Art
Between the Sky and the Earth: Kata Mijatović archives dreams at the Venice Biennale
Kata Mijatović represents Croatia at this year’s Venice Biennale with an interactive installation, Between the Sky and the Earth that prompts visitors to expose their dreams by sharing them on a public online archive.
According to Branko Franceschi, who commissioned and curated the project, Between the Sky and the Earth functions as “an archive within an archive,” as it both comprises Mijatović’s work dealing with the world of dreams and promotes the building of the online Dream Archive.
The complex project is actually rooted in an earlier installation that has been modified to encourage viewer participation, explains Franceschi.
“Coal from the Unconscious: Zattere has been conceived as a central composition for the Venetian pavilion. The original 1999 installation consisted of a closed metal cage filled with one ton of coal on top of which is placed an overturned wheelbarrow. The cage is now levitating, and it is open for the visitors to enter and submit their dreams at the online portal Dream Archive. The heap of coal [topped] with an overturned wheelbarrow is placed outside of the cage as an appeal and a symbol of releasing the unconscious,” he explains.
Dream Archive (2013)
“Visitors participate in the process of general liberation by entering the cage and submitting their dreams. These dreams are simultaneously projected onto the walls of the pavilion or in the virtual public space of the web portal, thus being completely released from the subconscious.”
A significant element of the project and of the archive itself is the accessibility of the archive. Not only can visitors submit and share their dreams; they can also search the online database and read the dreams of others. “The [web] portal . . . enables the simple online upload of dreams into the database, [which] can be easily searched by using the dreams index, and another search possibility is also provided by software particularly designed to form a network of different data and search criteria,” notes Franceschi, who says that the project ultimately aims to become an interdisciplinary tool for investigating the subconscious.
“The final goal of the project is to become a unique tool and inspiration for the co-operation between different disciplines that research the unconscious, albeit from different standpoints, for a better understanding of human existence and life in general. The interactive portal Dream Archive is a social sculpture by its character and it represents the final merger of Kata Mijatović’s artistic vision with collective awareness. It is also a free tool for dissemination of information about the unconscious on global level.”
“The questions to which we still don’t have final answers will also be discussed: why people dream and what is the function of the unconscious in the construction of reality?,” he adds.
For Mijatović, a versatile artist who works with video, performance, and installation, and who also heads the gallery of Žitnjak Studios in Zagreb, the study of dreams has been a preoccupation for the past couple of decades. “Mijatović made first notes of her own dreams in 1991, the year when the war in Croatia began. They represent a sort of mirrored diary, a diary of her subconscious that, from the most personal inner level, the level of her unconscious ‘I’, is a chronicle of that time. These notes were to become the basis of her initial installations and performances inspired by dreams,” explains Franceschi.
“She conceived her first reinterpretation of a dream in 1999, virtually materializing the unconscious in physical space with the installation Coal from the Unconscious, [exhibited] in front of the SC Gallery in Zagreb. This was the dream: ‘I go to an abandoned coalmine where a heap of coal and wheelbarrow wait for me. I load coal into the wheelbarrow and push it out into the daylight.’ It is a subliminal message that seems to have determined the path of her career in arts.”
With Between the Sky and the Earth, Mijatović expands her explorations of the subconscious from a more personal investigation to a global and collaborative project that seeks to shed light on the world of dreams.
Between the Sky and the Earth is on view at the Croatian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale until November 24, 2013. Those who would like to participate in the project but will not be visiting Venice may share their dreams online at the Dream Archive.
Written by: Elaine Ritchel (@elaineritchel)
Image source: Dream Archive
