ANTERSASS
confluenze artistiche
FATTORIA ARTISTICA_FRONTEDELLACULTURA_HRANET
22/09/2009 >> Invito all’opera:
__________________________
Dear
Friends,
having read the invitation letter to
The Wandering Cemetery
and
The Sad Smoky Mountains
once again I realize that
writing an incisive invitation letter to the action is somewhat
extraordinary, like the action you are invited to. I mean by this is
that writing or the action itself are not easy or to be taken for
granted.
I am going to try one more time, seeking help from suggestions and
telling the anecdotes which originated this new idea of mine.
In the meantime I had already started working with some friends to make
my past actions grow. I call this ‘operationism’, i.e. civil
action and work of art merged into one another.
The location of the action is, once again, Vicenza, my hometown, where
we experience a common need among townspeople for a brand new turn of
the events following the disappointment caused by the gloomy events
connected to the construction of the new military base.
Indeed,
I
wish to call that ‘established illegality’, just to put this fact into a
legitimate abstraction that everybody can understand, even the people
who support the base. I
repeat: disappointment, torpor, bewilderment, following the
establishment of a widespread illegality.
I believe this ‘shapeless shape’ of imperialism that has swallowed last
century ideologies is really curious indeed.
Let’s go back to the story. No doubt in these years Vicenza has become a
landmark for peace and civil rights. Many facts support this evidence,
especially the extraordinary civil struggle carried out by thousands of
citizens in order to oppose the militarization of their own land. But
what I am also well aware of, is that the actions taken by the masses
are not enough to change the events. Taking this as an hypothesis, it
becomes necessary to study new strategies and be committed on different
levels, getting rid of half-measures.
This is the only way to change things and to unmask the falsehood and
half-truths of the Power (I am talking about the ‘possibilities’ each of
us has). In other words, we need a cultural shock in order to
make things change at all levels, otherwise “September’s
here again” – compensations step in. We should never forget that
the today’s crisis is first of all a cultural crisis, a crisis regarding
present-day life-paths, experiences, cultural habits.
We therefore need that something new could be brought to the Town,
not only in terms of economy, particularly if this fosters war
industries that manufacture weapons and cause destruction. As we were
saying among friends, we need to build something that can make it
overt the bent of Vicenza for peace and culture, as it appears in the
UNESCO Heritage. Not a bent for military bases. A far-sighted cultural
path. Many people are working on it.
It happens that – due to this bent for peace – the Town gets a statue of
Gandhi as a gift from the Consulate of India – on the 140th
anniversary of Gandhi’s birth.
“A statue ? What are we going to do with a statue? and where are we
going to put it?” some of my close friends asked. “ You, Alberto, that
has made the statue of Palladio talk (The
Sad Smoky Palladio), why aren’t you making this new statue talk or
else work out something other than the usual, easily forgotten
inauguration?”
On that day I was heading home trying to concentrate my thoughts
on what was tying myself to Gandhi. When I got home I went to look for a
book which I hadn’t opened for 20 years, in a special section of my
personal bookcase called ‘books with documents’, the title being “Antiche
come le montagne” (As old as the mountains, original title:
All men are brothers). And I travelled many mountains in my
lifetime.
I blew the dust away. I opened it, I was very curious. I opened it on
page 68 (Saggi Mondadori, 1987 2nd edition), carried away as
I was by a vivid curiosity. There, a bookmark captured my attention and
highlighted a sentence, a teaching that I have not forgotten since then.
The bookmark was my Paper of discharge from the army. The
underlined sentence read: “the only possession is non-possession”.
After that I shut my eyes and imagined the wide area of Campo Marzo in
Vicenza the same as I now want to do with you. Dusk is approaching, 400
flickering screens reflect their peculiar light. Behind, at the back,
Gandhi’s statue which is the focal point of an array of 400 school-desks
and chairs arranged according to a precise lay-out, all of them facing
Monte Berico. Then, when the evening light is coming, hundreds of people
start taking a seat. On their screens they are ready to receive several
different kinds of messages of peace, written, conceived and sent out
from that very focal point which is neither dead nor still, but alive
and dynamic, as if it was a teacher who invites his/her students to take
action. We then see rising an
extreme
appeal to the International Right, to UNESCO, that from computer
to computer, thanks to the exponential strength injected into the web by
the modern social networks and from net-mailing, spreads out to every
corner of the planet, generating information charges, originated
by that only place, our Town, a permanent, enduring, unceasing site of
peace. Finally, a music springs from a multitude of digital
voices that make up the work of art, voices that breathe between one
message and another like they were breaths of wonder.
I dreamt of Vicenza in this way, a town under a new dim light of a
multitude of multi-coloured screens. Vicenza, “Una sola moltitudine”
(One
only multitude,
original title: A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe),
to recall the title of the book by Pessoa that I love best or, as a
tribute to Paul Hawken, “Una moltitudine inarrestabile” (An
unstoppable multitude, original title: Blessed Unrest).
Vicenza, “one only unstoppable multitude” to stop present-day
injustices. One only unstoppable multitude that becomes alive once again
from the very field where we laid-out our crosses of The Wandering
Cemetery two years ago. A Wandering Cemetery coming down from our
Highlands in order not to forget the voices of the youths and civilians
that lost their lives in wars. Voices that relive here to regain the
space of ether that the injustice of the wars has stolen.
I am closing this invitation quoting the words of a collaborator of
mine, a philosopher, Stefano Bellanda: “I am very skeptical about mass
movements but I am somewhat optimistic about net movements”. So am I.
What we are doing won’t be easily cancelled, especially in the hearts of
the participants.
Summing it up, Peace is a net.
Truth and non-violence are as old as
the mountains.
I’m waiting for you all on 3rd
October
Yours
Alberto Peruffo [ Italy ]
P.S.
It is possible to participate even from your home/office/computer
stand or be a simple supporter, by spreading the message at the
same arranged time or
postponed,
following days after 3rd October, as soon as you'll entry on your
computer.
Subscribe you immediately here
www.upstandingpoint.net !
ENGLISH VERSION
