Claudia Borgna PLASTIC BAGS- Broomhill Sculpture Prize

HANGING ON A LINE

2012-01-01T19:16:00.000-08:00

FOR THIS WORK I HAVE USED THE MUSIC Open Graves FROM THE ALBUM FLIGHTPATTERNS BY PAUL KIKUCHI, STUART DEMPSTER AND JESSE OLSEN.

I have met Paul at Montalvo during our residency and he has been so kind to lend me his work to complement mine!

If you like Paul Kikuchi's music do check this link out: http://www.prefecturerecords.com/

DON'T STEAL MY BREATH

2012-01-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

PENELOPE'S RUNAWAY, WEAVING MY OWN

2011-12-29T18:55:00.000-08:00

HANGING in here and in there

2011-12-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

getting ready to leave Montalvo: Artist Page

2011-12-19T17:01:00.001-08:00

and back in the Montalvo's woods before my departure

2011-12-19T16:58:00.001-08:00

last attempts at Montalvo

2011-12-19T16:56:00.000-08:00

TRAIN OF THOUGHTS

2011-12-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

CLAUDIA BORGNA & NINA HAFT COLLABORATING AT LOS GATOS ART MUSEUM

2011-12-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

PACKING UP AT MONTALVO

2011-12-12T17:20:00.000-08:00

So my time here at Montalvo is sadly coming to an end and as you can see in the photos below I have been packing! 18 Boxes full of plastic bags: 30 thousand of them.

Since the 19th November I have been deinstalling my work at the Los Gatos Art Museum as well as the one on the Montalvo grounds. It has been quite overwhelming to take a part, deconstruct, dry, fold, squeeze and squash 2 big projects in one go simultaneously and I have been through some dark patches thorough that process, but now that I have it done and have figured out where and when to ship them I feel much relief and will spend the last of my time here, editing few more videos and testing few more ideas in the Redwood woods here at Montalvo

Mighty like a flower: the Harvest

2011-12-12T16:21:00.000-08:00

....and for this video work I have used the music composed by Richard Dubugnon who I have also met at Montalvo!....... If your like his Music check out this link: http://www.richarddubugnon.com/

It's been so great to have been surrounded by such gifted artists: Thank you!

in the Montalvo woods

2011-11-30T16:03:00.000-08:00

This one gave me poison oak!

2011-11-30T09:27:00.001-08:00

more tests here at Montalvo

2011-11-30T08:57:00.001-08:00

.....and in the forest by the dump

2011-11-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

..and outside

2011-11-30T08:44:00.001-08:00

getting some ideas out of my head here at Montalvo

2011-11-30T08:41:00.001-08:00

Before I start packing!!

this how I dried the bags that came from Anne and Mark's Art party show

I do like it!

WEATHERED

2011-11-30T08:37:00.000-08:00

it's autumn too, here in California!

2011-11-30T08:10:00.000-08:00

BED OF BREASTS

2011-11-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

Suspended Survival, Hanging on Hanging in the entangled dangle

2011-11-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

A SEA WITH NO MORE GODS

2011-11-26T21:18:00.000-08:00

Hanging Landscapes

2011-11-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

WHO CAN STILL bear ALL THAT BEAUTIFUL CRAP?

2011-11-24T10:53:00.000-08:00

Mighty Like a Flower

2011-11-23T14:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a shorter version of Montalvo's October Final Friday. My mum did not like the introductory talk interrupting the dance performance in between the video so I have edited a bit more............

MIGHTY LIKE A FLOWER

2011-11-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

Below is the full documentation of October's Final Friday at Montalvo Arts Center.

That was an amazing event of different disciplines and people all coming together in one big joint effort

to find out more watch the video!!

HOW MANY VEILS COUGHT BY THE WIND FIDDLING WITH THE CLOUDS

2011-11-18T10:57:00.000-08:00

'MIGHTY LIKE A FLOWER' Poster

2011-11-13T10:58:00.000-08:00

POSTER SIGN GOING UP ON HIGHWAY 9

LOOK OUT FOR IT ON THE SARATOGA LOS GATOS ROAD

COUGHT IN A SHELL

2011-11-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

Back at editing videos. Trying to go through all the film footage that has been accumulating since my time in Aberystwyth last August.

The video below was filmed last summer partly in Italy and partly in Wales during my residency at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, that is were the idea was born and were I had made the plastic bags veils that you see performing in the video.

Magic hands, musical hands, what else? Just longing for them to touch you too?

2011-11-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

THE MAGIC NIGHT AT ANNE AND MARKS ART PARTY PREVIEW

MOTOKO AND RICHARD HANDS IMPROVISING ON A SERIES OF SUBLIME DUETS.......

WHILE DEBBY AND JOSE, INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC, DO THEIR MOVES !

ALL IN STRIPES AND NOTES

TOUCHING THE MUSIC, CAN YOU HEAR IT?

One Afternoon at Los Gatos Art Museum with Museum director John Caggs, famous swiss french composer Richard Dubugnon and genius music artist Motoko Honda

2011-11-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

Having fun at the museum.

Thank you Motoko, Richard and John for the good times. Will really miss you as well!

ALL WRAPPED UP READY TO GO BACK TO OAKLAND!

2011-11-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

THESE STICKS I HAD MADE LAST YEAR FOR NINA HAFT & COMPANY FOR THE PERFORMANCE AT ZACCHO DANCE THEATRE.

THEY WERE AN ADAPTATION OF OF THE ARTWORK 'COLONNE D'ERCOLE'

NINA AND THE DANCERS HAVE BEEN DOING A REALLY GRAND JOB AT CHOREOGRAPHING THEIR MOVES WITH THIS SCULPTURAL EXTENSION QUITE AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL.

THEY WERE THE CENTER PIECE OF THE VILLA MONTALVO TERRACE DURING ANDREA'S POP UP CAFE' EVENT.

