VestandPage
About the artist
Since 2006, German artist Verena Stenke and Venetian-born artist and writer Andrea Pagnes have been working together as VestAndPage in performance art, performance-based film, writing, publishing and temporary artistic community projects.
VestAndPage have been exploring the phenomena of performance art and filmmaking through their collaborative creative practice, artistic research and curatorial projects. They have produced performance-based art and films, among other things, under Antarctic glaciers, at the Himalayan foothills, in the vastness of Tierra del Fuego, in military enclaves and inside prehistoric caves systems. In a psychogeography of symbiotic realms, they move between embodiment and research, the unseen and the unforeseen, the oppressed and unspoken, the forgotten and the repressed. Their works have been presented at various sites and in theatres, museums, galleries and cinemas worldwide. They are the founders and directors of the Venice International Performance Art Week, and their research and poetic writings have been extensively published and translated for international readers. They share their methodology and mentoring on collaborative performance and filmmaking in co-creation master classes and have been guest lecturers at art academies worldwide.
STRATA
25.07.20205, 18.15 – 19.30 – screening of STRATA by VestAndPage (Germany, Italy) with participation of 20 international artists and scientists
Assembly Hall, 6 Kolegialna Street
A film of philosophical, poetic action, STRATA blends film and performance art to explore the fascinating history of caves as sites of knowledge-making and art creation. Through interdisciplinary processes, artists and researchers investigate the connection between the human body and the geological depth of subsurface environments. The project focuses on the prehistoric caves of the Swabian Jura, where Ice Age humans sought shelter and created the oldest known examples of human figurative sculptures. Nestled inside the dark subsurfaces of the land, the artists confront romantically distorted images of nature and naturalness to dismantle consolidated narratives and aesthetics.
The screening is organised in cooperation with EntrAxis e.V., a German association that has been promoting performance art as a living tradition, social practice and decisive force for cultural change since 2019.