ONE YEAR PERFORMANCE ANITA STO | NEW YORK | 2010-2011
One Year Performance One Year Living Without Mirror
To my grandma, Lelia.
I would love to give a special Thank and a big hug to all of You who have been patient and close to me along my one year of performance and shared and still is sharing with passion and care my work and my life. My work exists also because of You... Anita Sto
EVERYTHING BE-
GINS WITH AN OBJECT
IN THE REAL WORLD DAY 309
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If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely. Nothing good shone out of Mrs. Twit’s face.
Roald Dahl
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I find these works to be incredibly provocative. Especially Anita Sto’s piece The Self. It is compelling how the artist refuses to look at her reflection for one year, a daunting task in a world drowning in vanity. Avoiding visual aids Sto challenges herself to react and refine her organic self, not the physical or the beautiful, but the emotional self, unprompted by the primped and processed commercial ideal. It's interesting how Anita Sto has introduced her intuition and her forced rely on it. Thus she develops a new selfawareness that is lacking in the populous. Sto’s work covers deep probing questions. Questions of beauty’s importance arise as we consider such themes as aging, health, time. In this new arena the body is free to connect with the traditions of nature. Themes of time and of the careful attention to emotional value continue into her painting and drawings. The artist’s monochrome palate allows for the organic fusion between the painting and the viewer. Each black line is individually rhythmic and reacts to its white counterpart. Such uncorrupted energy has raw emotion and continues the introverted attention that makes her work wholly original. Most importantly, I think that as an artist, Anita Sto has great insight herself and her world, which is admirable and authentic. She creates a balance between the inner and the outer, the visual and the emotional, the self and the soul.
Abraham Lubelski Publisher, NY Arts Magazine New York
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For Anita, In the darkness we seek the vision of ourselves. We bravely traverse the darknes and lightnes that exists within our psyche. The seeming slices into the darkness, invites me into a world of conception and perception. A shared reality binds us, as we wander through the void in search of identity, forcing boundaries.
Whitney V. Hunter Performance and Exhibition Artist New York
After meeting Anita through a mutual friend in Williamsburg [A/N: Brooklyn, New York] and learning about her project I was immediately captivated by her. I recognized that we shared similar emotions. Growing up surrounded by art and fashion, I took my experiences to intertwine both worlds together. Both fields are part of the same magical language that combines colors, textures, and shapes, which led me to produce events that channels emotion. I was deeply struck by Anita’s strong passion about the process of her work by not looking in the mirror or any reflections. Because in the worlds of advertising, brand marketing, and fashion, where image and perception are everything, not looking at yourself is inconceivable. By not focusing on your image, your inner life can be shocked at first and then intensified. Is our identity formed by our surroundings and our reflections in the mirror of the world?
Man-LaĂŻ Liang Producer-Project Manager New York
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October 12th, 2011 Red Line Subway of New York City Photograph by Konstantinos Antonopoulos
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CURATOR’S STATEMENT Anita Sto is dedicated to forcing the boundaries of comprehension, recognition, and perception of the self through varying mediated forms. What lies in the selfconscious of a person when not involved with the image? Anita’s concern with the self/identity and perspective draws the viewer, challenging each to bravely traverse the darkness and lightness that exist within the psyche. In graphically conceptual works that slice into the darkness providing a portal by which to immerse oneself in duration and endurance, Anita charges one to consider his/her own desires and capacities. Anita Sto’s, One-Year Performance work, experiments with duration and endurance. In the work, Anita avoided her own image in any mirror or other reflective surface for one year. The artist states, “the intention of the 365 days performance was to find how and where the Self acts, besides the objectiveness of visual images but through feelings, impressions and considerations.” This is the journey of all, to discover the “I” without regard for the external, fully committed to the internal, with knowledge of its benefits. EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH AN OBJECT IN THE REAL WORLD offers the opportunity to “see” what Anita Sto attempts to discover. Works on display were created during the one-year performance as well as newer works coming out of the completion of the yearlong exploration. The six MOLESKINE ® journals - notebook, drawings, instant film photographs, and digital media are both the tools utilized for navigating through the process of identification and detection and the objects produced from the One-Year Performance experience.
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ARTIST STATEMENT I believe in what I see, and in that human chaos, I look for a balance between full and empties, lines and spots, darks and lights. My focus on the comprehension of Life persists throughout my works, across aesthetic and logic naivety and the different media I employ. Drawings are my tools to take notes, photographs are visual compositions stolen from the everyday life. This search not only includes the objects, but the in-between places where entropy is, generating things, thoughts and images. Black and White is one color – the inner, the outer. Black contains all, creates harmony and doesn’t interfere with the other colors. White is when black is not and vice-versa; each of their spaces is given from the other’s presence. There is no intrusion or negation of colors but a constant, uniform flux as well as the harmonic motion. It’s a game between the two equivalent sides of one color. Sometimes my works take over and speak to me, sometimes is my conscious search for images and ideas to which I give a form towards the visual language. I let it be and play, using action and counteraction, numbers and fatality, blacks and whites… My wonder has no answer, but is a stretching in order to comprehend and embrace the wonder itself, using metaphoric visual suggestions. BIO Anita Sto is a Conceptual Multimedia Artist, born in Rome, working and living in New York City from 2008. Since residing in New York City, she has begun developing her artistic skills and creativity, blending a variety of medium with her cultural background. Her body of work reflects her identity as a multimedia conceptual artist, photographer, graphic designer, craft artist and illustrator.
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For one year I saw accidentally my self 6 times and I saw the reflection of my-body-only (covering the head) 30 times. In the diary I used often the word You –– maybe because I was talking to Me. All the pictures of me, where the head is visible, were taken with an analog cameras. All those films have been developed and printed after the end of my performance piece.
July 4th, 2011 New York City Photograph by Sofia Exarchou
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DAY 1 “Narcissus would live to a ripe old age, as long as he never knew himself.”
