In January 2014 Glasgow-based artist Corin Sworn was announced as the fifth winner of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women. Established ten years ago and organised in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the prize has one main aim - promoting and nurturing UK-based women artists who have not previously had a solo survey exhibition.
Sworn's project for the Art Prize was inspired by the rich history and elaborate costumes of the Commedia dell'Arte, the Italian theatrical comedies characterised by an improvised dialogue held together by a plot outline (canovaccio or canvas) performed by acting troupes touring Italy from the 16th century onwards.
The ur-genre of modern comedy and probably of professional theatre itself, the Commedia and its stock characters enjoyed enormous popularity and influenced and inspired writers and artists for centuries, including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Molière, Marivaux, Goya and Picasso.
Interviewed last year, Marina Dacci, director of the Collezione Maramotti the institution that exhibits and acquires the projects of artists awarded the Max Mara Art Prize, told Irenebrination: "Corin Sworn's project has deep links to the Italian culture and traditions and this is very important because the award offers on a biannual basis a 6-month residency in Italy, allowing the artist involved to develop a strong link with our culture and create a new and innovative project. The Commedia dell'Arte has a time-honoured tradition in Italy that also influenced cinema - from the '60s on, many directors employed indeed the tropes of this genre on the silver screen. So Sworn's project freely moves from the visual arts to film, from theatre and the performing arts to the history of costume."
During her residency in Italy, Sworn moved between Rome, Naples and Venice. In Rome she looked at the relationship between the Commedia dell'Arte and Italian cinema; then, based at the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina (MADRe) in Naples, she analysed the flourishing of the Commedia through forms of street and popular theatre, studying traditional stage plays and meeting actors and experts of the genre. Her research then took the artist to Venice where she explored the libraries and archives of the Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa.
Entitled "Silent Sticks", Sworn's project was finally unveiled at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in May and the event has currently moved at the Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia (until 28th February 2016; opening times: Thursday/Friday 2.30pm - 6.30pm; Saturday/Sunday 10.30am - 6.30pm). Located in the historical headquarters of the Max Mara company, the Collezione was started by visionary entrepreneur and keen art collector Achille Maramotti, founder of Max Mara. After he died, his family continued to expand the private collection with further paintings, sculptures and installations, opening it to visitors in 2007.
Sworn's "Silent Sticks" is set like a stage for a live performance with props, costumes, sound and video. The installation combines therefore architecture, sculpture and textiles, elements the artist studied during her residency via manuscripts of traditional plays and theatre productions or visiting buildings and museums.
Interested in the evolution of the Commedia throughout history, Sworn looked at various themes including the importance of clothing in 16th and 17th century Italian society, and the role the actors had in destabilising relationships and hierarchies.
Her favourite topic remains the theme of the mistaken identities: the Commedia dell'Arte often features women passing as men, masters dressed as their servants or noblemen with the look of beggars - in a nutshell, characters on the make, in constant transformation and always trying to obtain something from someone else, from love to money or revenge. Sworn looked at rank and social standing, and also tackled the theme of anxieties derived from the instability characterising society at the time. Quite a few visitors walking around the set she created that reworks the story of a famous case of imposture in the 16th century will also think about gender issues in our modern society and the debate about a genderless society.
Fashionistas visiting the event should take note about the costumes: they were designed by the artist who researched many historical and iconographic sources and found inspiration in the text Il teatro delle favole rappresentative (translated into English by Henry F. Salerno in 1967 as Scenarios of the Commedia dell'Arte) by Flaminio Scala, a 16th century Italian stage actor, scenario writer, playwright, director and producer. The costumes were then hand-made in collaboration with a team of designers and artisans from Max Mara.
Sworn's "Silent Sticks" will be included in the Maramotti Collection at the end of the exhibition. In the meantime, at the beginning of October, five female artists - Ruth Ewan, Ana Genovés, Emma Hart, Tania Kovats and Phoebe Unwin - were unveiled as shortlisted for the sixth Max Mara Art Prize for Women.
As we wait for the winner to be announced in January, there will be plenty of time to go and see Sworn's "Silent Sticks" and maybe rethink about some of the topics the artist examines, from gender roles and the use of improvisation as a means of generating a greater sense of immediacy, to a key topic that may prove extremely important even in our times - the way in which comic drama was regarded by critics as the form of writing which held a mirror up to society.
Image credits for this post
1.
Corin Sworn
Silent Sticks
production still
© the artist
Courtesy Whitechapel Gallery
Ph. Margaret Salmon
2.
Corin Sworn
Silent Sticks
production still
© the artist
Courtesy Whitechapel Gallery
Ph. Margaret Salmon
3.- 6.
Corin Sworn
Silent Sticks
exhibition view at Whitechapel Gallery
Courtesy Whitechapel Gallery
Ph. Stephen White
7.
Masks and Characters of the Commedia dell'Arte
detail
chromolitograph, 19th century
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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