Extrapolations of Identity 2010
Estrapolazioni d'Identità 2010
EACH ONE OF US MUST WORK FOR PEOPLE’S FREEDOM
It is right that each of us should contribute to the commitment to the Freedom of peoples and the safeguarding of individual and social rights.
SYMBOLIC ACTION
EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY – ROMA
At the time of the French anti-nomad laws – revisiting the Work Declaration of Identity – from the 220 cards that make up the work, the artist extracts no. 208, in which she gives herself Roma citizenship. September 2010
To change our personal perception of Humanity, and see all the peoples of the earth, without any distinction, as one with us.
…to change history, to give due consideration to differences, respect for different cultures, even those very different from us and little known to us; to draw near to them, so as to appreciate their customs…
EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY – CHINESE – October 2010
On the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”. Liu Xiaobo has been in prison since 2008. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace; such rights are a prerequisite for the “fraternity between nations” of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will. “For over two decades,” the Nobel Committee recalls, “Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China, published on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 2008. The following year, Liu was sentenced to eleven years in prison and two years’ deprivation of political rights for ‘inciting subversion of state power’.”
EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY – BURMESE – November 2010
On the occasion of the release, on 13 November 2010, of Aung San Suu Kyi – winner of the Rafto and Sakharov prizes and of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 – for many years active in defending human rights in her country.
EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY – BRITISH – December 2010
In memory of John Lennon and his commitment to peace, with his song Imagine (1971), a hymn to peace and brotherhood among peoples.
EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY – ISRAELI – January 2011
“We would be guilty of culpable indifference if we did not fulfil what presents itself to us as a duty: not to forget what happened in a dark season of our history.”
I start from a passage of the message sent by the President of the Republic for the laying of the first stone of the Milan Memorial in remembrance of the tragedy of the Jewish people under Nazism, in which Napolitano stresses how “indifference” was no secondary cause of that and other similar horrors against humanity.
Several of my Works and Symbolic Actions have been based on the importance of a renewed awareness of each person’s responsibility for everything that happens, and on how insensitivity and omission amount to precise “complicity” with the perpetrators of every crime, among them:
– Stone Document – Sicily, 2000
– Stone Document – Basilicata, January 2001
– Stone Document – Calabria, 11 September 2001
– Convivium – Legnano, Lombardy, September 2002
– The Red Ribbon of Life – Potenza, Basilicata, March 2003
– Convivium – Potenza, May 2003
– The Opening of the Heart – Livigno, Lombardy, July 2003
and, more recently, the article “Elisa Claps, a case of collective conscience”, 2010.
Hoping for a more attentive culture and society, and believing in an art capable of activating new knowledge and awareness in human beings, of fighting indifference, of rooting out the attitude that makes us indifferent “receivers” of problems both near and far,
I offered my personal contribution to Holocaust Remembrance Day 2011 with the Symbolic Action Extrapolation of Identity: Teri Volini, Israeli nationality. For Remembrance Day 2011, identity card no. 124, which bears my Israeli citizenship, is extracted from the work.
With this declaration I reaffirm the urgency of peace-making, of respect and harmony among all the peoples of the earth, and at the same time stress the need for each of us to achieve this awareness personally, changing our mental and behavioural patterns, breaking down negative or outdated ones, reshaping our perception of Humanity, so as to feel every people of the earth, without any distinction, as one with us.
Teri Volini – Lucanian, Italian, ISRAELI
EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY – LIBYAN – February 2011
The dramatic events in Libya, caused by a mad, tyrannical and bloody regime that will not give up power, can no longer leave us indifferent.
So let us do what we can, even in our small way, expressing solidarity with Libya and with the struggle of peoples for freedom from all tyranny; let us hope for respect for fundamental human rights.
Let us hang the peace flag at our windows; let us join spontaneous or organised demonstrations; let us share by email and on social networks.
My personal symbolic gesture of participation is the LIBYAN DECLARATION OF IDENTITY.
