Holder/Revolve Hållare/Kretsa
Assembling the living monument
Installation, 2014
Steel, photograph, video, sound, text, paper
Text in collaboration with Karl Malmqvist
Holder, installation view, Gallery KHM, Malmö 2014. Photo: Johan Österholm
The works in Holder/Revolve are based on documentation from different sites linked to the legend of Saint Francis of Assisi’s sermon to the birds (Italy ca 1217), and on conversations with people about the possible meanings of the legend. A full size replica of the steel frame that today supports the tree where St. Francis supposedly preached to the birds, hangs freely in the room. In a printed reproduction of a
popular image of the sermon, the saint has been retouched away. If the central figure in a story is removed – what does the remaining account tell us? Voices repetitively retell personal memories of the pigeons living in the hands of a St. Francis statue in Assisi. Avian species are added to and deleted from a timeline outlining depictions of the legend from the first two centuries of the Franciscan movement. The ongoing acts of retelling, translating and staging the legend – performed by different actors like tourists, pilgrims, pigeons, trees, popes and steel scaffoldings – form a rotating mass that is constantly becoming. Holder/Revolve is concerned with the means a movement uses to keep in touch with – and recreate – its revolutionary starting point. The result becomes a fragmented portrait of a movement engaged in constantly reassembling itself.
Verken i Hållare/Kretsa bygger på dokumentation av platser med koppling till legenden om helige Franciskus predikan till fåglar (Assisi, Italien ca 1217), och på samtal med människor kring legendens innebörder. En kopia av den stålställning som idag håller uppe trädet där helige Franciskus ska ha predikat hänger fritt i rummet. I en tryckt reproduktion av en populär avbildning av denna predikan är helgonet bortretuscherad. När det centrala i berättelsen tas bort – vad berättar det som blir kvar? Röster upprepar personliga minnen om duvorna som bor i händerna på en Franciskusstaty i Assisi. Fågelarter tillkommer och faller bort i en tidslinje över hur legenden återgivits under Franciskanerrörelsens två första århundraden. Det pågående återberättandet, översättandet och iscensättandet av legenden som utförs av olika aktörer som turister, pilgrimer, duvor, träd, påvar och stålställ- ningar, bildar en roterande massa som hela tiden blir till. Hållare/Kretsa intresserar sig för vilka medel en rörelse använder för att hålla kontakt med – och återskapa – sin omvälvande startpunkt, och skapar ett fragmentariskt porträtt över en rörelse i arbete med att ständigt sätta samman sig själv.
*
What does it mean to assemble? It means that the doves were always
there, all of them. It also means that feeding devices
are needed for doves,
and it means that doves stick around. It
means that old
trees need help
to
stay
upright,
and that they stay upright. It means that
birds on a mountain
need
protection to stay alive,
and it means aligning
oneself with them and
making them allies in
fulfilling that need. It
means staying alive, staying up-
right,
sticking around.
It means telling
about doves,
and speaking for birds.
And talking to birds,
all of them. Assembling is the force of life, and the
forcing
of life. Consider this a definition.
*
*
Not far from where I stayed, there was a small church where two
nuns lived. I wanted to befriend them, and almost daily I made
hikes through the forest on trails made by wild boars in order to
reach the monastery. I was often disappointed – the nuns were
away or occupied with singing or praying. The first time we spoke,
sister Benedetta gave me cookies in a plastic bag, and she told me
to share them with the other artists at the residence. She told me
that Saint Francis had eaten the same cookies just before he died.
*
Revolve, still from HD video with sound, 11 min 30 sec
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