ON SOCIAL METAMORPHOSIS / video project



a project by Luigi Coppola

Realized on the frame of the exhibition "Enacting Populism in its Mediæscape" curated by Matteo Lucchetti at Kadist Art Foundation - Paris.

With: Olivia Algazi, Gaël Bourhis, Ilios Chailly, Périne Julien, Théo Vailly, Jean-Joseph Vital.

Film direction: Luigi Coppola and Claudio Cavallari
Images: Claudio Cavallari and Fabrizio La Palombara
Musical direction: Gabriel Mattei
Editing and postproduction: Claudio Cavallari

Produced by: Luigi Coppola, Kadist Art Foundation and all the people participating in the project.

Artistic coordination and logistic: Les Commissaires Anonymes (Cécile Roche Boutin and Mathilde Sauzet).

Texts taken from:
Utopie Réaliste (Realistic Utopia), proposals published on Paul Jorion's blog (2011)
Saint-Just, extracts from Discours sur la Constitution de la France (April 1793)
J.M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936)
Paul Jorion, Le capitalisme à l'agonie (2011)
P. Sarton du Jonchay, contributions on Paul Jorion's blog (2011)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (March 1933)

Thanks to: Kadist Art Foundation Paris, Mains d'Oeuvres, François Leclerc, Claire Roudenko-Bertin, Caroline Hancock, Judith Wielander, Sandrine Baudoin, Maya Coppola, Guillaume Dupuy, Fabrizio Scapin, Giuseppe De Vecchi and all the people have participated at the project.

I am particularly grateful to Paul Jorion and his blog  for feeding the spirit of this project.  
http://www.pauljorion.com/blog/

ON SOCIAL METAMORPHOSIS

Finissage of the exhibition Enacting Populism in its Mediæscape 
Friday, April 20, at 6.30 pm - Kadist Art Foundation, Paris

with the presentation of On Social Metamorphosis,
a new video by Luigi Coppola
ENGLISH PRESENTATION
On the last week of Enacting Populism in its Mediæscape, the new video by Luigi Coppola, which is the last part of his performative work On Social Metamorphosis, will be presented in the frame of a conversation between the artist and Matteo Lucchetti, curator of the show. On this last public event in the parallel program of the project, the video is included in the exhibition, right when the life of this sui generis political bureau comes to an end. With this proposition where an emancipative aspect of the populist dynamic is analysed, the Enacting Populist closes, making a last statement around the idea of the ‘transformation of myths’ in the populist zeitgeist.

On Social Metamorphosis amplifies and feeds the echoes of current changes in society.Based on the principle that social claims must invent their own language in order to be heard, Luigi Coppola works with performers to produce a choral manifesto: artists, singers and comedians lend their voices and gestures to this utopian endeavor. Luigi Coppola creates resonances between the ancestral Greek choir and what he calls the “virtual choir”. Paul Jorion, a financial chronicler, was chosen as a representative model of citizens’ implication in politics; his blog is the starting point for the text of this performance.This blog is one of the most influential and popular platforms for discussions and proposals on the theme of the present economic, political and social crisis in Europe. Paul Jorion and his team call for ideas from which to formulate the founding principles of a new society, breaking with today’s which is in indefinite crisis. Paul Jorion invites past and present intellects to his think-tank. The performance mingles quotations from the French revolutionary Louis Antoine de St Just, the British economist John Maynard Keynes and the American statesman Franklin Roosevelt. These are chanted by the choir in between Paul Jorion’s recent declarations and quotes from committed bloggers.“Revolt struggles to find its voice” notices Luigi Coppola who suggests the mask as a symbol of union and protest. Conceived by the artist using pages from financial newspapers, the masks encourage the people to speak out.
In On Social Metamorphosis, faces are not hidden, so they recognize each other; the mask procures them the power of the multitude.

ENACTING POPULISM


February 18 - April 22, 2012
Press conference: Thursday February 16 at 11h at Kadist Art Foundation
Opening reception: Friday, February 17 from 6 to 9 pm.

Alterazioni Video, Heman Chong, Luigi Coppola, Danilo Correale, Foundland,  Nicoline van Harskamp, Steve Lambert, Oliver Ressler, Anna Scalfi Eghenter, Société Réaliste, Jonas Staal, Superflex.


