VestAndPage
Their work is positioned within the social, political and environmental context of spherology, fragility, memory activation and communication, with a strong influence of the artists’ backgrounds in philosophy and theatre.
"[3] Verena Stenke (born 1981, Bad Friedrichshall, Germany) is trained in theatre, martial arts, contemporary dance, and holds qualifications as special effects make-up artist and mask maker.
Andrea Pagnes (born 1962, Venice) holds degrees in Modern Literature and Philosophy, certificates of high studies in Museology, Art critic, and Creative writing, and obtained the diploma of Social Theatre actor and operator.
[5] Between 2010 and 2012, VestAndPage produced the experimental film trilogy sin∞fin The Movie in Antarctica, India, Kashmir, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, combining performance art with filmmaking.
[7] The first episode has been produced at artist-in-residence at CONFL!CTA Contemporary Art and Science Research, Punta Arenas and Tierra del Fuego in December 2010.
Filmed on location during the artist duo's month-long performance walk, the project takes a private family story and the historical event of post-WWII displacements as starting points.
The artists walked, performed and filmed along the route of war escape of Stenke's ancestors upon the evacuation of East Prussia in winter 1945, in the civil exodus along the Baltic Sea to Northern Germany.
Referenced through the performance-walk in real time, the film connects in a layering of histories, people, and personal memories, the intangible and ineffable of a past which has been lived by another generation with a present feeling of guilt.
The artists inhabited an empty house in San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico City and performed inside for 24 hours, with the public free to enter and exit at any time.
[15] In preparation to the live performance, Stenke and Pagnes had previously worked with a group of street girls in Mexico City to understand their fears, desires, and dreams.
In the installation set of medical surgery videos and a soundtrack of voices speaking about fear in three languages, Stenke invites audience members to participate in a ritual.
Pagnes' back is offered as a living canvas for the audience to express their thoughts by writing with effect powder, water, and feathers or nails on his skin.
AEGIS is a live performance cycle in six parts, developed and presented with the collaboration of other artists in the years 2016 and 2017 in Santiago de Chile; Alt, Istanbul; Grace Exhibition Space, New York City; UKK, Uppsala; Piotrków Trybunalski and at the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki.
Recordings of the Declaration produced for the performance are available for free public domain audio download in English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Swedish, Polish and Greek language from the artists' website.
The Art Week started with the curated live art exhibition project titled Trilogy of the Bodyin December 2012 at Palazzo Bembo, Venice, featuring under the focus Hybrid Body – Poetic Body among others works by Yoko Ono, Valie Export, Hermann Nitsch, Ilija Šoškić, Jan Fabre, Lee Wen, Boris Nieslony, Jill Orr, and a number of international emerging and established artists such as Nelda Ramos, Manuel Vason, Jason Lim, Gonzalo Rabanal, Prem Sarjo, Joseph Ravens, Helena Goldwater.
Since 2014, the project continued at Palazzo Mora in Venice, and presented under the focus Ritual Body – Political Body live and in exhibition performance works by Joseph Beuys, Allen Ginsberg, Vito Acconci, Tehching Hsieh, Chris Burden, Terry Fox (artist), Zhang Huan, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Alastair MacLennan, Carolee Schneemann, Ulay, Tania Bruguera, Regina José Galindo, Adina Bar-On, and many others.
