Michele Di Menna – ding dong ding dong ding dong

Temporary Communities

Friday, January 27, 2023, 11:45–13:45

Venue: H.G. Will Center, Stanford in Berlin, Pacelliallee 18-20, 14195 Berlin

Michele Di Menna

 

ding dong

ding dong

ding dong

ding dong

ding dong

ding dong ding dong

Amorphous duration time is brought into shape by the reverberations of the ritual ringing

the shape becomes moulded in a sequence of moments

the ringing reminds us that time is external

and doesn’t only exist within ourselves

the perception of the sound gives us a signal

we understand, something is happening

time is embodied in the sound

a new body is made

first formless and then moulded and cast into the bodies of bells

crown

head

and shoulders

waist

lip mouth and tongue

Ringing into a trance

sound resistance, banned and melted down

clock

the sound of a bell defines a territory

structured by the sound emanating from it, creating an auditory space

providing a sacral recharging of the space

ridding the space of unwanted energies through the reverberation of the sound

doing away with the thunderstorms

ding

sms

dong

email

ding

dong

pizza

delivery

ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong

it’s four o’clock

––Michele Di Menna

The artistic practice of Michele Di Menna unfolds in a variety of media, including painting, performance, and sculpture. Expanding materials to sound, and performance to encounters, she has an interest in forging constellations where objects and subjects intertwine. Such relationship to design finds itself walking hand in hand with questions on ephemerality and permanence. If Michele Di Menna’s performance evokes a situational spirit of the space, grasping out to past and future, the bells’ vibe also includes a social dimension. Wearing a dress made by Malene List Thomsen, the artist plays her experimental installation that she set up in reaction to the house.

Students from Stanford in Berlin, from Free University (FU), Humboldt University (HU), and the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), together with invited moderator Martin Beck, enjoy afterwards a convivial pizza lunch.

Michele Di Menna (b. 1980, Vancouver, CA) lives and works in Berlin. After studies at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver (2004-2005), she has completed her formal education at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Städelschule) in Frankfurt am Main (2005-2010). Michele Di Menna has held artist residencies at Künstlerhaus Worpswede (2009), at Western Front, Vancouver (2013), and at Fogo Island Arts (2015). Works of Michele Di Menna have been on view in solo exhibitions at Galerie Lars Friedrich, Berlin; Johan Berggren Gallery, Malmö; The Beach Office, Berlin; Galerie Kamm, Berlin; Marta Herford, Herford; Kunstverein Nürnberg; Andrea Rosen Gallery New York; a.o. Selected group exhibitions with Michele Di Menna include the Istituto Svizzero, Rome; Triennale der Kleinplastik, Fellbach; Galerie der Stadt Schwaz (AT); Autocenter, Berlin; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; CAB Art Center Brussels; Kunsthalle Vienna; Bergen Kunsthall; Künstlerhaus Bremen; The Institute of Social Hypocrisy, Paris; Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Künstlerhaus Graz