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DAY 3 RHYTHM is a good thing DAY 4 Today is sunday. it’s 6:28 PM –– I don’t want to write. DAY 5 All contents need their own containers otherwise it would not be content but simply something else (disgusting) such as having onion soup poured into a glass of wine. DAY 9 The question is the answer DAY 12 The more You don’t think about it, the more it will appear in front of Your eyes as it is –– infinitive. I noticed that children like mirrors but prefer to have a white paper-- to see and draw on it whatever they would like to imagine. DAY 16 Happy birthday to me I just found out I made a mistake and I made it again and again and again and again and again... I gave kisses as I relieved looks. I was very unwise, only now I realize it. Dear imprudence DAY 17 major scale minor scale cheerful mood, smiling eyes shitty mood, suffering eyes DAY 19 A tomato Campbell’s soup in the mouth a glass of red wine a candle lighted a drawing black on white –– a thought. A greeting to a loved one who left a place in the world for the next soul that will land. Thank You for having given me your eyes. 1 Ovid, Metamorphoses. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1998. Print. Trans. Melville, A.D. (pages 61-66) from Wikipedia
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One Year Performance 2010/11 DAY 1 - Thursday November 1st 2010 Anita Sto
STATEMENT
Original statement of the performance beginning, written by Anita Sto who also signed it at the presence of Lucien Zayan.
I shall NOT see my self in the mirror.
I, Anita Sto, plan to do a one year performance piece.
I shall not see my self in any kind of reflective surface. I shall not see myself in any kind of pictures (on screen or on paper). The performance will begin on November 11th, 2010 at 11AM and continue until November 11th, 2011 at 11AM
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DAY 20 MAKE IT SIMPLE. DAY 22 Two coins in my pocket to pay Charon. DAY 27 To be in the habit of looking at yourself into the mirror could get you bored with being yourself. DAY 31 Connecting the dots it is easier then think of (making) them. DAY 32 Re-create a feeling and do not try to explain it. DAY 34 We are conscious of being only at the moment we see ourselves reflected in that reality in which we observe life playing. DAY 40 I’m sitting in my kitchen and my roommate is gnawing. DAY 40/41 The Moon didn’t disappear -- she is simply in the dark. “NYC is the black mirror of the world tonight...no more reflection.” Lucien Zayan DAY 42 The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced –– and that mystery is You, the unrecognized self. DAY 43 EXQUISITE COINCIDENCES OF CONSCIOUSNESS DAY 46 This is far from DAY 47 This exists because I just wrote it DAY 53 Where You end somebody else begins.
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this more or less thirty time of space.
YOU ARE NOT THERE - series Polaroid instant film with medium format camera 3.25 by 4.25 inches 2011 Anita Sto
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YOU ARE NOT THERE - series Polaroid instant film with medium format camera 3.25 by 4.25 inches 2011 Anita Sto
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DAY 54 And also –– I cannot look at my ass, without mirrors. DAY 64 As water face reflects faces so does one’s heart, finding reflection in other. DAY 70 FRAMES? NEVER BE THE SAME DAY 73 Nobody loves me as I do Nobody hates me as I do. Whatever you are -- you get that whatever. DAY 77 This is something posted by Marco Cabalinguistica Roascio, a follower of the One Year Performance 2010/2011 group on Facebook January 28 2011 at 1:36AM (US Time Zone) My face: rare peer? No! No! Maybe in this anagram (precisely of ONE YEAR PERFORMANCE) is enclosed the challenge that You - Anita, with this great idea –– are achieving. Ciao! DAY 83 Live the present getting rid of expectations feeding the consciousness about the future -- with the feet on the ground. Are mirrors reflective surfaces or surfaces on which project images? DAY 85 Humans in mirror The body tells the mind what it ears from the mind which tells the body what it ears from the body which tells the mind what it ears from the mind which tells the body what it ears from the body which... [and so on] DAY 87 barley / rise please / no mirror emptiness / is not dark In a smile there is muscle’s tensions facial expressions are not language symbols. I am a woman not just because of these (x)(x) and this is not my left hand _////
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DAY 92 Bullshits come always free of charge DAY 95 San Valentine. I drew a cage –– do not ask me why. DAY 102 black bile yellow bile phlegm blood. moods. Our body is nothing else then a unit of measurement. DAY 108 I am feeling as without skin but still with a shadow under my feet. DAY 115 The mirror in the bathroom is nothing else but a soliloquy. DAY 116 The day after is tough DAY 118 10:30AM DAY 124 I wonder why there are things so much beautiful that we are allowed to live just in few occasions. Suddenly incompressible fear of living them –– although I would more. REFLECTIONS ARE CONSEQUENCES DAY 125 I will talk to myself in English in order to typewrite my thoughts. DAY 126 BLACK AND BLUE AND WHO KNOWS WHICH IS WHICH AND WHO IS WHO? 2 2 Pink Floyd, Us and Them (Waters, Wright) 7:40 from the album The Dark Side of the Moon, 1970
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YOU ARE NOT THERE - series Polaroid instant film with medium format camera 3.25 by 4.25 inches 2011 Anita Sto
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YOU ARE NOT THERE - series Polaroid instant film with medium format camera 3.25 by 4.25 inches 2011 Anita Sto
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DAY 127 PERSEVERANCE COURAGE DEDICATION DAY 129 crazy shits happen DAY 132 Happiness and Sadness are one reflections of the same thing. DAY 135 The more You put it away the more You want to get it then to get rid of it and have it back… DAY 138 Brainwash is what I actually need DAY 141 Eyes tell the truth DAY 142 12:27AM YELLOW CAB NEWYORKCITY DIRECTION: LOWER EAST SIDE – HARLEM $22 A GIFT HONEY, GRANOLA, BANANA, TEA SLOW MORNING UNDER A LONDON RAIN THE END (OF THE WINTER) DAY 142 BIS Present is a state of mind DAY 143 RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASE-
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CONTRACTRELEASERELEASERELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRACTRELEASECONTRAC CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE CONTRACT RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE – CONTRACT – RELEASE. DAY 146 Where movement is –– there is life tension release pain pleasure sadness happiness death life black white dark light boundary space DAY 150 People can see nothing around them that is not their own image. P
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DAY 151 – Do You feel mostly American? – I feel I am mostly me. DAY 153 butterflies in my belly DAY 154 How many times this would happen again? I didn’t do it again I didn’t do it. I didn’t do what I didn’t want to do, again. I did again what I didn’t want to do I’m back to where I started DAY 155 Could the self be reflected? Is it in the mirror? CONFUSION
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One Year Performance 2010/11 May 14th, 2011 Anita Sto
EXPLANATION OF PROCEDURE FOR ANITA STO’S ONE YEAR PERFORMANCE In order to make clear how I am working on this One Year Performance Piece, I have decided to write down the following notes: I am writing a diary, each day of the performance I keep notes of all the relevant and psychological aspects of this experience, collecting fragments of personal considerations moved by the long-term endurance; Each day I sign and record the
one-day page of the diary. In case I will accidentally look at my-self in a mirror, I will make a RED MARK on that paper. I will use two different symbols to document if I looked at my body and/or at my face (even if it would be just for a short time); I shall not take or look at pictures of my-self if the image of my face is clear, defined and not blurred so much to render recognizable my-self. I will be allowed to shot all my body, taking care to avoid always my face. My work focuses on what is behind the missing image and brings the attention to the unspoken and unseen. This performance is about receiving and not keeping, as the mirror does.