A project curated by Matteo Lucchetti

Kadist Art Foundation is pleased to present Enacting Populism in its mediaescape, an exhibition curated by Matteo Lucchetti, following his residency at the Foundation.
Enacting Populism is an on-going project on the possible relationships between art practices and the populist mediascape that connotes the current political zeitgeist of Europe. At Kadist Art Foundation this project will develop into an exhibition that will take place during the last two months of the presidential elections campaign in France. The space here is interpreted as a sui generis political bureau, immersing the exhibition in an ambivalent environment where the works can be seen as elements belonging to a political party office where a campaign is being prepared.

The show is focusing on the European populism that has heavily influenced the public imagery on politics for the last twenty years. Its leaders and agitators understood at an early stage the shift that occurred both in portraying the figure of the politician and in the role of the political discourse in the mediascape. In fact, when political ideologies ceased to give shape to the political agendas, with the end of the Cold War, the Western parties started to progressively mirror this ending with the flattening of their positions in the public debate, starting to respond only to a general capitalism discourse about a global market that needed to find its way. From that point the political action softened the natural antagonism of democracy, thus creating a lack of opposite and distinct political projects. This situation left space for a popular frustration to arise and consequently demagogues articulated it. Therefore those who understood how the space of politics worked slowly moved from being representative to openly playing with its representation in the media.

EVENTO 2011: art pour une ré-évolution urbaine

Urban art biennale in Bordeaux
Artistic Direction: Michelangelo Pistoletto and Cittadellarte
Joint Artistic Director: Luigi Coppola



This second edition of EVENTO is centred on the participation of all kinds of public and the implication of artists that will activate collective creations. Approximately 250 organisms (non-profit organisations, local institutions, schools, etc.) are part of the different projects of the event.
Whether it be the strong mobilisation of music enthusiasts for the Sound Res with the active participation of the Conservatoire de Bordeaux Jacques Thibaud, but also the contribution of graphic designers and illustrators for arc en rêve and STEALTH.unlimited‘s project at the Abattoirs, EVENTO 2011is an event of contemporary creation that calls upon international artists as well as the creative abundance of the territory.
The Sites, real laboratories of open and shared artistic creation, are strong examples of this local implication. More than 60 non-profit organisations are participating, alongside the Halle des Douves association, in the project of Dutch artist Jeanne Van Heeswijk p, to offer a daily programme from 6 to 16 October, from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The Evolving Theatre on Place André Meunier also calls upon the collaboration of structures and inhabitants of the neighbourhood, through all kinds of workshops set up from September.
The Central Parc project is mobilising many structures of the Grand Parc neighbourhood, whether it be the social and cultural centre, the animation centre, the Library, but also several associations. The latter were able to present their citizen approach at the stop of the mobile site at Grand Parc on 2 July. The mobile unit, which has been travelling across the territory ever since, offers to anyone interested in talking about his/her individual or collective approach of solidarity, the possibility to answer the Wanted ad that has been broadcast since June.

COMMUNITY ART The Politics of Trespassing

Valiz/Antennae Series



Edited by Paul De Bruyne, Pascal Gielen.
Italian philosopher Antonio Negri has declared that “Every kind of change belongs to a form of community art,” inverting the convention that community art can be an integral component of social change and extending the rubric of art to propose a commons of all those striving to effect change in social, economic, technological and ecological arenas. So how do these endeavors influence and act upon one another? In Community Art, artists and theorists Tilde Björfors, Bertus Borgers, Paul De Bruyne, Changchengh, Luigi Coppola, An De bisschop, Miguel Escobar Varela, Jan Fabre, Alison M. Friedman, Pascal Gielen, Sonja Lavaert, Carol Martin, Antonio Negri, Alida Neslo, Tessa Overbeek, Lionel Popkin, Richard Schechner, Hein Schoer, Ricky Seabra, Jonas Staal, Klaas Tindemans, Luk van den Dries, Quirijn Lennert van den Hoogen, Hans van Maanen, Bart Van Nuffelen and Karel Vanhaesebrouck explore the practices of artistic and social movements in western and non-western societies.

