\u201cPerforming Textiles<\/strong>\u201d by the Thai artist\u00a0Kawita Vatanajyankur<\/strong>, is the\u00a0solo-exhibition<\/strong>\u00a0which inaugurates the opening of the\u00a0CEA \u2013 Concilio Europeo dell\u2019Arte<\/strong>\u2018s new seat and gallery \u2013\u00a0InParadiso 3030<\/strong>, in the very heart of Venice art district, just aside the magnificient Basilica dei Frari. Kawita Vatanajyankur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibitions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1679,"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/1679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/concilioeuropeodellarte.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It is no coincidence that the Concilio Europeo dell\u2019Arte chose the renowned video artist and performer Kawita Vatanajyankur for the opening of InParadiso 3030, on the occasion of\u00a0the 58th International Art Exhibition \u2013 La Biennale di Venezia<\/strong>. Her solo-exhibition brings her\u00a0latest provocations<\/strong>\u00a0to Venice: the series Performing Textiles provoke questions surrounding the place of cultural identity, feminism, women\u2019s work, consumerism and lived experiences \u2013 classified through a lens of\u00a0hyper-coloured realism<\/strong>\u00a0and the intensity of physical versus material composition. Her suite of videos offers a vignette into the physicality and vulnerability of the feminine body.
Protagonist<\/strong>\u00a0of the contemporary Asian and Australian art scene, as well as in Europe and USA, Kawita investigates throughout her video-performances the\u00a0vulnerable female condition<\/strong>, in which female bodies are engaged in almost impossible balancing acts, while captivating and luminous colors characterize an aesthetic research that draws on the\u00a0visual language<\/strong>\u00a0of the network, a sarcastic allusion to consumerism that claims to give instant gratification.
Performing Textiles \u2013 created when travelling around\u00a0New Zealand<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 stems from a journey in\u00a0Thailand<\/strong>\u00a0that the artist has undertaken to explore the various textile production techniques existing in small villages, adopted by local women workers: here, production was often time-consuming, but the quality of fabrics fashioned by these women were superior. And it is\u00a0Kawita\u2019s body performances giving voice to the work of these women<\/strong>, questioning the way in which work is organized and, in turn, the position of women in society.
However, textiles undeniably have a place firmly embedded in history, and it is this\u00a0history of textile production<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 recognised as women\u2019s labour \u2013 that has ingrained itself in our culture. Basketry, loom weaving, knitting, crochet and lacemaking are all feminine material skills that rendered men unnecessary. As such, Vatanajyankur\u2019s practice \u201cfocuses on valuing women\u2019s everyday work and labour, while offering a powerful examination of social and cultural ways of viewing women\u2019s work<\/strong>\u201d. Labour exploitation is a major issue within consumeristic society, blocking access to female empowerment and gender equality. Performing Textiles brings this issue into the public sphere.
In her\u00a0performances<\/strong>, Vatanajyankur transforms her body into various textile process tools. Her physical form becomes the embodiment of a spinning wheel or weaving shuttle. As the works progress, her body struggles to compete as the material tool, and thus her form undergoes both psychological and physical metamorphosis. repeating infinitely the movements.
Textiles are linked symbolically to birth, fertility and reproduction. The practice of working with materials connects women\u2019s bodies to the earth. It is a symbol of life and power. There is a poetic parallel which exists between the creation of new thread and new life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"