Following the Light of the Sun, I Only Discovered the Ground

"Following the Light of the Sun, I Only Discovered the Ground emphasizes the power dynamics related to cultural and historical judgments. The piece is a slide projection based on photographs retrieved from the archive of Zurab Tsereteli —­ a Georgian-Russian artist commissioned to build the tallest sculpture in the world in order to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ voyage of ´discovery’ . The statue has never been completely assembled because it was continuously rejected by several American institutions. Its constituent parts have been moved around for over twenty years before finding a permanent display location in Puerto Rico, where the statue is currently being assembled. The slide images are accompanied by the Russian national anthem, creating possible misunderstandings that accentuate the idea of displacement, and the arbitrary nature of history writing.

Following the Light of the Sun, I Only Discovered the Ground is my second work that uses monuments depicting Christopher Columbus made by Zurab Tsereteli as its starting point. The first one was the video More delicate than the historians are the map maker’s colours, from 2012-­2013."

Text sent by Runo Lagomarsino on the occasion of the subscription to the 19th Festival (January 2015)