Palazzo Donà Brusa, San Polo 2177, 30125 Venezia, Italy
Vaporetto: San Silvestro ACTV 1
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Artist talk and reading from Voce a Vento, 15 July
Combo, Ex Convento dei Crociferi, Campo dei Gesuiti, Cannaregio, 4878

Exhibition opening, 16 July

Ikon collaborates with a.topos, Venice to present recent work by acclaimed Italian artist Claudia Losi (b. 1971).

Claudia Losi employs a variety of media to explore the relationship between humankind and nature, and the unique forms of knowledge gained through travel and exploration. In her work, she often uses storytelling as a trigger to connect and create new communities.

Framed as a “conversation”, the exhibition places emphasis on the interdependence of inhabitants of the natural world, including humanity. Windsocks (2018) recall kites, prayer flags, boat sails and drying laundry. Sewn by hand, their lightweight fabric lifts and inflates when wind passes through it.

A new artist’s book and vinyl record, Voce a vento (edit by Kunstverein Publishing Milan, 2021, with Snaporazverein and Shapdiz Foundation) will be presented by the artist and the editor Katia Anguelova on 15 July at Combo with the female choirs participating in Being There_Venice (16 July, 2021). Voce a vento is the first of three volumes in a new editorial series (Passo chiama Passo) featuring music by Meike Clarelli and text by Claudia Losi sung by thirty women on a path of Mount Bulgheria in Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park in 2018. The series, co-produced with Snaporazverein_CH, brings together the unforeseen results of a number of site-specific performances, each connected to different landscapes through choral singing.

Amulets for Voices (2021) similarly underscores the power of the voice and talismans. Small enough to be held in the palm of a human hand, the clay sculptures depict figures curled into different positions. The idea of landscape as a natural theatre – explored by Losi in Voce a vento – is also a theme of Lingua Foglia (Leaf Tongues) (2020). These delicate works are akin to “little theatres”, their scenes of travel and hunting shaped from the forms of metal leaves.

Being There_Venice
Performance, 16 July 2021
With Amigdala Collective and singers from choirs Le Chemin des Femmes & Core Voci Indisciplinate. Production: Microclima

Being There is a site-specific performance along Venice’s canals, realised in collaboration with Collettivo Amigdala, an artistic group that focuses on site-specific work with the voice as medium.

Four traditional wooden boats will pass through various canals, triggering reactions from performers and singers. Feminine voices – moving and stationary – will intertwine, sewing a story that moves along the surface of the water and then disappears.

Meike Clarelli, with Davide Fasulo, has reworked Italian and English songs, adding traditional melodies, love songs, music originating from women’s work, and lullabies. Songs of utopias and struggle interweave with fragments of text written by Claudia Losi.

Losi has previously presented three projects at Ikon: Aria Mobile (2007), Balena Project (2008) and Being There (2019).

Exhibition organised by Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK and a.topos, Venice, Italy.

Organised to coincide with the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 (22 May – 21 November 2021)