Contemporary Attitude in collaboration with Adiacenze presentsTenderness is
Reserved
for the
Unpredictable
a mirror performance by Sanjeshka and Dejana Pupovac
curated by Eleonora Angiolini
23, 24, 25 May 2024
Bologna, Esprit Nouveau Pavilion
Piazza della Costituzione, 11
2pm - 7pm CET
New York, NYSS project space
20 Jay St, Suite 307
8AM - 1PM EDT
In partnership with New York Studio School and MAMbo – Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna
Project presented by Contemporary Attitude and Adiacenze as part of CLOSER
Locations spread across Italy and abroad, from May 2024 to April 2025
Under the patronage of Fondazione Guglielmo Marconi and Comune di Bologna
From 23 to 25 May 2024, Contemporary Attitude and Adiacenze present Tenderness is Reserved for the Unpredictable, a mirror performance by Serbian artists Sanjeshka and Dejana Pupovac curated by Eleonora Angiolini. The project will take place simultaneously in Bologna, at the Esprit Nouveau Pavilion, and at the NYSS project space of the New York Studio School, respectively.
Tenderness is Reserved for the Unpredictable is a contemplative and immersive experience devised as a reaction to a society defined by philosopher Byung Chul-Han as “without stillness”.
“Without stillness, man loses the celestial dimension [...] The compulsion to act, to produce and to perform causes shortness of breath. The human being suffocates in his own actions. Only by meditating does the space around man expand and the air circulate. […] If it does not welcome the contemplative life within itself, the vita activa is distorted by hyperactivity and ends in a burnout, not only of the psychic self but of the entire planet."
Byung-Chul Han, Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity, 2023Tenderness is Reserved for the Unpredictable is a shared work of conceptual development and connection in time and space through the relationship of repetitive gestures, activated in both iterations of the work. The New York performance will livestream in Bologna while the Bologna performance livestreams in New York.
The two artists, Sanjeshka and Dejana Pupovac, who come from design and cinema backgrounds, first presented the project in 2022 where a network of performing artists activated the process. This time it is the public that directly takes matters into its hands and becomes the protagonist of the piece. Visitors of both spaces are invited to activate the performance with two contemplative and meditative gestures.
At the NYSS project space, visitors will be able to occupy the space delimited by the sculpture designed by Dejana Pupovac and activate the work through the repetitive gesture of unstitching clothes. Pupovac's work focuses on the sculpture of memory, together charged with the accumulation of time passed (embodied in the reuse of found fabrics) and the progression of time (triggered by the repetitive performative act).
While at The Esprit Nouveau pavilion, three of Sanjeshka’s sculptures in dialogue with the architecture designed by Le Corbusier will inhabit the space. In Sankeshka’s words:
“Architecture is by its nature the slowest form of art, it is the endeavor that remains for decades if not for centuries. The Esprit Nouveau is the epitome of architecture and of its slow evolution over time, as well as a prototype of the contemporary home. Also, the home being the original custodian of daily routine, is by default a container of repetitiveness. So, Tenderness is Reserved for the Unpredictable finds its natural dwelling inside Le Corbusier's famous pavilion.”
In Bologna, the movement and the participation of the visitors will be accompanied by the acousmatic work of the musician Giacomo Vanelli. Based on the re-elaboration, union and transmission of different types of sounds in the environment, the acoustic experience will take the visitors’ conscience to a contemplative and immersive state in time and space through a series of scattered points in the environment.
download the press kit of the performance here