The Commissioner of The Republic of Kenya Pavilion and its Curators have strongly supported, on the Isola di San Servolo, the Special Project “I/O _Io È Un Altro” by the Italo-Brazilian César Meneghetti. César Meneghetti has investigated the boundary of “normality” with a relational process and with contemporary devices.

This project, during three years, has involved in Rome more than 200 people with mental disorders from the Art Labs of Sant’Egidio. Then it was chosen as appropriate venue the island of San Servolo that, from 1725 to 1978, hosted one of the largest mental hospital complexes in Veneto. Meneghetti, starts from the margin accepting the risk of an open process to the unpredictability of this meeting, confirming his nomadic life and his interest in global issues (K_Lab / Interacting on the Reality Interface / Niger, 2007-2009; this_orient / Vietnam, 2010-2011). The artist is looking for another boundary, but this time not a geographical nor a cultural one. He is open-minded towards the possibility of a change and he unveils an inner boundary even to himself.

The work of Meneghetti has transformed people with disabilities (and also others) involved in this long relational, creative and self-knowledge process. The artist states he has also changed through the whole process and through art itself. He is Other now. In this new border area everything is involved: the subject and the object. Roles are inverted. A liberated reciprocity, the right of expression and the right to look are strongly affirmed. The artwork, led by a principle of truth, gets its own way, not foreseen nor planned, through the structure and instruments used: video, photography and performance. The work of César Meneghetti aims to look beyond that borderline where you think you won’t find anything, not even the thought. Through his work we can hear those voices of people we are usually deaf to.

The Republic of Kenya Pavilion
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