Ruin – Una Boccata d'Arte

Hanne Lippard

Ruin

curated by
Roberta Mansueto per Threes

Grottole (MT), Basilicata

Starting from the many cavities still present in the landscape of Grottole (MT), from which its toponym cryptulae (in Italian “grotticelle”) spaces formerly used for the processing of clay and the production of wine, the artist Hanne Lippard reflects on these openings in the landscape by developing a discourse on the duality of the words whole/hole understood as empty and full, and which by association, refer to human orifices and to what can occur, by the same duality, in nature and in society.
For Una Boccata d’Arte, Hanne Lippard presents Ruin, a site-specific sound installation that enters into dialogue with the church built on the remains of the Church of SS. Luca and Giuliano, commonly known as Chiesa Diruta (the ruined church), within the ancient village of Grottole.
With 39 meters in height and 20 meters wide, it was the parish church of the village built starting in the early 1500s on the remains of two small churches.
Never having been completed and hit by a series of earthquakes that have affected the area, it is currently a monument-ruin that preserves the memory of the time.
A particular architectural element of the building is the elliptical dome, which appears suspended in the open sky: this element thus becomes an attractive vector, a sort of “hole in the sky” for the celestial vision, and geometry that returns in the use of concepts such as circles, spirals and spheres already present in Lippard’s earlier works. For the opening night, Hanne Lippard will perform SYZYGY (2015), reactivated in the reading on the occasion of Una Boccata d’Arte 2022.

A CIRCLE OF DARK SOIL ON THE GROUND MIRRORS THE SHAPE OF THE HOLE IN THE CHURCH RUINS CEILING IN EXACT MEASURES. THE CIRCLE PRESENTS A REVERSE IMAGE OF THE OPENNESS OF THE CELESTIAL HOLE; CLOSED AND DARK AT GROUND LEVEL THE HEAVY COMPACTED SOIL IS MADE INTO A TROMPE L’OEIL. ITS APPEARANCE ALLUDES TO SOMETHING BEING BURIED AND CONCEALED, WHEREAS THE HOLE IN THE SKY INVITES THE VISITOR TO AN ASCENT EVEN IF IT REMAINS PURELY THROUGH THE USE OF ONES SIGHT

Hanne Lippard (Milton Keynes, 1984) explores the social forms that govern discourse. Her artistic practice, which mainly takes the form of reading and sound installations, investigates the voice as an instrument of emancipation and alienation in times of hyper-connectivity. By mixing personal thoughts and appropriating texts from advertising, slogans and newspaper articles, the text becomes a mix of private and public that regains inventiveness and authorship through the use of the voice, becoming a body of its own. Her recent artistic research has focused on the use of the female body as a container of sounds, on the conscious and unconscious automation of speech and language. Recent exhibitions and performances include: Le language est une peau, FRAC Lorraine, Metz (2021); Contact, Mood, Share at MHKA, Antwerp, (2021); X, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou (2020); RIBOCA2, Riga (2020); ART 4 ALL, Hamburger Bahnhof (2020); Our present, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Siegen (2020); Parades for FIAC, Palais de la Découverte (2019); Art Night London (2019); Goethe in the Skyways, Minneapolis, (2019); n.b.k. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlino (2019); Nam June Paik Award, 2018; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster (2018); Ulyd, Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger and FriArt, Friburgo (2018).

AT THE BACK OF THE CHURCH BENEATH THE HOLE IN THE CEILING, HICCUP RESONATES WITHIN THE SHAPE OF A LOCAL CLAY POT, A CRYPTICBUT FAMILIAR HUMAN BODILY SOUND SPEAKING TOWARDS THE VAST VAULT OF THE OPEN SKY. THE PIECE RUIN AT THE FRONT OF THE CHURCH SURROUNDING THE SOIL CIRCLE, IS A SECULAR SERMON THAT SPEAKS THE BWILDING INTO BEING, CONNECTING THE OPEN SKY TO THE SOIL THAT WE STAND ON

Grottole (MT)

Basilicata

Grottole is an Italian town of about 2,000 inhabitants in the province of Matera. Located on the top of the Motta hill, slightly detached from the town, the castle of Grottole is said to have been built at the request of the Lombard prince Sichinolfo of Salerno in 851. The church of San Rocco, also known as the church of Santa Maria La Grotta, is dedicated to the patron saint of Grottole. Inside, in the main nave, there is a precious polyptych by the artist Pietro Antonio Ferro, dating back to the seventeenth century and depicting The Seven corporal works of mercy. In the historic centre, you will also find the remains of the Church of SS.Luca and Giuliano, commonly known as the Diruta Church. The church however remained unfinished and was hit by a series of earthquakes as well as by various fires. It is now an evocative and monumental ruin that rises above the village.

Acknowledgments: Loparco family for the kind donation of the terracotta vase, Angelo De Vito - Mayor, Mariapina Cosentino Deputy Mayor, all the municipal administration of Grottole, the officials, Made in Grottole Association and Saverio Iosca.