Biennale Gherdëina 9 – The Parliament of Marmots

2024

ENG-ITA-GER-LAD

Along with the introductory essay by curator Lorenzo Giusti and photographic accounts of the artistic interventions made for the occasion with accompanying descriptive entries by Marta Papini and Sabine Gamper, The catalogue of Biennale Gherdëina 9 – The Parliament of Marmots collects an anthology of texts by both historical and contemporary authors, including Farid add-in Attar, Miririda N Ait Attik, Hanan Alazaz, Aldo Leopold, Fuad Rifka, Lina May Saeed, Giuseppe Sebesta, Peter Singer, Anna Tsing, and Ulrike Kindl.

This edition of the Biennale Gherdëina, borrows its title from one of the most enchanting Ladin myths of the Dolomites, which tells the story of the Fanes: a meek and peaceful people whose kingdom extended beyond the seven mountains to the edge of the world. The secret of their prosperity lay in their alliance with the marmots that inhabited the plateau of the same name. When the alliance was broken because of a princess who was ashamed of the pact with the animals, the Fanes met with misfortunes and conflicts that inevitably led to the downfall of their kingdom.

The origin of these archaic Ladin myths, which have survived the oral tradition and the strains of modern rewrites, dates back to proto-history, to the time of the transition from hunting to animal breeding and agriculture. Their function was to describe the complex relationship of these communities with the theme of the ‘soul’ – the soul of nature, of the world – whose presence permeates all beings, all the main ‘entities’ of wild nature. These archaic myths, which share certain key figures with Mediterranean culture, do not speak of creation (of human beings or empires) but of transformation, celebrating nature, the cycle of life and the intimate and profound relationship between all species.

In this perspective, the mountains and the Dolomites – remnants of gigantic coral reefs that surfaced 250 million years ago – transform from being a barrier to a crossing point and thus a point of encounter and contamination. And it is precisely of contamination that this ninth edition of the Biennale Gherdëina aims to speak, superimposing new contemporary stories onto ancient legends, embracing a widespread geographical territory. Through various formats – new productions, performances, solo and group exhibitions, collaborations with regional institutions and with workshops open to the public – the event will gather the contributions of artists from various parts of continental Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, bringing together a multicultural community in Val Gardena.

“There are three pivotal themes in this edition of the Biennale Gherdëina,” explains Lorenzo Giusti: “the wild as a creative dimension, multi-speciesism as a trajectory of becoming, and the mountain as a meeting ground and narrative dimension. The artists who will gather in Val Gardena all base their research on the concrete experience of the forest, of walking, of isolation, of the mountains, of matter, of the body, of connection with various animal species and empathy with the natural world. By de-conceptualising the idea of nature in favour of an existential dimension of artistic experience, will give voice to a diverse artistic community, representative of a vast cultural area that will connect the Dolomites with continental Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.”