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In every performative event, I involve a working group composed of people who eat, speak, and work together for the duration of a meeting open to the public. Via performances, sculptures, food, texts, and installations I create situations involving new exhibition rituals that challenge our way of looking and perceiving.
Tiphaine Calmettes (Ivry-sur-Seine, France, 1988) studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Art de Bourges and currently lives and works in Aix-en-Provence, France. Through sculptures and installations, the artist views the production process as a living organism directly connected with the spaces that host it and the beings that accompany it. Her interest also extends to how the production of objects and architecture is animated both by living species and their intrinsic energies, as well as by physical or psychic relationships with their surroundings. Collaborating with various artisans, including masons and alchemists, she uses non-formal, reversible, and ephemeral techniques that contribute to animating life forms through performative actions. Her recent exhibitions include: Faire fleurir le salon at Musée Henri Prades, Montpellier (FR, 2023) in collaboration with MO.CO; I’ve got a feeling. Les 5 sens dans l’art contemporain, Musées d’Angers, Angers (FR, 2023); Chaleur humaine at Triennale Art & Industrie, Dunkirk (FR, 2023); Soupe Primordiale at Bétonsalon - Centre d'Art et de Recherche, Paris (FR, 2022).
The village of Porto Levante is a small hamlet of Porto Viro, with 140 inhabitants, and it overlooks the picturesque Sacca Cavallari lagoon, separated from the sea by the famous like-named “scanno” (sandbank). Distinctive for its low, colourful houses typical of fishing villages, the village comprises a small, charming church dating back to the 18th century and a fine area of woodland, which includes an old icehouse that has recently been restored.
On the shore of the lagoon is the “Marina di Porto Levante” dock, a tourist harbour that provides a convenient stop for boats sailing towards the Adriatic and its hinterland. Opposite Porto Levante, the lagoon is bordered by the Scanno Cavallari, a sandbank of great naturalistic interest, with a beach free for use by visitors and devoid of man-made constructions.
The lido is hallmarked by the typical vegetation of areas set between the sea and the lagoon, and offers an ideal habitat for numerous species of birds, including black-winged stilts, grey herons, ducks and mallards, which nest among the reeds and tamarisks.
In the summer season, a ferry runs from Porto Levante to the sandbank beach, while from the fishing village you can reach the town centre by means of a route about 50 km-long, Via del Valli, which runs around the lagoon and instils a refreshing sense of peace.