By taking on the nationality of that people fighting the tyrant, I can express more directly my support for its courageous struggle for freedom, give my moral support, share what it is living through, putting myself in its shoes to understand its reality, its problems, its drama, its irrepressible longing… In this way I avoid closing myself in too narrow a vision of myself, and keep myself open to a broader feeling, managing to perceive our common belonging to Humanity and to see all the peoples of the earth, without any distinction, as one with me.
EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY – TIBETAN – October 2011
Taking part in the 4th SILENT MARCH FOR THE FREEDOM OF OPPRESSED PEOPLES AND MINORITIES, 22 October 2011, Rome, organised by SOCIETÀ LIBERA
SOCIETÀ LIBERA, an independent, non-party association of liberal culture, organises on 22 October in ROME, PARIS and BERLIN the 4th SILENT MARCH FOR THE FREEDOM OF OPPRESSED PEOPLES AND MINORITIES. Vietnamese, Burmese, Chinese, Tibetans, Iranians, Laotians, Uyghurs and many others will march with all those who share the reasons for the initiative.
In Rome the march will go from Piazza Bocca della Verità (3 pm) to Piazza Navona. For three years Società Libera has promoted this demonstration in Rome, waiting for Europe to establish a European Day for the Freedom of Oppressed Minorities and Peoples and for a broad, united movement to make it understood that the defence of Human Rights is an international priority. www.societalibera.org
From Potenza, the performer Teri Volini will take part in the SILENT MARCH in Rome with one of her works, TIBETAN EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY (identity card on a 50 x 70 cm paper panel), chosen from the 220 cards of her Declaration of Identity.
In full coherence with the practice of an Art closely connected to life, Teri Volini states that art – thanks to its powerful language – can effectively contribute to personal and social awareness of the most common and urgent problems, as in this case the freedom of oppressed peoples and minorities.
Art that favours social commitment is a precious tool for observing reality more keenly and helping to improve it.
IT IS UP TO EACH OF US TO WORK FOR THE FREEDOM OF PEOPLES
It is right and proper that each of us should contribute to the commitment to the Freedom of peoples and work to remind civil society of the need to safeguard individual and social rights.
It is indispensable to know about, and help make known, the critical or dramatic situations of so many countries and peoples in the world.
To focus attention on this issue, I make use of the exploration of the Work Declaration of Identity, extracting each time, from the 220 cards that make it up, the one for the nationality of the person or people my attention turns to, at moments when events underline its topicality.
EXTRAPOLATION OF IDENTITY – PALESTINIAN – November 2011
Paris, 31 October 2011. Palestine becomes a full member of a UN body, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The UNESCO General Conference accepted Palestine as a full member state, with 107 votes in favour and 14 against. The Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki declared that “this is a historic moment that gives Palestine back some of its rights”.
France and almost all Arab, African and Latin American countries voted in favour. The United States, Germany and Canada voted against, while Italy and Great Britain abstained.
Background of the work
The first “declarations of identity” date back to the beginning of the third millennium:
– Afghan and Algerian Declaration of Identity, 2001
(at the same time as the symbolic action RiVelAzione)
– Israeli and Palestinian Declaration of Identity, 2002
– Tibetan Declaration of Identity, 2003
Buddhist monks celebrating beneath the great Heart of Stone in Livigno
– Declaration of Identity: 220 cards, 50 x 70 cm each – 2004 (Declaration of Identity)
– Partial presentation at the Interethnic Festival – Music and culture among peoples, Fondi (Latina), at the invitation of the Associazione MultiKulturale Radici Mediterranee, July 2004
– and in Supino (Frosinone), Municipality of Supino, August 2004
– Presentation of all 220 cards gathered in 7 giant panels – installation at Be Good, contrada Tora, Potenza, at the invitation of Sinistra Ecologia e Libertà, 12–14 September 2010
– Installation of all 220 cards in 7 giant panels – one of the 5 Events for AMACI at Be Good, contrada Tora, Potenza – October–December 2010