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YOU ARE NOT THERE - series Polaroid instant film with medium format camera 3.25 by 4.25 inches 2011 Anita Sto
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June 2011, New York Photograph by Erika Hokanson http://erikahokanson.com
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One Year Performance 2010/11 DAY 136 - San Francisco Anita Sto
BREAK THE CRISP COOKIE! Collection of Fortune Cookies messages or rather words of wisdom indigestion...
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DAY 156 Only specific people are mirrors –– for us. 10:00PM I am missing mirrors. 11:43PM (off air) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an9DoVBHHr8 DAY 158 HORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIVHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUIHORRORVACUI DAY 159 Ink will end, one day. DAY 160 Anything that You see in the mirror, is happening in the past. Do not trust in mirrors DAY 162 DECEPTIVE REFLECTIONS – DELAYS OF PRESENT The reflected images perceived by the human mind are delayed (compared to the image itself) because of the speed of light. There is not either perfect mirror or perfect eye but in the dark. Light or not, things still happen. Reflections or not, I am here. DAY 166 Where it is not — it still is. DAY 167 If life is a given journey, why should one stand and weave in a questioning sea? time left is always unknown.
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DAY 168 And so –– when we will meet inside? DAY 171 BIS The body is reflected in the mirror, the EGO is the result I see now my ALTER-EGO acting how the mind doesn’t want to. I can see it in my actions but I don’t know if it is visible to the other and if it could be reflected in a mirror so then to recognize it. My alter-ego is often tough The more I say to my-self to do-not-do something, the more I do it. it looks like: IF YOU-DO-NOT-DO, YOU-DO When You DO-NOT-DO, You will always DO. The NOT makes it positive, it reflects the something You wanted to do not do, to make it do. confusion made by reflections reflections confuse me LARK MIRRORS DECEIVE AND CONFUSE HUMANS AS THE PLATO’S SHADOWS IN THE CAVE DAY 177 I wish I had never seen a mirror in my life. DAY 181 THIRD I’m feeling just my guts. MY DIRTY GUTS. It is a struggle. I need your support. I need to see at my reflections, my friends. ASto DAY 183 THE HALF DAY 186 THE FOURTH DIMENSION IS IN THE MIRROR DAY 187 I’m more like the monkey who firmly believed that he saw another monkey in the mirror… and discovered his error only after running behind the glass several times.3 DAY 191 Some people said they are my mirror. Some people said I am their mirror. Listen –– people. I was and I am and I always be just me without games of words, without shadows or hidden stuff. this is not the time to be shame 3 Quote from Galileo Galilei.
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YOU ARE NOT THERE - series Polaroid instant film with medium format camera 3.25 by 4.25 inches 2011 Anita Sto
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YOU ARE NOT THERE - series Polaroid instant film with medium format camera 3.25 by 4.25 inches 2011 Anita Sto
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DAY 199 RECEIVE AND DO NOT KEEP, JUST GIVE IT BACK DAY 200 People are strange when you’re a stranger Faces look ugly when you’re alone.4 DAY 202 Please, look inside your-self. This is where You can have answer… even though they are not what You want to hear. Be aware of mirrors, they reflect what You bring to them. You see what You want to see. It is You, not me, who is living. I can show You your existence, giving You feedbacks… do not hide your-self when You feel to say something… There will be no mirror at this time but that gorgeous complexity of mind, body and soul! Be conscious of what is happening in-out You! Do not be afraid. Monsters are just creatures built up by our selves… Life is simple and mirrors are just silly tools with which we can play… DAY 211 In mirrors there are no symmetries but specular images there is space in-between. A leaf could not be a leaf without her axis of symmetry. I can be—without a mirror. DAY 214 We are two people in one body-and-mind. We are “I” from my eye’s prospective we are “ME” in the mirror. We are I and we are the ME we are the mind that watches at ME. DAY 218 We think we are what we see in the glass… But everything else we pretend it exists in the “out-side” is always - for others - a different design from ours. DAY 220 Coney Island DAY 221 Sweet melody in my eyeseses 4 The Doors, 2:12 from the album Strange Days, 1967
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DAY 223 FUTURE IS WHERE THE MIND LOOKS FOR. THEN THERE IS PRESENT AND THERE IS PAST. Here the Self in the glass. Here it has been and it is actually playing. DAY 224 SUSPENSIONS IN LIGHT rays floating around they reflect where we are but just in the specific moment where we were. I am constantly moving, I am never stable and firm. The mirror reflects a reflected light beam. Where could I catch You? DAY 229 YOU ARE MY MIRROR INSIDE I SEE MY ESSENCE AND AS I SEE I MIRROR WHAT I SEE IN-ON YOU A MIRROR WITHOUT THE IMAGE OF MY SELF OBJECTIFIED BY THE CONSCIOUSNESS. In mirrors there are two images PRESENT PAST TO HAVE TO BE REAL TIME DELAYED APPEAR FEEL SURFACE INSIDE I AM I WAS YOU SEE THAT YOU FEEL THAT MATERIC/BODY ABSTRACT/MIND NO MIRRORS IN THE MIND NOW, AS WHEN I LOOK AT YOU YOU ARE MY NO-MIRROR IN THE MIND YOU ARE MY MIRROR OF THE SOUL, THOSE IMAGES WHICH I CAN ONLY FEEL. DAY 231 You cry You smile cry smile cry smile cry smile cry smile cry smile cry cry cry cry cry… smiling You cry and smile at the same moment. I’m afraid to look at my face again. I’m afraid that I will not like my self. I’m afraid that I will not approve my self. I cry and smile. BECAUSE I SHARED MY FACE WITHOUT THINKING I HAD A FACE. I AM NAKED. fears scares me. my fears are horrible abstract things, neuron’s connections, chemical interactions
