Remembering May 26, 2019
I was traveling in New York City for a conference. My first time there. It felt like I wasn’t fully American, in a way, without visiting this city where half of the US movies take place, it seems. The conference was busy, and so my exploration was limited to walking neighborhoods, taking the subway, and a wonderful boat ride Friday night, where I saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time, from the water – just like my ancestors did arriving to the US as immigrants. She didn’t seem as large as I’d imagined, but just as moving, –maybe more poignant in contrast to the scale of downtown. Is there any US public art with greater impact than her?
My departing flight on Sunday was late enough that I was able to participate in a public performance artwork, timed to conclude the conference: “A Human Flower Wall,” created by Italian artist, Sasha Vinci. In my brief visit, nothing could have been a better bonding experience with place and people, nor better capped my adventure. It was a lifetime highlight. What follows are my notes, excerpts from Sasha’s posts, and reflections. It is good to reflect and remember, particularly when I had the honor and joy to participate in the artwork.
A Human Flower Wall
As described on Sasha’s website where it was promoted in advance:
A PERFORMANCE FOR URBAN SUSTAINABILITY
On May 26, 2019, in New York City, the art project A HUMAN FLOWER WALL will take place. Created by the Sicilian artist Sasha Vinci and curated by Diego Mantoan, the performance takes flowers and people to the streets of the Big Apple and is hosted by New York University on the occasional the international conference edra50 brooklyn on Sustainable Urban Environments. This project is based on the artistic experience of The Republic of Marvels, performed in Venice in 2018 following the victory at the Sustainable Art Prize. The new intervention blossoms from the art prize founded by Ca’ Foscari Sostenibile and awarded every Autumn at the art fair ArtVerona, in order to engage the art world in the debate on sustainable development.
On the last Sunday in May a parade of students and people will walk across the streets of NYC as one critical, unique and cohesive grouping, starting from the campus buildings of NYU Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn, the parade will thus metaphorically constitute a biological and moving wall, which appears ready to open up and be penetrated. It will be a wall made of flowers and humans that doesn’t imply negation, separation and division; on the contrary it stands as a symbol of integration, inclusiveness and protection of every human being, each one resonating like a human diapason with one another.
And here are some of the photos from his Facebook page. (It is kind of surreal to appear in some of the images!)
My experience – ‘Memento Flori’
It was such an immersive experience, but I didn’t want to record every part. Instead I decided to extract my primary impressions. So on my plane ride home, after watching the Vincent van Gogh movie (more art inspiration), I recorded the following in my travel notebook. Here’s a reading of it on a short video so you don’t have to decipher my handwriting. Note that it includes content from third party conversations that may not be factual about the artist.
Remembering the Flowers
It has been over a week now. It is wonderful to see Sasha has posted images of the parade today. I’d only taken one picture, since I was inside of the parade, and I wanted to do more ‘being’ than recording. Also, more than half the time I had a heavy carpet of flowers hanging over my arms.
I am trying to process what to bring forward from this experience. Somehow it feels like the lifespan of the experience is longer for me than the parade itself. Clearly the artist intends for it to make a lasting impression – to cause a remembering, perhaps. Memento Flori references Memento Mori, “…the medieval Latin Christian theory and practice of reflection on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits (Wikipedia).” In mirrored contrast, the flowers ask us to remember -what? Life? The transitory-ness and fragility of life? The artwork’s flowers die, of course, though they hold life energy throughout the performance, and surprisingly for several days afterwards. In the post with the images above, Sasha refers to the flower as “Image of life and rebirth.”
I brought home two flowers that fell from the carpets. I safely transported them in my glasses case, and noticed that they were each in the position of an eye. This struck me as a fitting image by which to remember the flowers. I have photographed the flower’s slow withering.
Now it has gone to seed. I imagine planting flowers, as a next chapter.
My artist friend, Pat Young, introduced me to the idea of “Slow Art,” –spending time with an artwork, rather than consuming it in one gulp (my paraphrase). While the flower parade was fleeting, its intended impression is not, and I’m going to let my experience of the Human Flower Wall unfold, following it where it leads.
Grazie mille, Sasha, and your whole team for this experience and lifelong memory.