Solid Sea 01: the Ghost Ship is the first of a number of cases amassed during research into changes to the Mare Nostrum by Multiplicity, a multidisciplinary territorial research agency, which investigates the inhabited space, seeking traces of new social behaviour.
The story of the tragic sinking of the Yiohan on Christmas night 1996 in the waters of the Canale di Sicilia, in which 283 Tamil, Pakistani and Indian migrants died, come to the Lima space in Milan thanks to the Solid Sea 01 installation. The Ghost Ship is a project by Multiplicity and Giovanni Maria Bellu. The video installation in two rooms – produced last year for Documenta XI in Kassel – tells how, despite the statements of the survivors and the discovery of human remains in fishermen’s nets, for five years the authorities of the countries involved in the sinking denied the tragedy. Proof only came to light thanks to pictures taken by the journalist Giovanni Maria Bellu using an underwater video camera nineteen miles off the coast of Sicily.
A special effect is created in the room by a number of viewers laid on the ground, via which the various protagonists of the event provide their testimony in a muddled and dissonant choir.
A second chapter in the project is Solid Sea 02: Odessa/the World, produced in collaboration with Armin Linke.
The two installation videos on the lower floor of the Lima space present parallel portraits of community life on board two cruise ships: the Odessa, the flagship of the Ukrainian fleet, which was anchored in the port of Naples, under sequestration, for seven years with its captain and eight crew members on board; and The World Residentsea, a veritable condominium of 110 luxury apartments, where you can buy a home and with it off-shore citizenship, that moves around the Mediterranean following the society events without entering into contact with the sea’s other inhabitants.
Armin Linke, a Milanese photographer, stresses that the use and a sense of time are the keys to this work, executed in collaboration with Carlotta Cristiani, who supervised the video editing. It was filmed in January 2001, during the Ukraine New Year, at the invitation of Matteo Fraterno, who, within the scope of the L’Attesa – Laboratorio Odessa project (2001-2002), organised a workshop on board the ship with the participation of several artists, and the involvement of the crew and the Port.
The Solid Sea project is presented in various rooms of Lima – an independent space dedicated to the visual arts and contemporary culture – in collaboration with Chiamamilano – a civic foundation created in March last year to encourage citizens to participate in the decisional processes that concern them – and Lima. The exhibition design is by Studioper with a contribution by EPSON Italia Spa.
until 14 November
Solid Sea
Lima, via Masera, opposite no. 10, Milan
Info:
T. +39.02.89697501
elebari@libero.it
http://www.multiplicity.it
http://www.spaziolima.it
