Deborah Ligorio, Survival Kit – Bellissima 1/99, 2012, assemblage: egg box, paper, woolen cloth, string, 19x12x9 cm.
Deborah Ligorio, Survival Kit – Bellissima, 2012, bronze, 19x12x9 cm.
Deborah Ligorio, Survival Kit – Kostas 1/99, 2012,
assemblage: ethernet cable, toothbrush, plastic shaker cup, paper, rubber band, 29x13x12 cm.
Deborah Ligorio, Survival Kit – The person who kept functioning 1/99, 2012,
assemblage: egg box, paper, book, wooden meter, belt, 22x10x12 cm.
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Deborah Ligorio / Survival Kits*
What kind of situations do you need to survive? And what does your choice tell about the emergency you imagine, and yourself?
The artist Deborah Ligorio’s most recent series of “survival kits” addresses situations of emergency and urgency of everyday life. The kits come in two versions. One is a unique bronze cast. The other is an assemblage of objects, variable but handmade pieces in an edition of 99. The bronze is sold on the art market (Liste 2012 at Francesca Minini, booth 2/1/G2), and the assemblage-objects are placed on eBay.
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FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions: How did you started to work on “Survival Kits”?
Deborah Ligorio: In a poetic or ironic mood I imagined survival kits for situations that may result from the economic crisis, like the loss of job or the house loss together with consequences like having to move in the office space or back to the parents’ house. Situations that can be connected to mass phenomena like brain drain or foreclosure. Natural catastrophes like earthquakes and floods may also inspire some of the survival kits, but not as apocalyptic scenarios, rather in the way they shape everyday life.
FAQ: How do they deal with the slogan “we are the 99 %”? Why the assemblage and the bronze?
DL: The way I make editions of the Survival Kits refers to the idea of the 1% and the 99 %. Even though I think that the slogan “we are the 99%” is imprecise, I find it interesting to elaborate on it. The kits made for the 99 are assemblages of objects – for instance an ethernet cable, a toothbrush, and a plastic cup. I also insert a “collaged part” that is meant to work as visual instruction. Almost like an etiquette, it becomes the most allusive element, for example when I place the image of a superhero on the plastic cup. The kit for the “ones” is a bronze, a cast of the very same assemblage. ?
FAQ: Are the kits editions or unique pieces?
DL: The “ninety-nine’s” kits come as an edition of 99, while the bronze is always one unique piece. This way, the technical relations are put upside down. Normally one would assume that the bronze is a reproduced item and whereas the manual assemblage is unique. But in fact, it is easier and cheaper to create 99 copies of an assemblage rather than to mechanically reproduce a bronze, thanks to the fact that our world drowns in cheap industrially made objects. The assemblages are made with easy to find items, abundant products. The “master” consists in nothing else than a list of objects. Whenever I assemble these objects, the piece counts as reproduced. With this idea of manually assembled editions I explore a different, pre-industrial mode of reproduction. As a result, the bronze is a unique piece, whilst the assemblages are 99 versions, unique and different at the same time.
FAQ: What about the distribution? How do you place them on the market.
DL: The kits are sold on two different markets. The bronze will go through the gallery, whilst the assemblages will sell on e-bay. This does not change the type of buyer. Whomever interested in collecting will be able to acquire a piece. But, of course, through eBay I approach customers with a very different income and without access to the genuine art market. Even if both versions are presented and shown in exhibitions or in art-fairs, whomever interested in buying an assemblage has to go through Ebay. The idea is also to subvert exclusivity of the art-market. the Art world the difference between the hypothetical 1 and the 99 % . By playing with the art market I want to stress this very point.
FAQ: How do they deal with the slogan “we are the 99 %”? Why the assemblage and the bronze?
DL: The way I make editions of the Survival Kits refers to the idea of the 1% and the 99 %. Even though I think that the slogan “we are the 99%” is imprecise, I find it interesting to elaborate on it. The kits made for the 99 are assemblages of objects – for instance an ethernet cable, a toothbrush, and a plastic cup. I also insert a “collaged part” that is meant to work as visual instruction. Almost like an etiquette, it becomes the most allusive element, for example when I place the image of a superhero on the plastic cup. The kit for the “ones” is a bronze, a cast of the very same assemblage. ?
FAQ: Are the kits editions or unique pieces?
DL: The “ninety-nine’s” kits come as an edition of 99, while the bronze is always one unique piece. This way, the technical relations are put upside down. Normally one would assume that the bronze is a reproduced item and whereas the manual assemblage is unique. But in fact, it is easier and cheaper to create 99 copies of an assemblage rather than to mechanically reproduce a bronze, thanks to the fact that our world drowns in cheap industrially made objects. The assemblages are made with easy to find items, abundant products. The “master” consists in nothing else than a list of objects. Whenever I assemble these objects, the piece counts as reproduced. With this idea of manually assembled editions I explore a different, pre-industrial mode of reproduction. As a result, the bronze is a unique piece, whilst the assemblages are 99 versions, unique and different at the same time.
FAQ: What about the distribution? How do you place them on the market.
DL: The kits are sold on two different markets. The bronze will go through the gallery, whilst the assemblages will sell on e-bay. This does not change the type of buyer. Whomever interested in collecting will be able to acquire a piece. But, of course, through eBay I approach customers with a very different income and without access to the genuine art market. Even if both versions are presented and shown in exhibitions or in art-fairs, whomever interested in buying an assemblage has to go through Ebay. The idea is also to subvert exclusivity of the art-market. the Art world the difference between the hypothetical 1 and the 99 % . By playing with the art market I want to stress this very point.
… read more at the projects’ blog: http://supervivalkit.blogspot.it/
*
“The Survival Kit Bellissima is dedicated to Luchino Visconti’s film (with the same title, 1951) and in particular to the aspirations and desperation, expectation and projections, of the mother Maddalena (Anna Magnani) towards her daughter and the dream of making her become a young actress in Cinecittà.” Deborah Ligorio
Deborah Ligorio, Survival Kit – Researcher Marcella 1/99, 2012,
assemblage: kraft bubble envelope, paper, in-ear headphones, socks, rubber band, 27x13x12 cm.
