A Hand Full of Sun

Werkbank, Lana, BZ
2013

A Hand Full of Sun is not about making new artworks; it is about witnessing a series of actions that happened inside and outside the exhibition space.
The main action at the core of the whole project has a precise mission; giving Lana a bit more of sunlight. Translated into action, it means climbing on the top of Mount Roten Knott (that over shades the city) to remove a rock from the peak, just for few minutes. Possibly, that same stone was hiding rays of sunlight from the city.
The action is full of irony and fun and it teases the rhetoric of Fitzcarraldo; the absurd and impossible task. This action is the linchpin for the exhibition; a noble action closer to poetry than to a rational assignment.
The space shows the documentation of this gesture from different perspectives; it is the result of the action itself. We experience a video of the sunlight in a room, a photograph documenting the sun’s cycle (printed on salt plates). But the tangible proof of the action is the rock in the spotlight, in the middle of the exhibition space. Lighting plays a role in this sense, and the choice of using 500w and 100w bulbs aims to enhance the sculptural identity of this artistic action.
The second moment (or action) of this process is to be found in the exhibition catalogue. This is literally made from the tracing of the floor; copying, absorbing and displaying layers of time and dust on the floor’s surface. Is part of a series of interventions called Caduceo. The catalogue becomes an accurate documentation of the space and it corresponds in size to the space lying between the old house and the new one. Werbank’s space is, in fact, the basement of the new house, which is built on the ancient one. This intervention focuses on space, in order to make it a part of the action and generating a performative zone. It becomes à la fois, the container and the content and so the heart of the exhibition and of our experience.

Denis Isaia

Video 1’02”, five alogen light, stone, wood, salt board inkjet printed, nylon thread, hooks, paper, wax.