Dripping In Crocodile Tears at Foothold – Like a Little Disaster / Polignano a Mare

Dripping in Crocodile Tears

Participating Artists: Tania Fiaccadori, Valentina Furian, Rada Kozelj, Plasticity, Giuliana Rosso, Giulio Scalisi

Curated by Roberta Mansueto

February 24th 2019 – March 20th 2019

Foothold / Like a Little Disaster
Via Cavour 68
70044 Polignano a Mare (BA)
Italy

Giulio Scalisi, graphite on paper, stencil, 2019

Dripping in crocodile tears, 2019, exhibition view

Plasticity, Monkey bed, detail, polyester strings, steel, Ikea Talgje, 2019

Dripping in crocodile tears, 2019, exhibition view

Giuliana Rosso, Se non sai cosa dire, oil on canvas, 100x180cm, 2018

Giuliana Rosso, Se non sai cosa dire, detail, oil on canvas, 100x180cm, 2018

Rada Kozelj, Pravda, digital print on cotton paper, aluminum, 60x90cm, 2019

Dripping in crocodile tears, 2019, exhibition view

Giuliana Rosso, Plancton, oil on canvas, 40x40cm, 2018

Giuliana Rosso, Plancton, detail, oil on canvas, 40x40cm, 2018

Tania Fiaccadori, Leukothéa, resin, enamel, eva foam, earplugs, candles, lycra, lures, sea monkeys, salt water, dimension variable, 2019

Tania Fiaccadori, Leukothéa, detail, resin, enamel, eva foam, earplugs, candles, lycra, lures, sea monkeys, salt water, dimension variable, 2019

Tania Fiaccadori, Leukothéa,
detail, earplugs, candles, 2019

Tania Fiaccadori, Leukothéa,
detail, lycra, lures, salt water, 2019

Tania Fiaccadori, Leukothéa,
lycra, lures, sea monkeys, salt water, 2019

Giuliana Rosso, Pool
party, oil on canvas, 20x20cm, 2018

Valentina Furian, Into
perpetual night, video HD, 13’52”, 2016

Valentina Furian, Into
perpetual night, detail, video HD, 13’52”, 2016

Valentina Furian, Into
perpetual night, video HD, 13’52”, 2016

Dripping in crocodile tears is the third appointment of TALEA, a project curated by Like A Little Disaster and dedicated to contemporary curatorial research.

Dripping

crocodile

tears.

Long ago and in the most torrid era of time

an anthropomorphic Miocene ape,

fearful, hairy, non-differentiated,

gazed at her own reflection

in salty and brackish water

before Narcissus could stare at his own.

With wet fur she happily remained at the water’s edge

leaving behind the cosy branches of the forest

then one day,

just like a beaver on two legs,

she moved into the water

wading out as far as it was still possible to breath.

Limbs immersed and

and lips moist

sometimes floating like Ophelia,

sometimes diving like a seabird,

she started spending her days swimming and plunging into the water

like a newborn, webbed fish.

She started eating in the sea,

under the water and then surfacing,

getting used to a complex way to chew

lips-tongue-throat

keeping the water out of her lungs

and regulating the pressure of the respiratory tract,

this aquatic ancestor uttered her first word

Little by little, she became naked and viscous

a wonderful swimmer,

displaying new forms and a hydrodynamic lightness.

But emerging from the froth nobody called her — Venus!

because she preferred to blend in among the sirenoids

even after she had lost her tail.

The aquatic heiress,

with her salt-wrinkled skin,

endowed herself with more Meissner’s corpuscles

for a more sensitive touch

and a precision grip the apes would envy,

discovering a child-like joy

in the soft mixture

of dirt and water.

Like her big-brained marine brothers and sisters

— dolphins, porpoises and seals —

she ingested a lot of water and salt

so she had to imitate hydraulic systems

to dry and hydrate herself correctly

to urinate from beneath,

and from above, drip like a crocodile

tears from her eyes

in the company of seals, birds, snakes, turtles,

thus staying soft forever.

For a long time she remained in this mucus.

Then the rains came

and the rivers filled up with fresh water,

so the course was reversed

towards new vegetation,

sweet fruits

the murmur of the earth and

the drying fire.

The modern homo ape

carried the ocean inside herself,

in her blood-tissues-organic matter,

and in her swaying

—sweating, urinating, ingesting, ejaculating, menstruating, breastfeeding, breathing, crying—

as tireless

as its beloved shores.

Dedicated to

Elaine Morgan and Alister Hardy

Photo by Like A Little Disaster

Tags: Giuliana Rosso, Giulio Scalisi, Lazy exhibitions, Like A Little Disaster, Plasticity, Polignano a Mare, Rada Kozelj, Roberta Mansueto, Tania Fiaccadori, Valentina Furian

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