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January 2011 Photo taken from set for Malcolm Brown’s portrait series, ‘Artists of The Invisible Dog’ http://malcolmbrown.net
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YOU ARE NOT THERE - series Polaroid instant film with medium format camera 3.25 by 4.25 inches 2011 Anita Sto
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I DO NOT LIKE TO SHOW MY SHIT but I am doing it. MY GUTS ARE SENSITIVE TO THE WORLD OUTSIDE I NEED TO LOOK INTO THE MIRROR THAT EXISTS WHERE MY MIND COULD NOT REFLECT ITSELF. DAY 232 There are mirrors where mind could not reflect itself. DAY 233 WE ARE FLESH AND BONES AND HORMONS AND THOUGHTS BODY AND MIND MATERIAL AND IMMATERIAL WE FEEL TO HAVE A HEAD BUT WE CANNOT LOOK AT IT We feel us, we could love us, we could live alone but we need someone else who feel us, love us and live with us. Mirrors are momentary occasions in which we pretend to be not completely alone. DAY 238 SIMILAR IDENTITIES DIFFERENT SELVES. DAY 239 The self makes the choice identity is the unification of all the choices the image is a body –– shaped by the choices this explain the reason why when we born we have more or less the same appearance. DAY 242 TENSION – RELEASE – POSITIVE- NEGATIVE – CHARGE – RECHARGE life is like a rubber, not uniform circular movement DAY 243 EMPATHY. Visual contact emotional contact. DAY 245 memories – impressions – reflections – stamps – prints – shadows Just flipped images DAY 247 I decided to sell heads.
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DAY 248 “Someone has hurt your feelings — either on purpose or unintentionally. You have a choice in how you deal with it. You could become resentful and angry. You could sulk and feel sorry for yourself. And you could put that person in the doghouse and be unkind or inconsiderate in return. Or, you could realize that you are a wonderful, worthy person, and that WHATEVER HAPPENED IS NOT A REFLECTION OF WHO YOU ARE. And, knowing that all humans are fallible, you could forgive and forget, and then move on.” Suggestion from the horoscope. DAY 255 HOW FAR SHOULD I GO? PAIN PAIN PAIN AND PLEASURE. what shapes what? who comes first? is the white that manage the black? DAY 257 Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Tis nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Mind reflects inside whatever it looks at the outside world. DAY 259 A pair of smiling eyes is twice better than 32 shinning teeth DAY 263 Today is sunday. DAY 266 There are things You would never expect if You are not expecting. There are things You would never have if You own already. DAY 267 WOW! 5 Abraham Lincoln 16th president of US (1809 - 1865) From Hamlet , William Shakespeare; Act II, scene ii Anita Sto
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One Year Performance 2010/11 DAY 260 - Thursday July 28th 2011 Anita Sto
“You make every day a portrait with words -- the words of the mind, your thoughts. People are not body and soul, pictures or video and frames. People are also made of other people’s perceptions and considerations and judgments sometimes...
And we care of details, we record smells and memories of touch and taste. WHAT MAKES YOUR HEAD BE YOUR HEAD IS [your head]. Repeated for several times till the end of the page I created the profile of a loved person in occasion of the exhibition HEADS FOR SALE, New York 2011.
During that show at the Broadway Gallery there was my Olivetti (the typewriter I used along the performanceyear) with white pages. People were invited to write with the old machine.
DAY 260 was the day of my show and because the person I love couldn’t attempt the opening... I thought to make it happen anyway.” ASto
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DAY 274 What is happiness? to be never satisfied? to have love and desire to own something else? DAY 276 And so on the tip of my index finger’s tip love in balance DAY 284 SPYING AND OBSERVING MYSELF. I AM GETTING SERIOUSLY TIRED OF IT. DAY 287 t e
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DAY 288 28 82 69 47 35 28 82 69 47 5 6 28 82 69 47 8 26 $3, super ball DAY 292 No image on glasses sabotaging yourself DAY 293 KEY IS THE KEY DAY 298 SPACE IS THE VACUUM. DAY 300 Gott ist tot!6 DAY 306 LEARN BEFORE UNDERSTAND. My watch and the kitchen’s clock are not synchronized. Synchronized. DAY 307 STEREOPATIC PERCEPTIONS. 6 “God is dead” is a widely-quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
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One Year Performance 2010/11 DAY 300 BIS - Tuesday September 6th 2011 Anita Sto
LETTER NEVER SENT. “To wake up at the dawn, with the sensation of suffocating as You have a boiled egg blocked in the middle of your throat. The brain is exploding because paranoid-andthoughts are constantly growing and reproducing as a domino effect.... And You see nothing else but fog around
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You. White or black. To go out, escape and find a place where be alone. To pull-out all the “monsters” and the irrational fears, to bring all of that under the light of the sun because You want to understand the reason of that crazy behaviour... the more You peel and put there, in front of your eyes... the more You feel shame and pain, loneliness and fear. To tremble and cry, talking to your-self and remaining in
silence. Mind and Body, the big match. ---------------------And then peace, the mussels are exhausted, the eyes are dry and swollen, the throat is still feeling the tension of the invisible egg. The storm is gone and You feel tired. A letter never sent. A phone call. To hug and tell a sincere sorry to who never [maybe] received that letter.”
