Flux: A Silsila Collective Project
In May 2013, Silsila performed a collaborative work called "Flux" with nineteen Robert College students at Istanbul Modern Art Museum, and then again at Venice's Piazza San Marco, celebrating the vibrant relationship between these two sister cities (past and present, from waters' edge to waters' edge). Venice's Piazza San Marco, known as the "symbolic gateway to Europe" contains massive 18th Century tile patterns that are based upon traditional Turkish carpet designs. Choreographed by renown New York performance artist Ernesto Pujol, this work consisted of a series of movements through the geometry of these patterns. Each performer wore a garment covered in drawings and calligraphy comprised entirely of digital information from the students' own personal stories and imagery. Essentially, the students performed as "living books", visible histories of their personal and cultural bodies, moving through the map of a carpet long-gone.
