Australia’s 2019 representation for the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is the work ASSEMBLY by Angelica Mesiti, produced by Bridget Ikin.
Angelica Mesiti’s ASSEMBLY is a three-channel video inspired by the historical shape of the community circle and amphitheatre. ASSEMBLY establishes as an evolving set of translations from the written word to stenographic codes then music, and performance. Filmed in the Senate chambers of Italy and Australia, the three screens of ASSEMBLY travel through the corridors, meeting rooms and parliaments of government while performers, representing the multitude of ancestries that constitute cosmopolitan Australia, gather, disassemble and re-unite, demonstrating the strength and creativity of a plural community.
Based between Sydney and Paris, Angelica worked with more than 40 Australian arts professionals to realise the work. “Collaboration is an important part of my practice, and a central element in the work itself. ASSEMBLY draws on a need to come together, to exchange and to learn from each other. So I thank and acknowledge the dancers, singers, musicians, film and sound practitioners, the designers, architect, installation and project team who helped me bring this work to fruition,” she said.
Artist Angelica Mesiti said, “Translation has been a particular enquiry and methodology for me for a number of years. In ASSEMBLY, I explore the space where communication moves from verbal and written forms to non-verbal, gestural and musical forms. The latter creates a sort of code upon which meaning, memory and imagination can be overlaid.”
ASSEMBLY was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, where it will be presented from 29th October 2022 - 29th January 2023.
Australia Council for the Arts
Images: Angelica Mesiti, ASSEMBLY, 2019 (production still) three-channel video installation in architectural amphitheater. HD video projections, colour, six-channel mono sound, 25 mins, dimensions variable. © Photography: Bonnie Elliot.
Commissioned by the Australia Council for the Arts on the occasion of the 58th International Art Exhibition-La Biennale di Venezia, courtesy of the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Australia and Galerie Allen, Paris.