THEY ARE NOW ALL PACKED UP AGAIN READY TO GO BACK TO NINA'S BASEMENT IN OAKLAND AND HOPEFULLY TO SHOW BACK UP AND BE REVIVED BY ANOTHER PERFORMANCE SOON!

COLLABORATING WITH NK DANCE THEATRE

2011-10-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

THE PARTY LIGHTS ARE ON REFLECTING ON MY BAGS! IT'S THE GRAND NIGHT OF
ANNE AND MARK'S ART PARTY!

LET THE DANCE BEGIN!

AND THE SHOW BEGINS INDEED!

HERE ARE NK DANCE THEATRE AT THEIR PERFORMANCE
www.nkdancetheater.com ARE A BAY AREA DANCE COMPANY COMPOSED BY DEBBY KAJIYAMA AND JOSE' NAVARRETE.

ONCE WE MET WE IMMEDIATELY REALIZED THAT WE WERE ON THE SAME GROUNDS SHARING SIMILAR CONCERNS ABOUT ART AND LIFE.
FROM THERE WE TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO JUMP ON BOARD FOR THIS LITTLE ADVENTURE AND JOIN FORCES FOR THE FUNDRAISER EVENT FOR THE SILICON VALLEY ART COUNCIL.
I SET UP THE INSTALLATION, A STAGE FOR THEM TO INTERACT WITH AND PERFORM THEIR MAGIC.

DURING THE EVENING THEY PERFORMED SEVERAL TIMES THEIR FLOOR SLOW MOTION DANCE THAT COUNTER BALANCED THE FAST RHYTHMS ALL AROUND.
PEOPLE WHO WERE ABLE AND FORTUNATE TO CAPTURE THAT WERE FOOLED BY THE TWO WHITE LIFELESS BODIES, RIGIDLY LAYING ON THE CONCRETE GROUND
ATTRACTING A GREAT DEAL OF WONDER AND SURPRISE WHEN THEIR VERY SLOW AND CONTROLLED MOVEMENT PUT LIFE BACK AGAIN INTO THEIR SHAPES THAT SLOWLY MOULDED INTO MANY BEAUTIFUL FORMS.

LIKE GILBERT AND GEORGE THEY WERE LIVING SCULPTURES OR BETTER DANCING SCULPTURES, SUBTLY AND UNNOTICEABLY MOVING ACROSS THE INSTALLATION.
IT WAS A POWERFUL PERFORMANCE OF TWO SINGLE MAGNETS, FOLLOWING A CONTROLLED, UNCONTROLLABLE FORCE STRIVING TO REACH TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER TO BE FINALLY REUNITED.

COLLECTING DIRT, JUST LIKE MOTHER NATURE!

.....LADIES AND GENTLEMAN APPLAUD FOR DEBBY AND JOSE, HERE THEY ARE

THANK YOU!

'SUSPENDED SURVIVAL, HANING IN HANGING ON THE ENTANGLED DANGLE' BEFORE THE TEMPEST

2011-10-31T18:59:00.000-07:00

THE NIGHT OF ANNE AND MARK'S ART PARTY PRIVATE VIEW.

THIS WAS A SPECIAL OCCASION WHERE I HAD A CHANCE TO ENJOY SOME RELAXATION AIDED BUT ALL THE AMAZING SURROUNDING ART AND BY MONTALVO'S ARTISTS FELLOWS RICHARD

DUBUGNON www.richarddubugnon.com AND MOTOKO HONDA www.motokohonda.com PERFORMANCE.
THE TWO IMPROVISED A BREATH TAKING PIANO DUET IN THE HEAVENLY VENUE, ACCOMPANIED BY NK DANCE THEATRE WHO IMPROVISED THEIR DANCE.
THIS TIME I JUST HAD TO SIT BACK AND WATCH, WHILE SIPPING MY WINE!
DIVINE, I TELL YOU!

THE POP UP CAFE' CHANDELIERS

2011-10-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

MY CONTRIBUTION TO ANDREA'S POP UP CAFE' WAS THE CHANDELIERS.

ON SPECIAL REQUEST FROM ANDREA I DECORATED THEM WITH WITH MY BAGS AND ADDED LIFE TO THEM WITH ANDREA'S GARDEN SUNFLOWERS WHO WERE DRYING OUT BUT STILL SO POWERFUL!

I USED THE FLOWERS, THE LEAVES AND THE STEMS TO EXTEND FROM MY PLASTIC BAGS, MIXING LIFE AND DEATH, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL WORLDS.

THIS FINAL FRIDAY AT MONTALVO WAS AN EXTRAORDINARY AND UNIQUE TRIUMPH OF DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES ALL COMING TOGETHER FOR THIS ONE EVENT CELEBRATION: A JOINT EFFORT OF MANY, MANY FORCES AND OF MANY PEOPLE'S HARD WORK MIRACULOUSLY ORCHESTRATED INTO WHAT I WOULD CALL A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY PROJECT COMPOSED BY VOLUNTEERS, ARTISTS, EMPLOYES AND SO ON.

ANDREA BLUM POP UP CAFE'

2011-10-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

ANDREA BLUM, THE CHEF AND CULINARY FELLOW WHO CREATED THE POP UP CAFE' INSIDE OF THE VILLA MONTALVO AND COOKED FOR 60 PEOPLE INCLUDING HER REGULAR HUNGRY ARTISTS WHO SHE HAS BEEN TREATING EVERY NIGHT FOR ALMOST A YEAR NOW!
check her out, her website address is:
www.andrea-blum.com

FOR THIS OCCASION NOT ONLY NINA HAFT & COMPANY
ninahaftandcompany.com PERFORMED BUT MOTOKO HONDA www.motokohonda.com AND NK DANCE THEATRE www.nkdancetheater.com AS WELL!

MOTOKO IS A BEAUTIFUL AND EVEN MORE TALENTED ARTIST WHO WAS IN RESIDENCE HERE AT MONTALVO NOT LONG AGO. ANDREA INVITED HER FOR HER POP UP CAFE' TO PERFORM HER AMAZING MUSIC AND FLEW OVER JUST FOR THIS SPECTACULAR EVENT.