DAY 308 No mirrors and I just feel. Distortions and distractions of the glass effect -- disappear leaving space to deeper senses and sensibility. DAY 309 EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH AN OBJECT IN THE REAL WORLD Eyes full of water they are the hole the dark area in which perception happens. Ears mazes of flesh and cartilage A bag of skin And so the DISTAL STIMULUS stimulates the body’s sensory organs. The eyes the ears the skin… the soul The INPUT ENERGY generated by the stimulus’s provocation is transformed into NEURAL ACTIVITY/PROXIMAL STIMULUS by the same stimulated organs. THE TRANSDUCTION Then the brain receives those signals and processes them. The resulting MENTAL RECREATION of the distal stimulus is the percept. Perception is sometimes described as the process of constructing mental representation of distal stimuli using the information available in proximal stimuli. You looking at your front image in a mirror. The image bi-dimensional You see it’s itself the distal stimulus. When the light from your body, projected and reflected by the mirror enters your eyes and stimulates your retina, that stimulation is the proximal stimulus; The image of You reconstructed by your brain is the percept. THE PORPOSE OF ALL THAT IS TO GUIDE ACTION. Building and maintaining sense organs is metabolically expensive so these organs evolve only when they improve an organism’s fitness. More than half the brain is devoted to processing sensory information and the brain itself consumes ¼ of one’s metabolic resources so the senses must provide exceptional benefits to fitness. PERCEPTIONS ARE IMPRESSIONS AND MIRROR THE WORLD PAIN IS ADAPTIVE. DAY 313 Just Another Tuesday DAY 314 I believe that something exists but I have no idea why this happens. I need a miracle. The material-visual evidence that what I feel really (in my retina) really really exists. I need to see it before being conscious that I am already feeling it.
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DAY 316 ARBITRARY SURFACES MIRRORS ARE ARBITRARY SURFACES DAY 318 domenica. The day of God. SUN – DAY The day of the Sun. DAY 319 Moon – Day Monday DAY 320 SPACE AND TIME ARE ILLUSIONS OF PERCEPTION ERNEST RUTHERFORD AND THE ATOM The atom is made by almost empty space. and so –– a group of atoms make a solid world. I really do not agree with this physical theories’ point of view. DAY 330 SQUARED LOVE I love You because in this very moment You are the only mirror in which I like gazing at Me. I love squared. I love Me— I love You. DAY 321 Because I was chewing a gum. Chewing – gum. If I were a good man I would understand the spaces between friends
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here in “America” everything is sweet and soft like the butter DAY 333 THE SHADOW is the body’s projection where is shadow there is darkness, visual infinite Where there is no light You can just imagine… 7 Pink Floyd, if (Waters) 4:31 from the album Atom Heart Mother , 1970
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SOULS IN CARROUSEL 8 by 10 inches Silver print medium format on paper 2011 Anita Sto
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Left column from the top: Frank Szelwach, Valentina Mussi, Reggie Beaudoin Right column from the top: Manuela Vu Trieu, Jessie Poe, Andre’ Da Loba
DAY 338 anxiety – tension – storm calmness – distension – silence DAY 339 La – La – La DAY 341 unfold your guts and look inside DAY 342 UNFOLDED GUTS AND JUST SHIT HAPPENS DAY 343 TO NOT SHIT IN THE MORNING MAKES MY MORNINGS TOUGH RICE AND BEANS WORST. COLD INSTANT COFFEE – FRAPPE’ – WITHOUT – MILK – BECAUSE – IT – IS – FINISHED DIDN’T WORK AT ALL. EXPLODING BELLY STORM OF THOUGHTS IN THE BRAIN ELECTRICITY NEURONS AND SHIT. DAY 344 N O N C E L A F A C C I O P I U’. (I can’t stand it anymore) It is hard to stand at all this tension. I am tired. tired tired tired tired tired tired tired tiredness makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness that makes me tired of tiredness. Rest DAY 348 SOB - SOB
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SOULS IN CARROUSEL 8 by 10 inches Silver print medium format on paper 2011 Anita Sto
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Left column from the top: Luigi Campi, Lucien Zayan, Felicity Miller Right column from the top: Justin Peyser, Simon Courcel, Konstantinos Antonopoulos
DAY 349 DAY 350 DAY 351 DAY 352 Sometimes I think it’s time to remain in silence and just hear what of gorgeousness appear. Ears do not lie as eyes do. But I still prefer the touch! DAY 354 I need to talk with someone. I feel like I lost the control. Now that I am very close to the end of the performance, a strange fear stepped into my chest dissatisfaction comes from what? stretching arms in nerves in tension. we are like animals, nothing more nothing less (maybe). Maybe we complicate a little bit the natural processes of relationship with the other human beings and maybe (we complicate) also the way in which we perceive ourselves. I am here. I could die right now while I am writing and nobody would know it except the people that will notice after a while that I am not paying the rent of my studio... Nobody would know that I die, my cat Ulysses too. No victimization here. I am just listing the truth. Any kind of living creature, animal or vegetable is a selfish being... in order to survive. Ulysses would care of my absence just because he would need food and water. Okay..okay Today my mood is pretty blue. I hate halloween and all this let’s-go-to-the-party-to-get-stoned-and-devasted. DAY 355 Ten days left. One year covered and a shiver running down my spine. I will have a mirror soon I can’t wait to look at my face again and see... how beautiful and tender is to gaze at your image in the mirror. Yes, because this is what I am expecting –– in a way. A fistful of curiosities A pinch of fear One camera, one mirror and me with me.
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SOULS IN CARROUSEL 8 by 10 inches Silver print medium format on paper 2011 Anita Sto
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Left column from the top: Daniela Colaianni, Erika Hokanson, Maxime Right column from the top: Whitney V. Hunter, Cindy Koppert, Emily Lobsenz
DAY 355/356 And then I will see my image in the mirror again and it will be like when You meet somebody You know –– after a long time DAY 356 1.830 WORDS 134 BECAUSES 1 KALIMERA DAY 357 Life is bizarre And if You do not embrace this oddity You can’t enjoy it (life) at all. I was in my studio, alone. My mind was running toward feelings of loneliness and gloom. Then everything changed. People coming and going, texting and emailing, asking and giving. I felt I was back again, back in life. Thinking is not living. When You think You are simply thinking - yes, still breathing - but not living. Thank You People –– to make my life alive. DAY 360 One day someone wrote this to me: “Anitina bella, time takes time, patience, creativity will crawl inside your bed unexpectedly [...].” Patience is a rare virtue which could be improved or even developed anyway. Patience matches with balance, the harmony at least between two. Five days left and a missing mirror. DAY 363 Feelings are not perceptions because You can procreate them. Perceptions need objects. What You feel is what makes You –– being You. You have to feel lost and lonely and full of pleasure and exited to know who is You. Because You are alive just when You are feeling (it)... and living of perceptions only––it’s a personal choice. DAY 364 People are like acoustic mirrors, passive device used to reflect sound waves. People reflect what we are. Mirrors reflect how we appear. DAY 365 November 11th, 2011, New York There is the sun -- but it’s cold!
