Alviceleste [in english]
Text for Berlin 2006 exhibition
Claudia Saldanha Alviceleste was elaborated in three different phases: the installation before the performance, the performance and what resulted from the performance. The installation consists of a room filled with hanging, cuneiform glass containers reminiscent of an alchemist’s laboratory. In this setting, the artist kept on filling the containers with blue ink. After periods of time the ink would spill out from the containers, running down through the artist’s face, her white dress and spreading through the floor. The gesso floor, all soaked in blue ink, displays stains reminiscent of Ives Klein’s Anthropometries of the Blue Period. In Alviceleste Marcia X. also references Jackson Pollock’s work, highlighting the performative aspect of his work.  |  | Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, 2003 |
Alviceleste was performed only once at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, in Rio, in 2003. A video of the event was produced and it has been shown in different venues, sometimes with a reconstruction of the installation itself.
Together with Pancake, Lavou a Alma com Coca-Cola, Ação de Graças, and a number of other performances, Alviceleste represents a new path on Marcia’s work. At the same time that they display a more spiritual, less ironic tone, these later works can also be seen as a tribute/critique to Modernism. |