HERE ARE DEBBY AND JOSE FROM NK DANCE THEATRE PERFORMING THEIR TANGO DANCE.

THEY BOTH ARE FELLOW ARTISTS AT MONTALVO, WITH WHOM I ALSO HAVE BEEN COLLABORATING FOR THE SHOW IN SAN JOSE, THEY HAVE JUST LEFT TO GO BACK TO THEIR BAY AREA EVERYDAY LIFE......I AM ALREADY MISSING THEIR MAGICAL PRESENCE.......

Another collaboration with Nina Haft & Company. This time at Montalvo

2011-10-31T18:08:00.000-07:00

FINAL FIRDAY AT MONTALVO ARTS CENTER

montalvoarts.org

In partnership with Nina Haft &Company, a collaboration about transformation through experimentation and improvisation.

Fellow artist in residence Claudia Borgna has invited Nina Haft and Company to interact with her site-specific installation commissioned by the Montalvo Arts Center.

'Mighty Like a Flower' is a team work setting for the skillful dancers to navigate through and to choreograph into a contemporary dance ensemble that moves across disciplines.

Nina Haft has widely performed nationally and internationally, and is a well established choreographer who for the past ten years has been contributing to the Bay Area dance community with innovative work, fostering a deep experience of place.

The performing dancers are:

Edmer Lazaro

Frances Sedayao

Josie Alvite

Dannia Ciolo

UNFORTUNATELY FOR A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES I WAS NOT ABLE TO TAKE BETTER PICTURES OF THE DANCERS PERFORMANCE. UPSETTINGLY I HAVE NO PROPER DOCUMENTATION OF THE MAGIC MOMENT THAT THEY HAVE RECREATED HERE ON THAT SPECIAL OCCASION: ANDREA BLUM'S POP UP CAFE'

I AM HOPING THAT THE VIDEO FOOTAGE MIGHT BE BETTER AND TO GET SOME PICS FROM OTHER SOURCES!

Once again the dance performance was powerful and Nina's decision to have to music nor sound to the dance kept us all silent and alert to every movement and even more engaged with the event, really quite a mystical and spiritual experience, that I personally thought quite refreshing after the whole hulla bulla and crazy energy invested by hundreds of people to make this whole evening happening......absolutely magical! Thank you Nina and to all the dancers, one more applause, one more time!

Finally i have some more and better images, courtesy of and photography by Andrea Blum! Thank you Andrea! (www.andrea-blum.com)

'Mighty like a flower' has been going through a lot!

2011-10-31T17:49:00.000-07:00

So 'Mighty like a flower' has been completed, the last elements have been added on, these are the ones made by the volunteers, they are absolutely beautiful, much nicer than mine, I think. They are much more fragile and vulnerable and therefore more beautiful, I say.
They also depict new shapes and forms are all mingling to the right side of the loan.
I thought they deserve a special section for themselves, were all those wonderful shapes coming out of them can be better admired.
These shapes have becoming much more transient with the sprinklers blasting at them.
I went mad when I first saw it! I stormed down the load attacking the poor gardener who replied, but is only plastic!
I then complained to everybody who crossed my way, spreading the word of the imminent disaster.
My very special section being destroyed by sprinklers! Maybe that was suppose to be the destiny of those plastic bags pretending to be roses, to be sprinkled to death with fresh water every day. Maybe they like it and I should not interfere with their course of inevitable decay and destruction and just document the changes. The fact is that after all that drama I have created, the sprinkler have now been shut down indefinitely so that the volunteers section can enjoy a prolonged life for just a little bit longer, but what about the loan and the green grass?

I realize that I need better pics to depict that section, but I physically had no time for it and when I got around it last weekend I was so bummed that another section of the installation was missing.
A cluster of 10 elements are gone and nowhere to be seen, among them was a rose covered by an umbrella that I had especially made to link the very far end of the loan to the rest of the space.

This incident really tells me how desperate some people are to own a bunch of plastic bag! So much for Public Art and Community!

LOS GATOS MUSEUM OF ART FAMILY DAY

2011-10-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THE KIDS AND PARENTS THAT JOINED IN THE WORKSHOP LAST SUNDAY.

WE HAD GREAT FUN MAKING AND CREATING WITH THE BAGS!

Last Sunday kids and parents from the Los Gatos area joined into the making o

500 mighty flowers on the loan of Montalvo

2011-10-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

ANNE AND MARK'S ART PARTY

2011-10-24T23:13:00.000-07:00

IN THE MEANTIME I HAVE ALSO BEEN INSTALLING IN SAN JOSE FOR: WWW.ARTPARTY2011.COM

check this out:

http://content-magazine.com/welcome/?p=5395

THE FINAL TITLE FOR THIS PIECE AFTER FEW FAILED ATTEMPTS IS:

'SUSPENDED SURVIVAL: HANGING IN, HANGING ON THE ENTANGLED DANGLE'

ONE FOGGY MORNING

2011-10-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

The next 200 flowers

2011-10-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Pics of my studio with the next 200 flowers in preparation.

No Machine, No factory is as fast and efficient as I am!!

That's the idea behind it!!

300 mighty flower on Montalvo's loan

2011-10-24T22:28:00.000-07:00

200 more to go!

Volunteers Workshops

2011-10-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Every Wednesday from 4pm to 7pm I have been gathering with a group of volunteers who have been helping out in the making of the flowers for Montalvo and contributing to the artwork with the making of their own roses which we will finish off this Wednesday and plant along all the other 500 roses already mingling on the loan.

I would like to thank Eve, Sean, Whillow, Judy, Elaine, Annie, Connie and Romola for joining in!

See you on Wednesday!

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALBERT OCHOA

2011-10-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

So the next day I had to get back track to catch up with my schedule and plant my weekly 200 roses on the Montalvo's loan.