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SOULS IN CARROUSEL 8 by 10 inches Silver print medium format on paper 2011 Anita Sto
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Left column from the top: Juan Alfaro, Stefano Sasselli, Giovanni Gentile Right column from the top: Nemo Hoffman, Malcolm Brown, Aurora Fini.
From the top of the column: Francois Carre’, Claudia Paneca, Anita Sto
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From: Anita Sto <mail@anitasto.com> Date: January 28, 2012 3:04 AM EST To: Konstantinos Antonopoulos <k.d.antono@gmail.com> Subject: Re: OYP VIDEO
Nice. I trust in your critics. Did you see it? When you are by your self you are a self which is not still but constantly changes... and which remains present, alive when you are with someone. The interaction creates another self of you, that you own but which you can’t reproduce without the presence of that person. Two selves (4 if you consider the other) are in the same place, at the same time, moving feelings inside out, each to the other. Like the mirror image. Superficial (because it stays on a surface), ephemeral, wrapped in the time...because once that you move away from the glass your image disappear...as when someone moves away from you, carrying away that peculiar other self of you, appeared for in time-life-moment. You gave me so many things and selves along the last year, and my performance piece resulted strongly influenced and inspired by your presence. I’m having a show about it, I’m shouting out my guts without blame and shame. I hope I did it to you too...although my many gifts might have suffocated your other self! :-) My only sorrow is that I will no more see you as it has been and this scares me because I know it will remain just a foggy memory... And whenever if ever we will meet again, it will be sad to see that you will not move and make me feel as the same way. Time and distance will kill everything. I am already (as you say) your NY Era, lived secretly in the shadow of the city’s skyline. You will be my-muse-greek-director, a love blossomed in a spring of NY and died during the winter... I won in sadness tonight! a smile because I know you will smile now kalinictamyagapimou
SELVES IN A CARROUSEL Video Still from loop video 2011 Anita Sto
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Studio Digital Photograph 2011 Anita Sto
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CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING ONE YEAR PERFORMANCE PIECE Whatever You will read below these lines are random considerations that came to my mind when I had a mirror again. No dates and numbers, just a collage of images and thoughts to feed the curiosity of my audience and maybe just an attempt to edit whatever I felt and achieved along one year of performance piece.
I would like to tell You ‘how it has been -- looking at my self again’ and talk out all the thoughts and feelings in which my body and my-self went through...but at that moment what really did matter to me was loosing the control which I held and imposed to my self for one year. Oh well During this year I spent several time by myself, because in a way it has been the performance itself that put me to focus most of all on what I was feeling and learning from the long-time experiment. I was looking at my self like the scientist looks at the monkeys in the laboratory. I have been analyzing, interpreting, sometimes judging and also just feeling whenever I was giving and getting feedback, moving and pulling out-or-in emotions and thoughts. I was behaving as if holding a mirror and looking into it. Without mirrors - I could say - I have been the mirror to my self. I was completely naked and without possibilities to escape from what I was passing by. I couldn’t create a virtual reality or a kind of perception and point of view that was just personal and selfish and comfortable and cheering state of being. I had to face all of that was happening without lying and wearing masks. My mind needs a face to wear. The reason I decided to start this performance became more clear to me just after November 11th 2011, at the end of the whole experiment. I could say that what I achieved along this process is actually the answer, to which, is the reason I started it. As any empirical and logical research, I began from a point and arrived to somewhere completely unexpected. I was looking for something that I really didn’t know very well, I realized how hard is to find and keep the balance, while embracing feelings and allowing thoughts to cross mind and body. The night on November 10th 2010 something unusual happened to me. When I came back home it was late and I was probably tired so much to forget that on that day somebody would have come to paint my bathroom. Then at night I walked into it to wash my hands and in doing so I raised the head and I had a strange reaction... I would say I was surprised and scared at the same time, and the reason for that was simply because my mind was used to find a face hanging over that wall, above the sink... and now that the mirror had been covered by newspaper, I couldn’t see it as I was expecting to. This simple experience made me think about how much I was attached to an image which I knew I could find on that wall of the house –– in the mirror. After that I asked to my-self how would it be to avoid this kind of attachment... the rest of the story is my one year without mirrors.
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BLACK BOX OF CONSCIOUSNESS Cube Number 1 Video Still from loop video 2011 Anita Sto
I see things running too fast, as being on a train and watching the landscape through the window –– a run which makes people short-sighted. To achieve clarity at the horizon through attempts and efforts, eye’s nerves get stretched, pupils become tired, expectations fail, confidence goes sotto le scarpe –– leaving pain in the body and melancholy in the soul. And so -- now I assumed that the issue doesn’t stand in being or not being shortsighted but it’s because things are running too fast. The blindness is not the cause but rather the consequence. One year experimental-performance piece was a tool, an opportunity to create a break into that status quo. I imposed a slowdown to this run. Not using mirrors was the key, the rule, the slowdown, the ‘something different’ from my every day running life. What-is-not reveals what-is-what. In this way I could focus on details and perceive more things compared to how many of the same You can get along a run. In one year I recorded several thoughts which I will put in a list –– because lists are like reminders for me. The The The The The
importance importance importance importance importance
of of of of of
being by your-self and dealing nicely with it. being with people in order to create feedback and collect them. loving and caring of whoever/whatever makes you feel good. embracing the tension in order to enjoy the release. loosing something in order to appreciate having that something.
