The poetic, aesthetic, narrative core of the latest solo exhibition by Austin Young / Fallen Fruit it is a wedding in the literal sense, as the title of the exhibition suggests Marriage of the Sea (The Rape of Venice)and in the metaphorical sense of a love that is born together between the city of Venice and the sea that bathes it.
Promoted by THE POOL NYC gallery on the occasion of the Sixtieth edition of the Venice Biennale and on display until June 30, Palazzo Cesari Marchesi becomes an idyllic place to celebrate the highest point of a not always easy relationship between the city and the Adriatic sea and which, precisely by virtue of this, it distinguishes the Serenissima as unique in the world.
“If those walls could talk”the usual way of speaking to refer to the secrets that are hidden inside every home, is translated by the group born in Los Angeles in 2004 into the immersive and site-specific intervention of wall covering. The viewer’s field of vision is thus invaded by a large-scale story resulting from wandering far and wide in the city in search of suggestions to convey to the public at the exhibition. “The goal – says Young – is to share my perceptions through an aesthetic adventure”and this is precisely what happens in the presence of a contemporary fresco capable of condensing the glories of the ancient Republic with underwater elements such as algae, plants, corals, seafood and fish typical of the lagoon.
The immersion for the visitor is twofold: on the one hand, you are enveloped by the installation on the walls of the building; on the other, you participate in the action of tourists as they throw gold coins into the water which hit faces, bodies and fauna. In this context, the symbols of the history of Venetian art are condensed into a single experiential work together with a creature of the abyss in glass Maria Grazia Rosin. Marriage of the Sea it is not only a tribute to the city of Venice and its artists, but also a warning to mass tourism, to the exploitation of a territory that risks being very far from the cover imagery it wants to represent, as Viola Romoli and Luigi Franchin assert , directors of THE POOL NYC: “This immersive, sublime and immersive art installation represents an allegorical image of Venice seduced by tourism, a city that has sacrificed its cultural capital and environment for greed.”
The “marriage” between spectator and work, between tourist and city, can be said to be truly complete when, with the celebration of the inauguration ritual of the performance of Irene Machetti, In signum veri amoristhe artist proclaimed the following verses at the culmination of a collective action:
“The Gods are angry
The Sea has no more tears to shed
If the Sea rises, we all fall.
This marriage is our sacrificial offering to the Ancient Water Deities
By marrying the Sea we promise to love and protect it
Today, Tomorrow and Forever.
Desponsamus te O Mare”