I could have not made it without the precious help and assistance of Albert.
The flowers are set in a random system but imbedded with Albert DNA. He also makes a very handsome model, don't you think?....My Mum does!.....Once again observing the powers of mother nature!
Here are few pics of him at work

The British consulate came to see my show at Los Gatos Museum!

2011-10-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

So one day I get up and receive this email:

The British Consulate General, Priya Guha and possibly two Vice Consuls would like to visit the Art Museum to see Claudia's exhibition between 3-4pm on Thursday.

I was crazy busy but what shall I do? I was not sure, so I went to meet her!

I must be honest, it truly was a great and unique experience and the Ambassador was really quite very lovely.
Her humbleness and gentle way made the experience really special and very much enjoyable if not memorable for me!

BEFORE AND AFTER: Monday, the day after job

2011-10-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

BEFORE

AFTER

So after the party comes the job of the day after: clearing up the mess!! Not that it was a mess for me, rather a beautiful unordered disorder of 20 thousand bags scattered a bit all over the museum. But it had to be put back in place, re-ordered and arranged to their previous original setting.

It's never nice to have to tidy up without being creative. But being creative requires time to think things through again and time I just don't have right now, so on Monday morning I went back to the museum on a mission: reinstall all the bags quite exactly how they were before the dancers performance on Sunday.
Initially the idea was to allow change to happen, to recreate that cycle of destruction followed by creation but then again time is the worst dictator so everything had to go back to the status quo! Sometimes an easy and more comfortable solution, no risks involved, no solving new problems, especially with the visit of the british ambassador scheduled for the day after or so.

I also had hoped to leave the destroyed installation on display, just exactly how the dancers had transform it and left it. To me there was something quite unique and appealing in that new landscape, maybe even more powerful than anything I ever could create myself. But as for most of us, human beings, the desire and attraction or need for control and order is a forceful magnet difficult to detach ourselves from and so it also was for the museum that was open minded enough to let few moments of destruction and chaos enter their world.

Hopefully a video documentation of the event will be displayed at the museum.

photos of the Grand Experience event with Nina Haft & Dance Company at Los Gatos Museum

2011-10-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

Another crazy week or two have passed by again. What I remember now is what the body tells me through its own language of pains and aches that are popping up all over me to the beat of various tics that have been building up and whose rhythms I desperately try to keep under control.
But I also remember some magical moments that made all the work worth while.
One of those moments was the performance of Nina Haft & Dance Company at the museum of Los Gatos.
I was touched to tears by the dancers interaction with my work, their moves have created an incredible magical atmosphere that kept all the viewers including myself mesmerized.

here are some pics and hopefully a video will follow soon

24th Instant Video Festival. 14th November, in Marseille

2011-10-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

My short video: 'UNSEASONAL MIGRATION: TRAVELLING PLASTIC BAGS'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRdk26O7seU
WILL SHOWN HERE:
24es INSTANTS VIDEO

INSTANTS VIDEO 24th

CATALOGUE

MARSEILLE AND OTHERS CITIES

Vous pouvez maintenant télécharger le catalogue du festival en vous rendant sur notre site

www.instantsvideo.com (Festival).

La 24e édition du festival des Instants Vidéo se déroulera à Marseille du 4 au 13 novembre

2011, et dans d’autres villes du monde jusqu’en décembre.

Please, you can find the catalogue of the festival Instants Video 24th on our website

www.instantsvideo.com (Festival)

The festival will take place in Marseille november 4th to 13th, and in others cities in the

world till december.

Plus que jamais : entrée libre et gratuite car nous pensons que l’art est hors de prix, que nous

exigeons beaucoup du regard-sensible-attentif de nos hôtes, que chaque programmationrencontre

est une assemblée générale des vivants, que notre rémunération est votre parole

écoute-respiration-rire-et-pensée.

More than ever: open and free entrance because we think that art is priceless, that we demand

a lot to our guests' sensitive-attentive-eyes, that every program-encounter is a general

assembly of the living, that our payment is your speech-listening-breathing-laughter-andthought.

« Le problème n’est pas celui de la liberté, mais celui d’une issue »

« The problem is not about freedom, it is about an outcome »

Gilles Deleuze

Un festival dédié à Mohamed Bouazizi

(Jeune tunisien dont le suicide par le feu en décembre 2010 fut le geste déclencheur de la

révolution en Tunisie…)

A tribute to Mohamed Bouazizi

(A young Tunisian whose suicide by fire in December 2010 was the trigger action of the

revolution in Tunisia... )

FANTASTIC NEWS, MY VIDEO SHOWING IN MEXICO CITY!

2011-10-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

COLOGNE OFF I LOVE YOU!

the nomadic and itinerant exhibition programme : CologneOFF has been screening my video:
this time it's Mexico City.
Here are more details:
CologneOFF 2011 Mexico City @ ExTeresa Arte Actual Mexico City @ Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana 10-18 November 2011

@ Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
Media Fest - 14 & 15 November 2011
10h – 19h

Here is the programme for the 14th November

14 November
Disturbed Beauty - Landscape in Videoart

Zlatko Cosic (Bosnia) – Horizons, 2009, 6:20
Hans Gindlesberger (USA) – Border Town, 2008, 5:46
Liu Haping (China), - My Home is My Dream, 2009, 6:00
Dan Hudson (Canada) – News, Weather & Sports, 2010, 3:51
Miriam Thyes (Switzerland) - Depression Marquis, 2009, 2:23
Jonas Nilsson (Sweden) - Travelogue#1, 2009, 8:29
Andreas Papadopoulos (Greece) – Involuntary Memory, 2009, 8 :00
Eva Marosy-Weide (Australia) – Situation Normal, 2009, 6 :00
Lois Patino (Spain) – Landscape Term, 2010, 8 :30
Xi Feng (China) – Escape, 2010, 4 :32
Pierre & Jean Villemin (France) – Lesdites Terres, 2010, 7 :30
Claudia Borgna (Italy) - Sweep and weep, Weep and sweep, Under, Over, 
In, Out, Away, 2010, 11:09