BUILD YOUR LEADER

performance
Grote Markt Antwerpen - 30 april 2011

VIDEO OF THE PROJECT
a project by Luigi Coppola
realized in the frame of Enacting Populism curated by Matteo Lucchetti
with Luigi Coppola, Sven Goyvaerts, Margareth Kaserer, Matteo Lucchetti, Esther Severi
images and editing by Claudio Cavallari
produced in the context of the residency in Air Antwerp
with the support of a.pass (advanced performance and scenography studies)
Antwerp 2011

ENACTING POPULISM

AIR Antwerp / residency jan- may 2011
An ongoing research on the possible relationships between art practices and populist aesthetics

Curated by Matteo Lucchetti
with Francisco Camacho, Luigi Coppola, Danilo Correale
in collaboration with Extra City, Antwerpen


NEUTRAL ECOLOGICAL BODY # SEOUL

performance as part of the exhibition "Rich Disorganization"
Seoul Art Space Geumcheon - august 2010
I wear a screaming mask, in order to give voice to several philosophers, intellectuals and activists who have or have had a clear vision on the crisis of the current system and give us visions about the future.

Partecipants in the conference (through a temporary passage from my body)
Vandana Shiva (1952 India, philosopher, environmental activist)
Slavoj Žižek (1942 Slovenia, philosopher, critical theorist)
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975 Italy, poet, intellectual, film director, writer)
Joseph Beuys (1921-1986 Germany, artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art)
Doal Kim Yong-ok (1948 South Korea, philosopher)
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948 India, political and spiritual leader)
I will do my best to translate and expand their message.

RICH DISORGANIZATION

Seoul Art Space GEUMCHEON
performance and exhibition august - september 2010
photo: Luigi Coppola "Neutral Ecological Body #Seoul, 2010

Participating Artists:
 김명남 Kim Myoung-Nam, 김지수 Gisoo Kim, 노재운 Rho Jae-oon, 루이지 코폴라 Luigi Coppola (Italy), 극연구소 마찰 The Pure Theatre Laboratory Machal, 무빙밀머리(박찬국) Moving Milmeory, 박능생 Park Nung-Saeng, 수퍼피쉬스! SUPERFISHES! (Korea+Israel), 스튜디오 우하하 Studio Woohaha, 윤주희 Youn Ju-hee, 이기일 Lee Kiil, 이수영+리금홍 Lee Soo-young + Lee Geum-hong, 이세옥+최수환 Rhee Sei+Che Swann, 이호진 Lee Ho-jin, 인진미 In Jin-mi, 장석준 Jang Suk-joon, 정정주 Jeong Eeong-ju, 조습 JoSeub, 제프 슈무키 Jeff Schmuki(America), 천영미 Chun Young-mi
 The exhibition highlights ways of interpreting the space of Geumcheon.
 Twenty first-term artists from four countries stayed in the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon for two months to one year. The exhibition’s theme Rich Disorganization was proposed to metaphorically present the artists’
 new dreams, their individuality, diverse perspectives, and the possibilities of a newly evolving city from viewpoints different from thoseof administrators and local residents. These strangers who enjoy traveling alone, leaving their home voluntarily, and moving to new places anonymously shed light on Geumcheon from the perspectives of
 collectors, urban scholars, and detectives.
 Their gaze on this region appears inconsistent yet poetic with the intersection of various voices. Moreover, the scenes these artists rendered are mere manifestations of their individual concerns for life here,but have nothing to do with regional issues such as the reality of migrant workers residing here, and reckless development of this area mixed with industrial and residential facilities.
 However, individual scenes resident artists rendered acquire meaning of its presence through structuralized, symbolized representations as cultural images, and the memories, reflected by this region’s artifacts and images they collected, are not individual but collective. Can the artists’ aesthetic attempts to add new identity to this declining area save its concealed, forgotten moments of the past?

GUARANTEES ON THE CONTINUITY OF THE SPECIES

Performance by Luigi Coppola
(30') 2010, Bressanone - Brixen (BZ) - ITA
with the young people of the On- Stage School of Arts, Bozen



ARTS IN SOCIETY. BEING AN ARTIST IN POSTFORDISM TIME


In his contribution to this publication the Italian philosopher Paolo Virno argues that art has been dissolved in society like an effervescent tablet in water. The arts have become an essential component of the post-Fordist production process and have to a large degree lost their autonomy. Taking up the challenge of the views of Virno, Hardt and others concerning the place and function of art in society, this book’s authors consult high-profile international figures from various artistic disciplines and endeavour to gain insight into the changing circumstances in which today’s creative processes arise and take shape.
The ways in which the world of art has evolved in recent decades is traced in discussions with, among others, the visual artists Michelangelo Pistoletto and Thierry De Cordier, choreographers Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Sang Jijia and Willy Tsao, theatre director Pippo Delbono and pop musician Matthew Herbert.
 Arts in Society sketches a provocative impression of the manner in which prominent artists, theorists and art intermediaries relate to economic, political, social and ecological issues. It presents an instructive narrative about power and impotence, cynicism and utopia, and nihilism and engagement aimed at all those who presently dare to call themselves artists and everyone who wants to understand and defend the importance of the role of the arts in society.
In association with the Research Group Arts in Society, Fontys College for the Arts 
Pascal Gielen and Paul De Bruyne (eds.), NAi-Publishers: Rotterdam, 2009.
With texts by Luigi Coppola, Marie-Josée Corsten, Michael Hardt, Gert Keunen, Rudi Laermans, Sonja Lavaert, Karel Vanhaesebrouck

