Balena Project

LES FUNÉRAILLES DE LA BALEINE (VIDEO)

DATE
  • 2011
DETAILS
Digital video HD 16/9, 39’

Frames from the video

CREDITS
Directed by Daniele Signaroldi

Les Funérailles de la Baleine. It is not a death, but a transformation into other smaller stories (Letter Jackets-2011/2016). A “funeral” of the whale’s body, which was transformed into a variety of new objects/shapes/thoughts: under the guidance of fashion designer Antonio Marras, master seamstresses used fabric to create men’s jackets lined with magazine pages in which articles appeared that narrated the Balena Project. Other whale shapes were created with stuffing from the mother whale, as well as bags with inflatable air pockets inside. Les Funérailles de la Baleine tells the story of that performance and rite of passage, which, with a sense of magic and symbolism, reflects the notion of the “ecology of art,” according to which the work is not seen as a fixed and static object, but rather as a point of passage, displacement, and change in terms of both materials and meaning.