Thank you Wilfried

Wilfried Agricola de Cologne

Director of - artvideoKOELN -
The curatorial initiative "art & moving images"
http://video.mediaartcologne.org

Director of CologneOFF - Cologne International Videoart Festival CologneOFF 2011 - videoart in a global context nomadic festival project 2011 & 2012 http://coff2011.newmediafest.org

Founder & director of Le Musee di-visioniste - the new museum of networked art - http://www.le-musee-divisioniste.org

Invitation to Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival - 21 to 23 October

2011-10-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

Two of my short videos have been selected by artist and curator Richard Ashrowan for this year Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival

here are all the details: http://www.heartofhawick.co.uk/events/eventresult.asp?event_id=1171
Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival is happening the weekend after
> next - from Friday 21st to Sun 23rd October, in Hawick, Scottish
> Borders. As Creative Director for the festival, I wanted to invite you
> personally (well, almost personally...), to what I hope will be a
> stimulating, challenging and enjoyably long weekend of stunning film
> and moving image work. This year, we've themed it around 'landscape
> and the four elements'.
>
> Our much expanded programme includes a full two days of
> feature-length screenings in two venues - the main auditorium at Tower
> Mill in Hawick, plus the amazing 42 seat cinema of the Hawick Film and
> Video Group. We're also taking over several empty shops for artists
> installations around the town, and running our own 'Improbable Cinema'
> space throughout the three day festival.
>
> Check the website for full programme details:
> http://www.alchemyfilmfestival.org.uk/
>
> I would appreciate it very much if you would circulate information
> about the festival within your own networks - we need all the support
> we can get as we rely heavily upon word of mouth.
>
> A few highlights include:
>
> FEATURES:
> -'Burning Ice', introduced by producer David Buckland, from Cape
> Farewell.
> -'The Druids', a special preview introduced by filmmaker Louise
> Milne.
> -'Rivers and Tides', a documentary about the work of Andy
> Goldsworthy.
> -'Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left For The East', a meditative South Korean
> film.
> -'Mirror' by Andrei Tarkovsky, a classic of Russion cinema,
> introduced by author Sean Martin.
> -'A Night to Remember', a classic 1958 film about the Titanic
> disaster.
>
> SPECIAL SCREENINGS
> -'That Untravell'd World', will be introduced by Scottish artist
> Julie Brook, presented as part of a double bill with 'Sound Aspects of
> Material Elements', introduced by artist John Grzinich.
> -'Anarcadia', introduced by artist filmmaker Ruth Maclennan.
> -'Slow Action' by Ben Rivers.
> - 'Elementals: Serious Light' - a special programme of mainly 16mm
> film chosen for us by American filmmaker and film activist Pip
> Chodorov, including works by Stan Brakage, Barbara Kultinis, Mary Beth
> Reed, Patrick Bokanowski and Jacques Perconte.
>
> SHORT FILM
> We are screening over 40 short films, in several 'Elementals'
> programmes and in different places. Filmmakers include Steven Ball
> (UK), The Icelandic Love Corporation (Iceland), The Olivers (UK),
> Henry Coombes (UK), Ashley Nieuwenhuizen (UK), Claudia Borgna (UK),
> James Cunningham (Aus), Tanya Shilina-Conte (USA), Wolfgang Lehrner
> (Austria), Mihai Grecu (France), Lin Li (UK), Anne Patsch (UK),
> Samantha Rebello (UK), Pat Law (UK), Debra Fear (UK), Robyn Hall (UK),
> Patricia Townsend (UK), Brigid McCaffrey (USA), Victoria Claire Bernie
> (UK), Katri Walker (UK), Colin Andrews (UK), Su Grierson (UK), plus
> others.
>
> MOVING IMAGE INSTALLATIONS
> There are artist moving image and sound installation works throughout
> the town of Hawick, including:
>
> - 'The Glass Essay' by Joanna Kane.
> - 'Auditory Scenes' (sound art) by James Wyness and others.
> - 'Beneath and Beyond: Seismic Sounds' by Stephen Hurrel.
> - 'Deathbed' by Sigurdur Gudjónsson.
> - Alice Betts.
> - 'Like Fish in Sand' by Rocio Jungenfeld.
> - Emma Osbourn.
> - 'Highland River' by Norman Shaw.
> - 'The Horsebox' by Pat Law and others.
>
> And, not to forget, I have a new piece of work, 'Diagram: Utopia', a
> small installation in the Horsebox. I shall also be doing an
> experimental collaborative sound and moving image performance event
> with James Wyness on the Saturday night.
>
> Do let me know personally if you can come ... and please tell your
> friends!

Grand Experience, collaboration with Nina Haft & Dance Company

2011-10-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

This coming Sunday the 16th is around the corner and Nina Haft with her dancers (http://ninahaftandcompany.com/) will be performing in the museum space together with my bags.

For more info look up the Museum webpage: http://www.museumsoflosgatos.org/museumsoflosgatos.org/Museums.html

here is my statement for this project:

Nina Haft &Dance Company collaborating with Claudia Borgna

THE DANCERS PERFROMING AT THIS EVENT ARE:

Edmer Lazaro

Mo Miner

Frances Sedayao

Statement

This collaboration is about transformation through experimentation and improvisation.

To me it also is about pushing my boundaries: leave my comfort zone by allowing months of hard work to be shifted around, altered, destroyed and ultimately changed by ‘intruders’ in a just few instants!

The idea behind is to introduce the dancers to an unknown setting: a sculptural landscape they have never seen before and contained inside a museum space. A whole new environment they are free to navigate, explore, and within which, their sense of surprise will be expressed through the form of dance. Marvel or disgust? Whichever way their reactions, it will be a spontaneous interaction with their novel and precarious surrounding; to the point their presence and interventions will in fact transform it!

Their moves might expose strength, vulnerability, confusion, anger, annoyance or even tenderness. The whole spectrum of feelings and emotions provoked by the plastic bags scenery, might unfold just in front of us.

