Conversation with Guido Casaretto and Marianna van der Zwaag

INSTANCES OF ERASURE

Video Screening Program 
October 19, 2023 - February 17, 2024

with Bani Abidi, Sena Başöz, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Guido Casaretto, Itamar Gov, İz Öztat, Simon Wachsmuth & Isaac Chong Wai
Program by: Nazlı Yayla & Marjolein van der Meer

Conversation: Guido Casaretto & Marianna van der Zwaag
25.10.2023, 19h
 

Platform 82 : Goethestraße 82, 10623 Berlin

Guido Casaretto
Crossing Carnevale, 2019
Video 12’

In his works, Guido Casaretto explores the connection of humans to culture and nature by incorporating elements of myths and personal stories, without following any temporal and spatial linearity. Crossing Carnevale is a video shot in a dried-up salt lake, on a small Aegean island called Gökçeada, in the northwestern part of Turkey. Appropriating a pagan ritual of the pre-Christian times, the video shows the parade of Mamuthones of Sardinia in their wild primitive costumes, crossing an extraordinary landscape.

According to the legend, the Mamuthones warriors cross the sea to move from Sardinia to Liguria, where Casaretto’s family is from, to chase and sacrifice a member of a rival tribe as a scapegoat. In the video, Casaretto shows the coming back of the warriors with the hostage on an empty landscape that seems like a scene out of time. As a symbol of the island, the appearance of Mamuthones is celebrated in Sardinia in the first days of each year, in the form of a street carnival and seen as a celebration of auspicious times and the abundance of nature. By bringing the myth to a new geography, Casaretto blurs the distance between the real and the mythological and what belongs to history and today.

Read more about Guido Casaretto here.

Marianna van der Zwaag is a curator at Oude Kerk Amsterdam. She curated installations by artists Susan Philipsz, The Fall (2021), Antonio Obá, Path (2022) and Ibrahim Mahama (2022). Marianna van der Zwaag studied Art History (MA) at the University of Amsterdam. At Oude Kerk she also works on developing the archive of Amsterdam’s oldest building into an open archive that includes the temporary installations, concerts, and performances.


Platform 82  powered by Zilberman is a new art space that aims to bring together artists, curators and institutions from different corners of the world, generating dialogue through conversations, presentations, publications, and exchange programs. From October 2023 onwards, we extend an invitation to institutions, curators, artists and all other contributors of the art scene for artistic exploration, discursive practices and dialogue.

Instances of Erasure

Instances of Erasure brings together 8 video works by 8 artists, accompanied by a series of conversations. Running from October 19th 2023 until February 17th 2024, two videos by two artists are on view roughly every four weeks, with conversations between artists and guests. With Bani Abidi, Sena Başöz, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Guido Casaretto, Isaac Chong Wai, Itamar Gov, İz Öztat and Simon Wachsmuth. Guests include professor Füsun Türetken, Zippora Elders (Gropius Bau, Berlin), Sam Bardaouil (Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin) and curator, researcher and writer Hajra Haider Karrar.

Instances of Erasure delves into the theme of erasure. Through their visual narratives, artists invite the viewer to contemplate the delicate threads that connect memory, history, and the shaping of identity. It encompasses urban structures, architectural fragments and unseen traces that enable one to re-read social and personal histories.