Stefano Cagol: September 11

The starting point of the project is a date: September 11. A univocal, dramatic date: September 11 or »Nine Eleven«, as it is commonly referred to since the attack to the Twin Towers in 2001. September 11 is also incidentally the day on which the artist was born, thus tying a personal occurrence to this symbolic landmark of the new millennium. The project starts from this coincidence, as a starting point to initiate a reflection upon the concepts of »history«, of collective and individual »identity«, of »change«, of »conviction«, of »repetition«, of »death« and »birth«, of »sharing«, of »universality«. Departing from the somehow sentimental ideas of sharing and of identification, the artwork will encompass in a standard LED display case with red running characters a list of notable events which happened on September 11, through time and space. It will investigate the potentially ever-increasing historical consciousness bound to September 11, by exhuming and putting into the public limelight events, whether they be well-known or forgotten, shared or non shared, collective or more singular. In accordance with the concept of shared memory, neither imposed nor closed, the selection will be collected from Wikipedia, a form of collective and open archive, in continuous evolution. The distinctive versions of the sculpture will be simultaneously on display for a period of one month starting from September 11, 2009 in various museums and art centers in Europe. Considering the personal implication, the artist will personally distribute the displays in each location realizing a real travel from his birth region Trentino South Tyrol to Brussels where he is working at the moment, passing by Austria and Germany.

The Content:

An excerpt from the list of events:
…
September 11, AD 9 – The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends.
September 11, 1847 – Stephen Foster's well-known song, Oh! Susanna, is first performed at a saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
September 11, 1926 – An assassination attempt on Benito Mussolini fails.
September 11, 1937 – Birth of Queen Paola Ruffo di Calabria of Belgium
September 11, 1944 – World War II: RAF bombing raid on Darmstadt and the following firestorm kill 11,500.
September 11, 1965 – The 1st Cavalry Division of the United States Army arrives in Vietnam.
September 11, 1973 – A CIA backed coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet topples the democratically elected President Salvador Allende.
September 11, 1973 – Death of Salvador Allende, President of Chile (b. 1908)
September 11, 1973 – Death of Neem Karoli Baba, Indian guru
September 11, 1979 – Birth of Nathan Gale, American murderer (dead the 2004)
September 11, 2001 – The September 11, 2001 attacks take place in the United States
September 11, 2007 – Russia tests the largest conventional weapon ever, the Father of all bombs.
…

The artist:

Stefano Cagol was born on September 11, 1969. Works and lives in Trentino South Tyrol and in Brussels. Looking only at 2008, he exposed at MARTa Herford in Germany, at Tina B contemporary art festival in Prague, at HVCCA – Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in New York, at Mart – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto, Italy and at White Box, New York. He held a solo Parallel Event to Manifesta 7 in 2008, in 2006 a solo Satellite Event at Singapore Biennale. His public art installation »Flu Power Flu« has been on permanence since 2007 on the façade of Beursschouwburg Art Center in Brussels.
Through artworks, actions and traveling projects Stefano Cagol faces socio-political themes, underlining the contraddiction between beliefs and influences.

The locations:

MART – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
Corso Bettini, 43, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
Curated by Gabriella Belli

KUNSTRAUM INNSBRUCK
Maria Theresien Straße 34, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Curated by Stefan Bidner

ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art
Lorenzstraße 19, 76135 Karlsruhe, Germany
Curated by Gregor Jansen

CAGOL’s STUDIO
Quai du Commerce 44 X, 1000 Brussels, Belgien