It’s incredible how much it is frustrating to control our-selves. And I think each of us has small several every-day-life controls. Guess how much we are frustrated inside and most of the time we are not conscious of it! Two images on the mirror. One is the glass reflection of the body and the other the projection of the same from the mind. Plotinus said: “Through the process of division into subject and object the I comes to know itself.” The object has been blurred for one year, the mind couldn’t see it and analyze it and criticize It. My focus for one year was on the subject only, and now in the mirror I can see sometimes my image clear of mental structures. Rewards come always at the end. Provocation is the hiccup, a natural temporary disturb. Without provocation the system slows down its speed to an apparent stillness. The disturb is the contrast to a status quo, which is defined and revealed by the contrast itself. Ink on paper, light and dark. Behind mirrors there is a complex web of feelings. The fear to loose the control even when You are already strongly controlling your-self. Because mirrors are tools for the mind, You can see the part of the body which You would never see without Them. The head shows feelings and thoughts. INPUT (stimulus) - BLACK BOX - OUTPUT (response) According to the “black box theory of consciousness’ which asserts that the mind is fully understood once the inputs and outputs are well defined, I might create a hole
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and show how things happen but not why things happen. The output is the video, the result of something You could or not know. The mechanism of the box remains unexplored even to the box itself. What matters are reactions, interpretations, feedback and everything else of what this generates. You are not what You have and not how You appear. You are a black box with its way of being. Pretend with care.
What do I do in a mirror? - I cry And so –– I use a lot of muscles when I cry, I can tell You. There is something interesting in looking at your-self in a mirror while rivers of tears are running out from eyes. When there is pain, it stands in the belly. The more it stays here the more a kind of feeling of constriction grows in It. To cry is a way to have a little bit of release from this pain. Muscles make it happen: From the belly to the pupils, small contractions move that ‘boiled-potato-pain’ up to the head and through water it seems to flow away. I like to look at this process, especially because the person who is doing it is me. Not just feelings but also visual images -- pictures in the mirror like frames in an animation. In this way I can feel double pain and double relief too. In this way I can remember more strongly and maybe learn something of me for me. This is what I like of mirrors... They are like movies or dreams. You are the actor, the model in a picture. You can see your self as you were somebody else. To be out side of the contest it generates different perspectives from which one can look at things. And it gives time to find out details and shades which one could easily loose when absorbed in feelings. I found ease in crying in a mirror then laughing with the same sincere emotional involvement.
BLACK BOX OF CONSCIOUSNESS Cube Number 2 Video Still from loop video 2011 Anita Sto
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THE CUBES SERIES Gesso paint and china ink on arches paper 20 by 30 inches | 50 by 76.2 cm 2010 - 2012 Anita Sto
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THE CUBES SERIES Gesso paint and china ink on arches paper 20 by 30 inches | 50 by 76.2 cm 2010 - 2012 Anita Sto
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Are edges white or black? Who makes who? Are the other that define us or is our Self to define the other? Who comes first? During one year of perfomance, I realized that what really matters is the substance and its container, at the same time. Neither can stand by them selves without the other. If there is no black, everything would be white and vice-versa. Nothing would be revealed and known without black and white working together as one with the other. The mirror does reflect whatever comes in front of it, in that very present, one timeimage that will not appear again in the same way –– a second time. An opportunity, a chance to discover something we cannot look at... a metaphor to describe the interaction of one with the other and his/her sorrounding and pain and joy. Whatever comes from the container, it is content. Whatever the outside reflects, is the content coming from a container –– since the content is the ‘being’ and the container the body. Nothing is missing when something is happening. When there is dark we know that dark is dark because light exists. When there is pain we know that pain is pain because joy exists.
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To hold the breath in order to achieve more air once You breath in again. To expand the lungs, as life is coming in, and then release them, expand and release, expand and release... I put my face inside the mirror (as for Narcissus, my glass was made of water), because I thought that to get rid of the surfaces would have made more clearly how things really are. I saw my pain and joy, my guts and my mind as I was looking at my self from a point of view which wasn’t through my eyes. I focused my attention on the body and the mind, because my wonder was about how it feels to live. I found out things which where lying down somewhere in me, in the shadows of some sort of fears and doubts and tremblings and lumps in my throat.
Everything comes in order to reveal something else –– its coplanar image. There are two mirrors in Life which detect the-Self: people and our own guts.
The truth is fluid, slippery, vagrant, scrambled, promiscuous, kaleidoscopic and outrageously abundant.
Anita Sto
January 2012 New York
In the next page: BLACK BOX OF CONSCIOUSNESS Cube Number 3 Video Still from loop video 2011 Anita Sto
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FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN SUPPORTERS AND FRIENDS Andre da Loba Andrei Chahine Anita Sanvitto Carlo Vutera Cindy Koppert Clarice Felli Claudia Paneca Coeurdeboeff Crystal Pei Daniela Colaianni Daniele Sanvitto Edoardo Anselmi Emanuele Felli Emily Lobsenz Erika Hokanson Federica Faggiano Floyd Sullivan Francesco Sanvitto Francois Carre Frank L. Szelwach Gabriele Penazzi Giovanni Gentile Ian Trask Jeremy Galen Jessie Poe Jim Carrano Juan Alfaro Karen Virag Konstantinos Antonopoulos Letizia Grella Luisa Farina Manuela Vutrieu Marco Bertamini Marco Roascio Maria Rosa Gorgo Panagiotis Paola Lucente Rebecca Thomas Reginald Beaudoin Simon Courchel Sirin Aysan Sofia Exarchou The Invisible Dog ThĂŠodore Berg Boy Whitney V. Hunter
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Abraham Lubelski Alberta Cuccia Alessandro Ferraro Alexander Cavalcanti Andrew Kane Aurora Fini Bernadette Moens Brett Greer Chiara Proserpina Chiara Romoli Claudia Felli David Munaoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Eduardo La Porte Elisabetta Peressutti Emanuele Giraldi Erik Felli Ermanno Felli Felicity Miller Gianmaria De Luca Giulia Gracceva Hu Chindy Ida Cattani Jennifer Sarah Gumina Justin Peyser Katiuscia Farina Luigi Campi Malcolm Brown Man-Lai Liang Marco Roascio Maxime Michelle Hobart Nemo Hoffman Paolo Aroldo Sanvitto Paolo Campagnaro Renzo Nimis Stefano Sasselli Valentina Mussi and Ulysees. I beg your pardon if I miss Your name
ONE YEAR PER-
FORMANCE PIECE’S
SUPPORTERS & FRIENDS
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ARBITRARY SUR-
FACES MIRRORS ARE
ARBITRARY SURFACES DAY 316
Studio Digital Photograph 2011 Anita Sto
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ARTIST STATMENT I believe in what I see, and in that human chaos, I look for a balance between full and empties, lines and spots, darks and lights. My focus on the comprehension of Life persists throughout my works, across aesthetic and logic naivety and the different media I employ. Drawings are my tools to take notes, photographs are visual compositions stolen from the everyday life. This search not only includes the objects, but the in-between places where entropy is, generating things, thoughts and images. Black and White is one color – the inner, the outer. Black contains all, creates harmony and doesn’t interfere with the other colors. White is when black is not and vice-versa; each of their spaces is given from the other’s one presence. There is no intrusion or negation of colors but a constant, uniform flux as well as the harmonic motion. It’s a game between the two equivalent sides of one color. Sometimes my works that take over and speak to me, sometimes is my conscious search for images and ideas to which I give a form towards the visual language. I let it be and play, using action and counteraction, numbers and fatality, blacks and whites… My wonder has no answer, but is a stretching in order to comprehend and embrace the wonder itself, using metaphoric visual suggestions.
