Venice Fellowship - Day 10

The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf joined us in the British Pavillion yesterday for a one-day sound installation piece. They had taken an illustration of the Raft of Medusa that he had used in the programme brochure and pixel by pixel they'd created a soundscape to play over speakers inside the pavillion. 

It made me think about the metaphor within Island for Brexit, and I thought that maybe it could be said that our Pavillion is the raft; the last thing standing, a last hurrah for civilisation before it all comes crashing down around us. Hearing the soundscape echoing through the empty gallery was as ominous as it was beautiful.

At 4 they did a Tea Disruption performance. Around the back of the Pavillion, they dressed up in costumes and locked themselves out the back with glasses of champage, performing in a sort of party that the audience could only watch through the windows. You could only go outside to join them if one of them came out and proposed to you with a gold plastic ring. It created a fantastic sense of separation and otherness, suggesting that there are two factions forming, and again this led me to think again about Brexit.

Are we the people locking ourselves out, partying and ignoring the world? Are they commenting on marriage being necessary to join in another national community? Are we the people stuck inside, in our Island, while the world laughs and parties on oblivious?

Throughout the teatime disruption, they played a warped version of the Acqua Alta alarm. All four sirens rung in our ears, creating a sense of immediate unease or panic as soon as you heard it.

It's made me consider the power of performance and sound installations, and also how far you can push an image, even turning it into music. There is always another way you can develop your work and transform it into something else.