A performative gathering organized by Arnisa Zeqo, as part of the exhibition Cinque Mostre 2018 – The Tesseract.

Gossip as a form of communication and political action is the attitude, rather than simply the topic, of this event. This talk show takes place within the display of the work of Mexican artist Ulises Carrion (1949–1989), Gossip, Scandal and Good Manners (1981), an installation included in the ongoing exhibition Cinque Mostre – The Tesseract, curated by Ilaria Gianni. (The installation was created in collaboration with Suzanne Farrin, Ashley Fure, Tiziana del Grosso, T. Geronimo Johnson, Johanna Lobdell, Tricia Treacy, and Joseph Williams.)

For Carrion’s “conceptual performance,” which took place between March and June 1981, a small group of people in the city of Amsterdam spread several semi-fictional rumors about Carrion’s work and life. Almost three decades later, gossip is brought back to life in the infra-mince space of private conversations among friends and colleagues at the American Academy in Rome. Is gossip a form of art, music, and literature? Can gossip become a performative tool for artistic reproduction and narrative? Stolen kisses, night walks, or small glances while waiting for the bus open up towards a broader artistic weaving of the world. Through the various interventions presented at this event, gossip emerges as an undulating reference at the intersection between literature, performance, conceptual art, and life.

Zeqo was the Mondriaan Fonds/Dutch Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in fall 2017. The event will be held in English. You can watch this event at https://livestream.com/aarome.

Program

An introduction by Arnisa Zeqo
A presentation by Joseph Williams and Tiziana del Grosso on a gossip campaign within AAR
A reading on gossip in antiquity suggested by Kevin Moch
A sound pause by Susanne Farrin
A poetry reading by Uljana Wolf
A screening by WU Tsang
A performative movement by Ashley Fure, Aroussiak Gabrielian, and Alison Hirsch

The project is made possible by the Adele Chatfield-Taylor and John Guare Fund for the Arts.

The exhibition Cinque Mostre 2018 – The Tesseract is open on March 15 from 5:00 to 8:00pm.