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ANITA STO Rome, 1981 http:// www.anitasto.com
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2012 EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH AN OBJECT IN THE REAL WORLD Broadway Gallery NYC Curated by Whitney V. Hunter 473 Broadway 7th Floor, New York 2011 HEADS FOR SALE Broadway Gallery NYC Curated by Sto and Whitney V. Hunter 473 Broadway 7th Floor, New York 2010 UNTITLED Atlas Cafe Curated by Sto and Edoardo Anselmi 116 Havemeyer St, Brooklyn, New York 2008 ME & MR.B Mondello Ottica Curated by Sto Via del Pellegrino 21, Rome 2007 LA MIA TESI Vineria dei Leoni Curated by Sto and Paolo Aroldo Sanvitto Via della Scala 51, Rome
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2012 WORK/SPACE 2012 The Invisible Dog Art Center Curated by Whitney V. Hunter 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, New York 2011 WORK/SPACE The Invisible Dog Art Center Curated by Whitney V. Hunter 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, New York PERCEZIONI URBANE Atelier degli Artisti Curated by Kelly Costa Via dell’Arco di San Callisto 40, Rome 2010 TRIPLE FIFTY B&AB Art Space Curated by Brian Balderston 80 Ainslie Street, Brooklyn, New York
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OPEN STUDIOS The Invisible Dog Art Center 51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, New York ON THE GRID Camel Art Space Curated by Chris McGee and Rob de Oude 722 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY WHAT’S THE POINT? Fund raising event at La Pomme Curated by LJ3 37 West 26th Street, New York CHILDREN’S JOY FUND Fund raising event at The Box Curated by LJ3 189 Chrystie Street, New York
EDUCATION
RESIDENCIES
EXTRACURRICULA
2004-2007 BA Fine Art Istituto Europeo di Design, Rome
2008 Painting and Mixed Media School of Visual Arts, New York
2000-2004 BA First Level Interior Architecture University of Rome La Sapienza - Valle Giulia, Rome
2005 Children’s Books La Fabbrica delle Favole, Macerata
2010 Performance Art, 1970 to Today by Jovana Stokic MoMA, Education and Research Building 4 West 54 Street, New York 2009 LetterPress On The Vandercook Press by Daniel Gardiner Morris The Arm LetterPress Studio and Gallery, New York Painting Between Realism & Abstraction by Andrew Castrucci School of Visual Arts, New York
CITTA’ DI NEW YORK Hotel Jolly Madison Curated by Paolo Guccione 22 E 38th Street New York
LE FLEURES DU MAL Libreria Fahrenheit 451 Curated by Roberto Savi Campo dè Fiori 44, Rome
2009 BRONX BLUE BEDROOM PROJECT Blue Bedroom Blanka Amezkua 309 Alexander Ave, Bronx, New York
FAMA DA LUPO Galleria Vecchia Pescheria Curated by Gianni Zauli Savignano sul Rubicone, Ravenna
2008 OPEN STUDIOS School of Visual Arts 209 East 23rd Street, New York LA NOBILE ARTE Palazzetto dello Sport Via Latina 31, Colleferro, Rome
194:NON TOCCARLA Women Political Campaign Curated by Martina Venettoni LA CITTA’ IN MOSTRA C.S. Rialto Sant’Ambrogio Curated by Genuine Roman Art Via di Sant’Ambrogio 4, Rome
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EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH AN OBJECT IN THE REAL WORLD One Year Performance Piece 2010/11 - Anita Sto All Right Reserved, 2012 Š Anita Sto Printed by: HART REPRO
242 West 36th Street, 8th Floor New York, NY, 10018
All the pictures of the Carrousel Project were developed at THE COLOR HOUSE NEW YORK, INC. 177 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10013
and printed by Anita Sto at MY OWN COLOR LAB Darkroom Studio 18 W 27th St, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10001
EVERYTHING BEGINS WITH AN OBJECT IN THE REAL WORLD
DAY 300 To wake up at the dawn, with the sensation of suffocating as You have a boiled egg blocked in the middle of your throat. The brain is exploding because paranoids and thoughts are constantly growing and reproducing as a domino effect.... And You see nothing else but fog around You. White or black. To go out, escape and find a place where be alone. To pull-out all the â&#x20AC;&#x153;monstersâ&#x20AC;? and the irrational fears, to bring all of that under the light of the sun because You want to understand the reason of that crazy behaviour. The more You peel it and put it there, in front of your eyes... the more You feel shame and pain, loneliness and fear. To tremble and cry, talking to your-self in silence. Mind and Body, the big match. [...]