A dance between boundaries and disciplines: possibly revealing the fragility of our constructions and definitely of mine!

Like the plastic bags, the dancers will perform the metaphor of life, bound to be full with its neurotic contradictions and beauties.

The dancers will bring to the museum not only their professional skills but also their personal baggage on top of their unique imagination.

I am looking forward to see my artwork enriched by all the new and different connotations that this performance will add to it.

I am certain that I will discover new meanings and fresh layers of stories that can only be accomplished with the help of the viewers: only then the work will have been completed to it’s full cycle.

This time the work inside a Museum can be touched, manipulated, and even destroyed!

San Jose Art Party

2011-10-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

The other project that I am working at is an installation for Anne and Marks Art Party which I have been invited to participate to.

This is an amazing yearly event in San Jose. Last year it welcomed 1000 people in it's massive warehouse space which extends onto another huge outdoor gritty cement plane opposite the recycling depot, check it out, here is the link to it: http://www.artparty2011.com/

I will post pics after the 29th October, that is when the party takes place

my studio here at Montalvo

2011-10-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

A peek inside my studio while preparing for: 'Like a Mighty Flower"

AT MONTALVO ARTS CENTER

2011-10-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

All along I have been residing in Saratoga up in the hills were an heavenly arts center is nestled: The Montalvo Arts Center. This place comes with quite a bit of history, for you to look out and into it....time is clicking too fast for me right now. Since I have finished installing for the Museum of Los Gatos, I went straight into the next project. Right now I am working away on a commission for the Front loan of the Montalvo Villa.

The project is an ambitious one and the community is involved in collecting bags and attending workshops to make the flowers. Initially the idea was to make 1000 flowers made out of plastic bags and wooden branches, but the lack of time and of plastic bags has made me realize that 500 is still a very ambitious task!
The site-specific and temporary installation has been and will be growing in size and number over the month. Every Monday Albert Ochoa, who has been assisting me and lending his precious help to the art, and I plant the flowers that have been created during the week.
The project will culminate on the 28th October for the Montalvo Arts Center Final Friday Event which will also celebrate chef and culinary fellow Andrea Blum Pop Up Cafe'.
http://www.andrea-blum.com/ablum/Welcome.html
I am hoping to be also able to help in creating decoration for Andrea's Cafe' which will pop out of one of the gorgeous rooms in the Montalvo Villa: right by that hollywoodian terrace bridging over to the loan and into the Italian Gardens.

The Workshops take place at the common areas of the LAP every Wednesday from 4 till 7 and Saturday 15th from 9 to 12.
Anybody is welcomed, and should register with Babette McKay via email to join in : volunteer@montalvoarts.org

You could also look up: http://www.impactonline.org/search/opp959997.jsp

In the meantime I am posting few pics of the installation so far. The title for it is

LIKE A MIGHTY FLOWER

Week 1

WEEK 2

...AND FRONTSIDE

2011-10-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

TITLE:

FIORI PER TUTTI!

outside the Los gatos Art Museum

2011-10-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

title:

'CALIFORNIA DREAMING'

BED OF BREASTS

2011-10-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

ROOM 3

TITLE: 'BED OF BREASTS'

EVERY ITEM IN THIS ROOM COMES WTH A NOTE ABOUT IT'S STORY AND IT'S JOURNEY.

THE NOTE ON THE COT SAYS: ‘sleepless comforting nights, dreaming of art, of a better world, missing my mum, thinking of Veronica and counting bags’

'Gravity: Everything for a Reason' Room 2

2011-10-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

More pics of the show at Los Gatos Art Museum

Room 2

TTITLE: ' GRAVITY: EVERYTHING FOR A REASON'

Los gatos solo show Statement

2011-10-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

My Statement for the show:

‘ALL MY DREAMS PACKED, INSIDE A PLASTIC BAG’

And when I have consumed everything, to my very last desire

Most precious and valuable

Even gulped the last drop

Leaving me longing:

All I have left

is an empty shopping bag.

I look inside

Stare at the white hole

But I cannot feel what I see

Looking. Searching. Zooming, inside and outside

I am beside my subconscious

Scavenging awareness

Craving humbleness

Seeking for my consciousness

Sensing guilt

But I cannot see what I feel

I am turning, running, falling, flying

Chasing images, seeking thoughts, hunting emotions.

I am slipping on my aspirations to grasp my ideas

Clinging to a dizzy belief to capture my purpose

Hazed by a swarm of pins and needles

Can you see what I feel?

The rustling sound brushes across, like a breathless whisper

I can hear the butterflies vanishing in the horizon

I am looking high and low:

The shelves are empty

And all I have left

is a dream inside a plastic bag

California, here I am!

2011-10-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

Wow! I have landed at San Francisco airport almost a month ago now and it has been crazy!

A roller coster of events, I am barely catching my breath from excitement. And catching it just in half. A half breath in between all the task and work still to be done just to briefly update the blog with all the happenings, trying to remember them while they are still fresh, because they are quickly being overtaken by all the new ones.

Time doesn't seem to be ever enough for all the opportunities and occasions to be creative right now, and I definitely have not yet had a second of boredom! I shall be looking forward to that too!!

The first two weeks I spent setting up the show for the Los Gatos Art Museum. My bags took over the whole Museum, inside and outside! All 16.000 of them received an honest, warm welcoming, I was truly touched by the attentions and the interest they attracted!

so I thought I share some quick picks!

Room 1

TITLE:

'IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS AIR AND WATER, AND ~~PLASTIC BAGS,~~ THEN MAN CREATED UMBRELLAS'

Bemis Auction coming up soon

2011-09-23T22:35:00.000-07:00

This is my third year that I have the privilege to be part of the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art Auction Program.

If you are interested check it out, here is the link: http://bcartsales.org/Artist-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=2755

As most people already know I don't sell art work unless for a good cause or as mean of exchange.

The proceeds of the sale of this work will be donated to the Center to support the work of other artists that like me greatly benefited of the residency program.

