the voyage
















Valerio Dehò
A central part of Voyager 2003 consisted of the journey from Ancona to Split, undertaken the day after the opening of the show at Portonovo. What was its significance? In the first place, it was a matter of giving reality to the proposals to establish physical contact with the other Adriatic coast. The voyage was an element in the establishment of relations, of getting to know each other. The boat with the artists bore witness to what had already been achieved in the Marche, and it also bore seeds that were going to be sown at Split.And the journey itself became a work of art. Thanks to the contributions of all on board, it turned into a performance which lasted two days. The route, designed by Massimo Cartaginese in totally non-linear fashion, is a symbol of rejection of the straight line, as being the bearer of the meaning of travel which is normal, banal, lucrative. Things in reality never are linear, even the processes of creation themselves, of the birth of a work of art, do not follow a straight-line course. The boat had to mirror that philosophy. A route was chosen out of the many possible routes, and was executed with the help of the captain of the boat. The satellite surveying system picked up these movements by which the voyage to Split was “observed” from on high, and thus revealed its artistic purpose, its uniqueness in the world where precision and the criterion of economy rule all communication.Then it turned out that some of the artists had brought special instruments. Bruno Mangiaterra had made a pair of terracotta binoculars, with the word “Land” written on the outer lenses. Other artists such as Oskar Barrile, who runs the Voyager website among other things, got together works on the theme of Discovery and the Journey. Sergio Capone and Monica Robinig used video and photography to document the various stages of the approach to the Croatian coast and all the little adventures which the journey brought. The Guest Star of this operation was a beautiful and popular ceramic reproduction of the Virgin of Loreto, who by her presence inspired faith, even if only temporarily, in a crew of artist-sailors with a mission to complete. Even with that minimum of irony that does no harm on occasions of the sort.The arrival at Split and the welcome by the Cultural Commissioner for the city had been excellently prepared by the Arci di Ancona and gave the hoped-for result: confirmation of the agreement and dates to bring the exhibition to the famous Palace of Diocletian, with the additional participation of artists from Croatia co-ordinated by Gorki Zuvela.So Voyager’s mission continues. The relations between the two venues and the sea itself become another element to consider: collaboration between the peoples. From the idea of recycling and of educating people to treat refuse in a more responsible and aware manner, Voyager has enriched itself with an extra task: to establish complete and durable relations between the two cultures, to reforge the bonds between Ancona and Split, and between the Marche and Croatia. And, among the other themes, there is artistic research, the voyage as a metaphor for discovery, for the pleasure of venturing into new territory and rediscovering and re-reading things that thrilled us when we first met them.This open-ended project is therefore in a phase of further growth, the additional ideas make of it a container open to art, and to ethics, a “political” instrument for collaboration and comparison of experiences, which is the knowledge which becomes reality.

Bruno Mangiaterra: "in vista"