Endless Shine of Human Violence

Alina Kleytman

Endless Shine of Human Violence

curated by
Ilaria Despina Bozzi

Cigognola (PV), Lombardia

Endless Shine of Human Violence is the title of the project conceived by Alina Kleytman for the village of Cigognola, on the occasion of the third edition of Una Boccata d’Arte. The project was born as an attempt to poetic assimilation of the trauma of war through the transformation of some rubble and objects into precious finds, pseudo jewels kept underground and visible from a glass plate. The work finds the culmination of its restitution in the comparison with light: a light at times dazzling that from the subsoil is filtered by a shattered glass veil. Rubble and everyday objects collected in Ukraine are melted by the heat of the bombing. Through the open-air burial of these transfigured artifacts, the artist operates a ritual giving a renewed value to the objects that reveal themselves, as secrets, to those who lower their gaze to the ground. The intervention is camouflaged into the landscape and reveals itself through its inner light to the visitor walking to the Belvedere. Disruptive elements resulting from the armed conflict are thus transposed to a place with an opposite value: the hill rich in vineyards where the village of Cigognola rises, which nevertheless bears in its history and geography the signs of past wars such as the Monument to the Fallen of the two World Wars and the ancient defensive function of the medieval Castle that dominates the panorama. It is precisely the proximity to the War Memorial that fosters an asynchronous dialogue with the work. Two testimonies of the tragic nature of war, in the past as well as in the urgency of the present.

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Permanent works:

Alina Kleytman, Endless Shine of Human Violence, 2022, cement, glass, LED, plastic, car windscreen, led, ca. 35 x 150 x 80 cm.

Cigognola (PV), Lombardia

"ENDLESS SHINE OF HUMAN VIOLENCE" REFLECTS A PRECIOUS AND GLITTERING PAIN TOGETHER WITH THE DESIRE TO RECONSTRUCT ONESELF WITHOUT ERASING ANYTHING, THE POETIC SYMBOL OF SUFFERING AS TANGIBLE AS IT IS DELICATE. ARTIFACTS ARE THE TRANSMUTATION OF DEVASTATION, THE ASCERTAINMENT OF A TRAGIC REALITY: VIOLENCE IS AN ATTITUDE THAT HAS ALWAYS CHARACTERIZED THE NATURE OF THE HUMANBEING. THE WORK IS INTENDED TO BE A FURTHER REMINDER OF THIS TRUTH, AS WEL AS OF THE FACT THAT THE IMAGES OF DESTRUCTION ARE SO FRIGHTENING THAT WE WOULD DO ANYTHING NOT TO SEE THEM, TO REASSEMBLE THEM

Alina Kleytman (Kharkiv, Ukraine, 1991) is an artist, a curator, a sculptor and a tutor. For now, sculpturing is in the middle of her practice. Alina is working on a few projects around this medium. From the beginning of russian aggression towards Ukraine Alina’s film has been participating in different festivals, programs and exhibitions, focused on the support of Ukraine and the extension of Ukrainian discourse in the world.

In 2019-2020 she provided mentorship for the long-term project Coming Out of Isolation 2.0 aimed at the elimination of discrimination, xenophobia and prejudice towards members of the LGBT+ community in Ukraine, initiated by IZOLYATSIA and supported by the Human Rights Fund 2019.

Since 2020 she is a curator of the independent art space Dzherelo (Kyiv, Ukraine), that concentrates on activating the public discussion around the topic of being in the urban space through a series of public shows, discussions and lectures within the exhibition cycle The bodies in the city and Mold-kid. Alina has curated various queer shows such as the QUEER CABARET at the ISKRA festival as well as the show presenting results of the Coming Out of Isolation 2.0 residency project. In April 2021 she won the prize “Women in Arts” (category: the woman in the visual art), an independent award by UN Women and the Ukrainian Institute. She is a two-time winner of the PinchukArtPrize: in 2015 she won the special prize for the work Super A and in 2018 – the audience prize for the work Ask your Mom.

Since 2021 she has been a curator and an author of ideas for such projects as Once upon a queer (Ukraine/Poland), Look at me I’m the worst (Ukraine/Germany).

THROUGH THE OPENAIR BURIAL OF THESE TRANSFIGURED ARTIFACTS, THE ARTIST OPERATES A RITUAL GIVING A RENEWED VALUE TO THE OBJECTS THAT REVEAL THEMSELVES, AS SECRETS, TO THOSE WHO LOWER THEIR GAZE TO THE GROUND

Cigognola (PV)

Lombardia

Cigognola is an Italian town of about 1,300 inhabitants in the province of Pavia. This area lies in the green heart of the Oltrepò Pavese, partly perched on a hill, partly extended along the valley “Vallescuropasso”. The Municipality is made up of three hamlets: Cigognola, the capital, Vallescuropasso and Vicomune. In addition to the many charming pathways and routes through nature, there are three of the place’s most characteristic and emblematic symbols: the Viale delle Rimembranze, the Parish Church of San Bernardo Abate and the Castle.
Dating back to an even earlier period, the Castle of Cigognola is mentioned for the first time in documents of the thirteenth century. In the Middle Ages, the Rocca was the subject of dispute between various families, such as the Sannazzaro, the Beccaria and the Visconti, with the aim of transforming itself into a real humanistic court of the Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, the Rocca was passed on to Barbara D’Adda and then to her son, Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso. With Napoleon, the property was passed on to the Gazzaniga and finally to the Bricchetto Arnaboldi family. In the nineteenth century, Don Carlo Arnaboldi Gazzaniga, as was the custom at that time, remodeled the structure in a neo-Gothic style by adding Ghibelline battlements, coats of arms and different kinds of decorations. In the 1900s, in the literary salon of Mimmina Bricchetto Arnaboldi, you could come across literary personalities such as Montale, Quasimodo, Croce and Bacchelli.

Acknowledgments: The Municipal Administration, the Mayor Gianluca Orioli, the Deputy Mayor and President of the Pro Loco Cristiano Maggi, the Councilor Barbara Frustagli, Letizia Moratti, Clarice Pecori Giraldi. A special thanks to Sergey Kantsedal.