Tenderness is Reserved for the Unpredictable
a mirror and time-based performance
by Sanjeshka and Dejana Pupovac
curated by Eleonora Angiolini
presented by Contemporary Attitude
staged simultaneously at Chiesa esterna, Monastero di Santa Maria Assunta in Cairate (VA)
and at Dejana Pupovac’s art studio in Brooklyn (NY), on the 18th of September 2022
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Watch the video of the performance held in Cairate ︎︎︎here
Watch the video of the performance held in Brooklyn ︎︎︎here
For the performance in Cairate
Performers: Lorenzo Vitalone, Andreas Andronikou, Alessandro Lely with Oleg Pupovac
Art handler: Martino Coffa
Performers: Lorenzo Vitalone, Andreas Andronikou, Alessandro Lely with Oleg Pupovac
Art handler: Martino Coffa
For the performance in Brooklyn
Performers: Ursula Damm, sumisnack, Cveta Popović, Dejana Pupovac, Kathie Halfin, Carlos Tayler,
Art handlers: Martino Coffa, Duccio Fabbri
Performers: Ursula Damm, sumisnack, Cveta Popović, Dejana Pupovac, Kathie Halfin, Carlos Tayler,
Art handlers: Martino Coffa, Duccio Fabbri
A sculpture designed by Sanjeshka to functionally and symbolically accompany falling peels of root vegetables, sits in the center of the space at Santa Maria Assunta Monastery in Cairate. Between 2.00 pm and 8.00 pm, different performers take turns peeling potatoes and apples, one by one, atop the structure, allowing the peel to fall as it may. Giacomo Vanelli provides a musical accompaniment of modulating phonographic recordings and samples of the organist Nin, a soundscape of continuous and random rhythms throughout the evolution of the work.
TENDERNESS IS RESERVED FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE gives continuity to the central objective of Sanjeshka's previous performative production; awaken the mind of the viewer by activating an unconscious archaic state of contemplation, which can contrast the restless mental state of the contemporary worker (“ASMR YOU SLEEPING”, 2020 and “The Imperceptible Rise of Perversely Peaceful Jokers”, 2020).
Repetitiveness is transposed by Dejana Pupovac to another performative action at her studio in Brooklyn where she hosts several artists as performers. Here a sculpture, structurally repetitive and suspended, dialogues with the performers and their continuous and protracted gestures of unstitching discarded clothes between 8.00 am and 2.00 pm EDT.
"In my work, I often think of senseless forms that acquire existential or aesthetic value, of unfinished shapes and structures and their lack of destination. Fabric as material in my work interests me in that sense also, fabric is made of completed and endless structures, repetitive and stratified."
The New York performance was streamed live at the venue in Cairate, culminating the shared process between the two artists, the performative action mirrored in time and repetitiveness, in two separate places.
download the press kit of the performance here