Technique: offset print on laminated cardboard, 15.000 pieces, variable dimensions
Year: 2011
About: Sweet Suite was created for the site-sensitive group exhibition entitled BRIDE, a celebrative event of the 500th anniversary since the death of Caterina Cornaro, the Venetian noblewoman, who was Queen of Cyprus at the end of the fifteenth century.

The exhibition took place inside the Medieval Fort in Larnaka, a fine piece of military architecture set in a wonderful seascape. The exhibition idea focused on a particularly happy segment of Caterina’s life: the moment in which, coming in Cyprus for the first time as an eighteen-years old bride, she got acquainted both with the husband she had married by proxy four years earlier in Venice, and with the wonderful landscape of the Mediterranean island.

Though, historical facts prove that Caterina arrived in 1472 in Famagusta, not in Larnaka, and she settled in a small, harsh and entirely military building like the Larnaka Fort. However, the exhibition didn’t have as a priority the historical literal reconstruction, but only the symbolic idea of celebrating a new luxurious life.

Sweet Suite along with the other exhibits of BRIDE, is expressly conceived for this site, focusing on the idea of “soft” sculpture, and on a new approach to contemporary art, friendly and narrative instead of a hostile and hidden one, so as often it is the case.

Sweet Suite is an ephemeral installation consisting of 15.000 golden birds placed all over the medieval fort of Larnaka like an allegorical royal procession waiting for an important happening. Every bird has two faces – the exterior one is golden and very polished, recalling the opulence of a royal decoration, but also a spiritual status like of an iconographic image.

The interior side of the bird is printed with a raw mincemeat pattern, enhancing the idea of the vanishing nature of matter. These two contrasting anatomic aspects of the bird create an intense dialogue with the viewer who, at first doesn’t understand what’s inside the bird, but observes only its golden surface.

The idea of using golden birds in a procession came along after thinking about the striking effect I had when seeing the Magical Bird of Brancusi. It was mesmerizing, but somehow bodiless. The golden paper birds I created for Sweet Suite are a tribute to Magical Bird, but in a physical, raw way, focusing on the duplicitous nature of things.

The installation intends to have two effects on the visitor: one should feel surrounded and overwhelmed by the number of these waiting golden birds, but also should feel celebrative and contemplative about the luxurious royal condition.    

View of the installation
 

The studio setup

The studio setup