If you can please support my work and the Bemis Art Center.

Claudia Borgna

Claudia Borgna graduated from Genoa University (Italy) in Foreign Literature in 1998 and received a Fine Art BA degree from London Metropolitan University (UK) in 2005. Since then she has been leading a nomadic life style exhibiting nationally and internationally while attending fellowship residency programmes. She is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell, the Pollock-Krasner Grant and the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award as well as the Pritzker Foundation Endowed Fellowship Award. Voted the ‘Public Speaks’ winner for the 2010 Broomhill National Sculpture Prize (UK), she also was short-listed for the BBC2 documentary: “School of Saatchi” and for the British Women Artists Prize. Claudia’s artificial landscapes are the materialization of an ongoing observation and questioning of how the ‘plastic’ and the natural realms interact with one another and thereby come to create new ephemeral orders. Her flimsy, constructions are only intended for the moment: apt to collapse and subject to change.

Artist's Website:

http://www.claudiaborgna.keepfree.de

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HAND PICKED AND NOT FOR SALE!, 2011
Mixed media, 11 x 23 x 3 in.
Buy It Now: $1,450

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Thank you Angela Roberts-Christ

2011-09-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

A real nice Review on the insight of my work by Angela Roberts Christ on the Saatchi online Magazine. To read the review click or go to this link:

http://magazine.saatchionline.com/critics-top-ten/claudia-borgna-saatchi-online-critics-choice-by-angela-roberts-christ

http://studiovisit.com/category/online-top-10/

Visit: Saatchi Gallery | Magazine | Gallery Shop

Claudia Borgna: Saatchi Online Critic’s Choice By Angela Roberts Christ

By Angela Roberts Christ · August 22, 2011 · Critic's Top 10 · Tagged: Featured

Claudia Borgna transforms mundane white plastic bags into sculptures/installations that recall Romanticism in their approach to the culture-nature dichotomy. What is most striking about her installations is not necessarily their transformation of the cheap, disposable, but universal plastic bag into works of unusual beauty, but her non-judgemental fascination with the material and its relationship to our environment. It’s difficult to find anything environmentally conscious or preachy in her work; on the contrary, Borgna seems singularly committed to revealing the splendour in these unexpected man-made formations.

This fascination is particularly evident in installations with wistful titles like ‘Never the same again: still searching for Newfoundland’, ‘blow me away if you can’ and ‘and they lived happily ever after’ where the ubiquitous plastic bags, usually associated with some of the worst excesses of consumerist culture, are transformed from suffocating objects of destruction into organic motifs. Borgna treats the bags -– always a visual hair’s breadth away from the dirty plastic bag we’ve all seen caught in the windshield of a car or in bare tree branches – almost as if they were natural objects. The random and haphazard interaction of the plastic bag with nature is here transformed into something more deliberate.

Although it is possible to view installations like ‘Never the same again: still searching for Newfoundland’ as a continuation of the Land art ethos of the 1970s, a fruitful comparison might also be made with the European movement loosely categorised as Romantic art. In the nineteenth century artists like Caspar David Friedrich saw in nature an expression of the philosophy of the sublime, which in general terms describes the pleasure (and existential terror) of looking at objects of great magnitude. Likewise, Borgna not only marvels at the extraordinary and possibly sinister effect that the plastic bag creates in nature, but also deliberately exaggerates this juxtaposition for greater visual effect. The stray plastic bag caught in nature in this case embodies a subverted concept of the sublime that includes man-made shapes of modernity as legitimate objects of wonder.

To see more of her work click here

Angela Roberts is a freelance writer currently living and working in Heidelberg, Germany.

One Comment

Project M
August 26, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Some lovely and beautiful work. Thank you for drawing our attention to Claudia Borgna!
Reply

My first Museum Solo Show

2011-09-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

www.museumsoflosgatos.org

SWEEP AND WEEP, WEEP AND SWEEP Screening at ALCHEMY FILM AND MOVING IMAGE FESTIVAL - 21 - 23 OCTOBER 2011

2011-09-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Exhibition Reminder

2011-09-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

CLAUDIA BORGNA FEATURED IN INTERNATIONAL SCULPTURE EXHIBITION

Claudia Borgna ARBS is exhibiting at the tenth annual exhibition of international sculpture at the University of Leicester, UK, entitled ‘A Decade of Sculpture in the Garden’.

This highly popular exhibition, which takes place in the idyllic setting of the University’s Botanic Garden, will run until Sunday 30^th October 2011.

Claudia Borgna whose site-specific installation ‘Weep me to Hollow Tears’ is on display, studied literature at Genoa University and Fine Art at London Metropolitan University. Claudia travels worldwide with her medium: recycled plastic bags. She sets them in ephemeral installations to interact with the surrounding environments. The creation of new artificial landscapes is her means to attempt to understand the ‘nature’ of our world.

Work by more than sixty sculptors will be on display at ‘A Decade of Sculpture in the Garden, from the USA, Germany, Iceland, Italy, France and the UK, with a number of sculptures by members of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

‘A Decade of Sculpture in the Garden’ will run until Sunday 30^th October. Normal Botanic Garden opening times are 10am-4pm Monday-Friday all year (except for the Christmas-New Year period) and on Saturday and Sunday from the third weekend in March to the second weekend in November. Admission is normally free except for special Open Days. The entrance to the Garden is in Glebe Road, Oadby, Leicester.