ANNO UNO - TERZO PARADISO


Performance, Teatro Regio Torino, 6 nov 2009
by Michelangelo Pistoletto
re-enactement Luigi Coppola
with the people of Corniglia and Cittadellarte
realized for Artissima Teatro, Blinding the ears curated by Andrea Bellini
 photo Enrico Amici

ATTI DEMOCRATICI / DEMOCRATIC ACTS

 
After stops at the Democracy Biennial in Turin and the Festival Fabbrica Europa in Florence, from 15th to 30th October 2009 Lungomare and LOSS will present the third edition of the Atti Democratici project in Bolzano. The project will unfold in a series of performances, workshops, screenings, urban interventions, meetings and lectures, and a free press journal on the basic principles of the Italian Constitution.
16 – 30 October 2009 Ex Magazzini doganali – Stazione di Bozen-Bolzano, via Renon
curated by Angelika Burtscher, Luigi Coppola, Daniele Lupo, Judith Wielander
with: Lauren Alexander (designer, South Africa), Marco Angelucci (journalist, Bolzano), Franco Arminio (writer/townologist, Irpinia), Ei Arakawa & Nikolas Gambaroff (performer, New York), Carlo Bachschmidt (Genoa Social Forum), Brave New Alps (Designer, London), Tania Bruguera (performer, Cuba), Yael Davids (performer, Israel), Cornelia Durka (designer, Berlin), Ghalia Elsrakbi (designer, Damascus/Amsterdam), Jack Henrie Fisher & Popahna Brandes (designer/writer, Brussels), Shilpa Gupta (performer, Mumbai), Thomas Kager (political scientist, Bolzano), Merijn Oudenampsen (sociologist, Amsterdam), Cesare Pietroiusti (artist, Rom), Andrea Segre (director, Rom), Maria Rosa Sossai (curator, Roma), Ziga Testen (designer, Ljubljana), Daniel van der Velden (designer, Amsterdam).

BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT

Performance with Yingmei Duan
(40') 2009
Cavallerizza Reale, 1st Democracy Biennale Torino; Fabbrica Europa Firenze
Photo: Christian Fusco

"Breathe In Breathe Out" is the third collaborative performance project between Luigi Coppola and Yingmei Duan.
The stage is installed with a large pulley system of ropes. The ropes connect the audience to different objects: a microphone, a book of the law, a bucket of water, a chair, a table, a knife, and some rubbish bags. These ropes also hold the artists, and the audience can interact with these ropes and pull the performers and the objects as they wish. It is almost as if they have a remote control to command the performance.
One cage with a living white rabbit is free among the other tied objects. On the stage there is also a stopwatch on stage timing the performance.
Within the pulley system/spider web the artists represent symbols of moral, social, religious constriction and denial of freedom, in which the audience has an active role and a possibility to move and transform the performance.

ATTI DEMOCRATICI / DEMOCRATIC ACTS


Ricerca applicata sul rapporto tra arte e democrazia sviluppata da un network di artisti, curatori e teorici
Applied research on the relation between art and democracy developed by a network of artists, curators and theoriticians.
curata da / curated by Luigi Coppola and Marko Stamenkovic
24 - 25 april 2009 BIENNALE DEMOCRAZIA
05 - 23 may 2009 FESTIVAL FABBRICA EUROPA /
contributi artistici / artistic contributions
Angelika Burtscher & Daniele Lupo / Luigi Coppola / Yingmei Duan / Dariusz Fodczuk / Carlos Motta / Michelangelo Pistoletto / Juan Esteban Sandoval
contributi video film / video film contributions
Unmasked curato da Elise Youn and Carlos Motta, prod. New Museum di New York
Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler / Petra Bauer / François Bucher / Mary Billyou / Paul Chan / Jim Fetterley /Annelisse Fifi / Jim Finn / Ashley Hunt / Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen/ Lin + Lam / John Menick / Jenny Perlin / Dmitry Vilensky / Angie Waller / Susan Youssef
contributi teorici / theoretical contributions
Angelika Burtscher & Daniele Lupo / Branko Brezovec / Cesar Brie / Luigi Coppola /Yingmei Duan / Dariusz Fodczuk / Benoît Lachambre / Esteban Mihalik / Andrés Morte /
Carlos Motta / Andrés Neumann / Michelangelo Pistoletto / Juan Esteban Sandoval /Patricia Rivadeneira / Marko Stamenkovic / Marco Valerio Amico / Elvira Vannini
progetto sostenuto da / project in collaboration with
Prima Biennale Democrazia Torino / Fabbrica Europa Firenze /Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto / Casa della Creatività di Firenze / Sistema Teatro Torino / Ambasciata di Colombia in Italia / Lungomare Bolzano.

