Feriancova, Petra: Order of Things, I, II, 2013 55th Venice Biennale project 2013

The project in Venice is divided into two possible setups of my ownership. It refers to the material of a different origin which outlasted many selections and clean­ups.

The Archive. Order of the Things, offset catalogue
 
The visual content of the archive is organized primarily in catalogues. The value of the images is not classified. Their size and order is the result of a coincidence, the same way as a clean­up in a wardrobe.
 
Order of the Things II, Installation in Pavilion
Individual Installations serve also as educational tools. They represent a module form, and they are thematically the subject of key rules in architecture, in geometry or in the classic type of exhibiting. The method of working with the materials is based on the principles of­ quantitative presence of archived material in an exhibition area and on a principle of improvisation of selected displayed fragments that, in fact, become a pattern, an example.
 
Pigeons “Creator” (big wall)
In the second half of the pavilion,  there is a standing wall. On this wall,  there are 122 vintage photos installed, thus finally creating, for the first time a complete archive of Creator series. Creator is a subtle work about generation and appropriation, about the human need to manipulate nature, beauty and life. This archive belonged to my grandfather ­ ornithologist who, between 1948 and 1962 worked with other breeders from Eastern Europe and Russia on the creation of new species of pigeons. This collection of 122 original images is the result of their experiments and outcomes. Each image is evidence of an improvement or a mistake, each one with annotated measurements, dates and comments on the developments of the tests.
 
Collapsed Pillar, Large­sized analogue Photographs Along the wall,
on the left side towards the corner of a leaning wall with the pigeons, there is an installation of circa 51 pieces of framed large­sized (100x150cm) photos book­shelf or domino type organized, where the middle ones are the only ones standing still, and the rest is leaning on it,gradually rising (or falling). Only the last (or the first)photo, in fact, the only one, can be perceived as a whole picture. What is important to me is to question a display organization or the way of reading or simply to question any existing system as such. The rest of the pictures which cannot be seen is still there creating a balance, the body of the entire installation because we know they are there, they are present. The whole object seems a little like a collapsed pillar (here I’m interested in a ruin as a symbol, a ruin where cattle re­grazes).
 
Masks
There are masks from my dad’s collection installed on the right side.These masks again mean something completely different to me than to the rest of the viewers; they represent the infantile safety of home. No matter how shocking, in my own intentions, I project them as a memory, thus giving them a totally different meaning than most probably the audience does. Besides that, collecting masks is a unique passion itself like collecting coasters, beetles or mummies. An African mask is a typical souvenir and a touristic article, and souvenirs (memories) are presented in the whole project. Because it is a family heritage, it represents a measurement of time with my relatives and loved ones, and because it is my own, I have found it and re­ edited.
 
Shells “According to Ruskin”
In the area close to the entrance above viewers’ heads, there is a glass plate standing on four metal legs full of shells put on top of it (again using my dad’s shells collection). The shells are organized according to size from small ones to the biggest ones or grouped according to their sort, where we want to emphasize a wide range of differences within one repeating form. (Even the most basic forms of animals that are perfectly symmetric as well as asymmetric, that are notorious architectonic or art models, even these repeating forms have their own different individual varieties). Here, I'm referring to Ruskin’s passion for Byzantine influence on mediaeval Venice architecture, its repetitions, rhythm of shapes changing into ornaments, etc.
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