A full list of sculptors follows:

Laurence Ambrose, Mary Anstee-Parry, Michael Dan Archer, Rosemary Barnett, Richard Baronio, Alison Barwick, Mark Beattie, Nicola Beattie, Helaine Blumenfeld, Claudia Borgna, Ralph Brown, Jon Buck, Ian Campbell-Briggs, John Sydney Carter, Peter Carter, Lynn Chadwick, Frédéric Chevarin, Peter M Clarke, Angela Conner, Terence Coventry, Stephanie Davies-Arai, Jon Edgar, Richard Fenton, Robert Fogell, Ken Ford, Bill Forster, Susan Forsyth, Angela Godfrey, Lorna Green, Charles Hadcock, William Harling, Stephen Hitchin, Derek Howarth, Steve Hurst, Polly Ionides, Rick Kirby, Robert Koenig, Margaret Lovell, Jeff Lowe, Michael Lyons, Diane MacLean, Ian Marlow, Barry Mason, John W Mills, Nick Moran, Gudrun Nielsen, Denis O’Connor, Austin J Orwin, Rita Phillips, Louise Plant, Tony Roberts, Peter Sainty, Inger Sannes, Brele Scholz, Andrew Smith, James Sutton, Jilly Sutton, Almuth Tebbenhoff, Richard Thornton, Julia Vance, Sheila Vollmer, Peter Walker, Jacek Wankowski, , Olive Wootton.

Notes to Editors: Further details are available from: Stella Couloutbanis, Visual Arts Manager, Embrace Arts, Richard Attenborough centre,

University of Leicester, email sc352@le.ac.uk, tel no 0116 223 1529,

mobile 07854 777 432

2011-09-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

file:///Users/fellow/Desktop/Alchemy%20email%20Brochure-1.pdf

photograms

2011-08-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

For this open studio I have made a series of Photograms to replace all my bags that have gone to Los Gatos Museum.
The few bags I had left are all on display hanging from a line or laying on the floor accompanied by the photograms.
here are close ups of the photograms:

Open studio

2011-08-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

this is all what's left in my studio at Aberystwyth Arts Centre

All Packed Up Ready for Los Gatos Museum!

2011-08-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is open studio's here at Aberystwyth Arts Centre but the work of almost three months has already gone, shipped to California to the Museum of Los Gatos were they are in good company together with all the other boxes that have previously been sent mainly from Dallas.
This Box is a special one though, and I hope the work will be still the same I have just finished making when I will open it up. For economical reason I had to reduce the volume of the bags in order to reduce the size and therefore the cost of the shipment that apparently goes according to volumetric weight, took me a while to figure that all out. It was quite a mission to squash everything into my custom home made box to contain more than 8000 bags, compressed into vacuum bags and on the verge of explosion! Which will surely happen once I'll open it next! Or the bags will shoot out or they'll have morphed into some other sculptural creature!
Here are some pics:

Claudia Borgna PLASTIC BAGS- Broomhill Sculpture Prize

HANGING ON A LINE

DON'T STEAL MY BREATH

PENELOPE'S RUNAWAY, WEAVING MY OWN

HANGING in here and in there

getting ready to leave Montalvo: Artist Page

and back in the Montalvo's woods before my departure

last attempts at Montalvo

TRAIN OF THOUGHTS

CLAUDIA BORGNA & NINA HAFT COLLABORATING AT LOS GATOS ART MUSEUM

PACKING UP AT MONTALVO

Mighty like a flower: the Harvest

in the Montalvo woods

This one gave me poison oak!

more tests here at Montalvo

.....and in the forest by the dump

..and outside

getting some ideas out of my head here at Montalvo

WEATHERED

it's autumn too, here in California!

BED OF BREASTS

Suspended Survival, Hanging on Hanging in the entangled dangle

A SEA WITH NO MORE GODS

Hanging Landscapes

WHO CAN STILL bear ALL THAT BEAUTIFUL CRAP?

Mighty Like a Flower

MIGHTY LIKE A FLOWER

HOW MANY VEILS COUGHT BY THE WIND FIDDLING WITH THE CLOUDS

'MIGHTY LIKE A FLOWER' Poster

COUGHT IN A SHELL

Magic hands, musical hands, what else? Just longing for them to touch you too?

One Afternoon at Los Gatos Art Museum with Museum director John Caggs, famous swiss french composer Richard Dubugnon and genius music artist Motoko Honda

ALL WRAPPED UP READY TO GO BACK TO OAKLAND!

COLLABORATING WITH NK DANCE THEATRE

'SUSPENDED SURVIVAL, HANING IN HANGING ON THE ENTANGLED DANGLE' BEFORE THE TEMPEST

THE POP UP CAFE' CHANDELIERS

ANDREA BLUM POP UP CAFE'

Another collaboration with Nina Haft & Company. This time at Montalvo

'Mighty like a flower' has been going through a lot!

LOS GATOS MUSEUM OF ART FAMILY DAY

500 mighty flowers on the loan of Montalvo

ANNE AND MARK'S ART PARTY

ONE FOGGY MORNING

The next 200 flowers

300 mighty flower on Montalvo's loan

Volunteers Workshops

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALBERT OCHOA

The British consulate came to see my show at Los Gatos Museum!

BEFORE AND AFTER: Monday, the day after job

photos of the Grand Experience event with Nina Haft & Dance Company at Los Gatos Museum

24th Instant Video Festival. 14th November, in Marseille

FANTASTIC NEWS, MY VIDEO SHOWING IN MEXICO CITY!

Invitation to Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival - 21 to 23 October

Grand Experience, collaboration with Nina Haft & Dance Company

San Jose Art Party

my studio here at Montalvo

AT MONTALVO ARTS CENTER

...AND FRONTSIDE

outside the Los gatos Art Museum

BED OF BREASTS

'Gravity: Everything for a Reason' Room 2

Los gatos solo show Statement

California, here I am!

Bemis Auction coming up soon

Thank you Angela Roberts-Christ

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Claudia Borgna: Saatchi Online Critic’s Choice By Angela Roberts Christ

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Saatchi Online’s Weekly Top 10 By Angela Roberts Christ August 22 – 28, 2011

Claudia Borgna: Saatchi Online Critic’s Choice By Angela Roberts Christ

My first Museum Solo Show

SWEEP AND WEEP, WEEP AND SWEEP Screening at ALCHEMY FILM AND MOVING IMAGE FESTIVAL - 21 - 23 OCTOBER 2011

Exhibition Reminder

photograms

Open studio