Binah

installation for silkworms, laboratory, video, music and dancers | indeterminate | stereo
silkworm rearing and video by Paola Pisani,
music by Ivan Penov
laboratory by Mamad Darai
dancers Eleonora Zenero and Martina Serban

the project was carried out as part of artistic residencies "Vettori" in collaboration with Teatro la Contrada

2022

The research, conceived and coordinated by Paola Pisani examine eco-feminist issues related to the end of the Anthropocene, trans-species communication, and it is a cross-over between emerging ecologies intertwined in complex ways with bio-media and bio-art.
The materials produced during the two-week residency at Teatro La Contrada in Trieste, as part of "Vettori" art residencies, are of different kinds: visual and sounds archived throughout the whole cycle of silkworm breeding (from their initial state as caterpillar to moth). Through analysis and bacterial cultures, collection of creepers found in the northeast of Italy (Passionflower, Clematis, Jasmine, Ivy and Vine), often associated in environments where Mulberry strongly finds its presence.
The residency was enhanced by the public meeting "Art and Biology: a chess game with God?" on October 22, 2022 at the Fabbri Theater, a conversation by artist Paola Pisani and musician Ivan Penov with Eunice Tsang (Current Plans), Anna Menini (SISSA), Cinzia Chiandetti (University of Trieste), Mamad Darai (Delta Instruments), Maria Campitelli (Gruppo 78).
"Binah" should be understood as a poetic-artistic premise, an audiovisual installation/performance marked by perception that, inspired by nature and the landscape in which we live, dialogues with the silkworm with the aim of bringing the viewer to raise awareness with more complex social issues that affect our way of contemporary life, particularly that of living, understood in both the physical and inner sense.
The focus of our research-in-progress is the analysis of environmental conditions with respect to pollution in the our regional area, and the spin-off the study of responsive design solutions, thanks to the study of mulberry and silkworm as biosensors and the creation of biomedical textiles.
The name "Binah" is taken from the Kabbalah and means "understanding," or "the world to come." The silkworm, its history, relationship with the environment, its slow processing of the thread and silk, the choral and complex work that this requires becomes a metaphor for the time and space in which we live and the importance of the collective responsibility towards the body and the environment."

text by Paola Pisani

photos by Francesca Bergamasco