AS WE WANT YOU

Performance with Yingmei Duan
(30') University of Applied Sciences Nijmegen, The Netherland, 2009
Photo: Rob Gieling

 The performance is a collaboration between Yingmei Duan and Luigi Coppola on the occasion of the festival “Beauty, Ugliness and the Sublime”. Their performance relates directly to this premise of the festival.
The performance is held in a space in which the walls are covered in mirrors. The audience sits in two rows. The two performers stand at different sides of the space, rather than looking at each other directly, they look at the reflections of their body in the mirrors. Slowly they begin to move towards each other and meet in the middle of the room.
Coppola starts to undress Duan. He concentrates his attention to her and actively tries to change and move her body according to his own wishes. He also encourages the audience to observe and touch her while she remains passive. This gesture gives the impression he wants the audience to support his idea of beauty.
Whilst this is happening Duan appears hesitant. Her face looks confused and full of questions. She occasionally smells Coppola and various people from the audience that approach her.

GHOST AND I

Performance with Yingmei Duan
(30') Lungomare Gallery Bolzano, Italy - 2008
showed in partecipanti, connessi e in-dipendenti, Parallel Events Manifesta 7
photo: Ivo Corrà


The attention is focused on the crisis of European culture and the schematic construction of new social models. It would be a continuous and futile attempt to define new scenarios of social relationships, based on the consolidated culture of the Old Continent. The ghost is the advancing of the indefinite, incarnated by cultures that we can hear are coming, but are not able to identify. It forces them to join in the game and seek in desperation for new models of social order.
Through the construction of simple and direct performative actions, the artistic duo, composed of the Chinese artist Yingmei Duan and the Italian Luigi Coppola, work on activation, shaking-up relational mechanisms that criticise passivity and encourage taking the stance of a conscious and direct social actor. The duo also work on distances, fears, and the political and cultural divides that separate European culture from that of Asia.

PARTECIPANTI, CONNESSI E IN-DIPENDENTI

THREE DAYS OF PERFORMANCE AND PRESENTATIONS 11., 12., 13. 09. 2008
partecipanti, connessi e in-dipendenti a project by Lungomare & Luigi Coppola Parallel Events Manifesta 7
with Ana Borraho & João Galante (Portogallo), Yingmei Duan (Cina/Germania), Luigi Coppola & Loss (Italia)

photo: Lü Nan, performance To add one meter to an anonymous mountain
The performance weekend at the Lungomare Gallery proposes territories of observation and analysis of the contemporary performing language. “Participants, connected and in-dependent” presents performances which have the shared interest in working on the "aesthetics of relations" and on audience participation, at times subtle and ironic, at times explicit and provocative.

AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN



Action in public space /video by Luigi Coppola
realized in the context of the project: Untitled Portrait in collaboration with Isak Immanuel and Yuko Kaseki.
Shinjuku subway station, Tokyo, 2008

AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN from Luigi Coppola

ACTS OF ORDINARY DEMOCRATIC EXERCISE

ACT N. 3 CITTADELLARTE, UNIDEE PROGRAMME 2008
WORKSHOP / PERFORMANCE Luigi Coppola & LOSS

The System accept the principle of majority.
The Members accept the rules decided for the functioning of the System and Symbols of Connection chosen for the representation of the community.
Through the election all the members have the possibility to become Delegate.
The election is coming out through an explicit vote.
All the mechanism is visible and transparent:
rules, condition of becoming part at the System, nomenclature, proposals made by the Members, outcomes of the votes, performance modality, consequences of transgressions concerning rules.
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