there are elements of an hand made bomb, visible while walking around them. The work is part of on going research exploring links between criminality and art, dissident armed political movements and how to work in terms of aesthetic to present such subjects.
The installation is accompanied by a molotov bottle bomb in which is writte psychiatric definition of « repression ». This term in such ensemble made clear a wish to present a threat, a potential of violence here repressed but can explode in any time.

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Oral Bank, FAQ, Basel, 2019

Oral Bank is an on going work started in 2014 during performance festival « Action speak louder » in Sonnenstube art space in Lugano. Here is the second time that Oral Bank open an office to offers his service of oral sculpture emission. The principle of the Oral Bank is to provide a private service secure by bank secret in term to guarantee a property of an oral sculpture formulated in real time by the oral bankers and costumers.

An oral sculpture is essentially sound, it might have have meaning in any language but the bank is only care about the shape of the sound. All sculpture are different and are made in collaboration with client that decide what kind of oral sculpture he/she want to have: abstract, short, poetical, magical, long and whatever is decided with oral bankers. The property is written and signed in bank register which guarantee the official emission and property.

The property of an oral sculpture can be trade under specific rules, because the owner of an oral sculpture in share is good split is property in a collective ownership. This legal base, can be officially registered by Oral Bank and confirmed with official contracts. An oral sculpture is emitted free of charges and his only additional services or certificates that might be obtain from the bank by payments.

If you’re interested to invite and open an Oral Bank agency please contact marioni.andrea@gmail.com. All agencies had they own atmosphere and display.

Description of protocol:
Any body up 18 years old can open an Oral Bank account and received free an Oral sculpture.
Client agreed with bankers about terms and conditions by oral contract
After a small interview (5-7min) bankers propose a right draft of the oral sculpture.
The client can negotiate and discuss sounds proposed by the banker and defined more clearly sound shapes and rhythm.
In agreement with the client, the banker emit the Oral Sculpture and seals the sound as a property.
A signature in bank register confirmed that the client is the owner of an oral sculpture and had the possibility to trade it splitting his ownership.
Is possible to ask a certificate of ownership by payment.
The bank can provided supplementary services such oral sculpture trade consulting, legal advise and deliver certificates.

The plague trilogy is a spoken words performance realized in the context of Progetto 6000 and presented live in Cabaret Voltaire Zurich.

The work is divided in three chapter that have been presented in different evening between april and may 2018.
Music and Text is an original feature for this context and the form is inspired by Robert Ashley’s the TV opera (and performance) Perfect Life.
In such a context like Switzerland the practice of spoken words isn’t so familiar to the audience, most of the time text is presented in form of reading and action in theâtre or performance, here « Spoken Word » in understoop as a zone where static reading find a form of action in front of the audience without entering in a total spectacular relation. In fact reading the text produce directly a sort of distance.

Here Plague is used to speak about contemporary, existentialism, relation with void, wars live broadcast in TV. The idea is inspired by Artaud theater theory in which he compares Plague and theater.

The plot is turning around a group of young people pretending to be Poets and by poetry fighting against the plague. The result is a sort of terrorist armed group using Poetry as a weapon. In the trilogy we follow their steps in this struggle against the plague, trying to save them selves from a felling of void.

The chapter subtitle are: Radicalisation, Poetry, Consequences.

Credits:
Progetto 6000 curated by Tara Lasrado & Alessandra Gabaglio
Cabaret Voltaire host: Adrian Notz
Music and performer: Eva Zornio
Text and perfomer: Andrea Marioni
Dancer and performer: Anais Wenger

All images thanks to team @CabaretVoltaire