Presented by Future Ritual
Venice Performance Art Week 2024
European Cultural Centre (ECC) – Palazzo Mora

‘In 1982 I made a performance All Communication is Translation in which I thrust my constantly transforming painted face into paper whilst shouting each syllable of the sentence: ‘all com mun i ca ti on is trans la ti on’. I built up an exhibition of 12 ‘self portraits’, during the work, each saying one of the syllables. In the performance of the same name in Venice, I pushed the notion of transformation and translation further. I attempted to ambush my own nascent thoughts partly by dwelling on potential ideas for the work from a reconnaissance visit a few months earlier and the many sketches for varied concepts. I wanted to be fully cognisant of the process of ‘translating’ these fugacious images/notions into words through my trillions of synapses, simultaneously illuminating and thwarting this ‘awareness of awareness.’ Another translation process, happened concurrently, with Andrea Pagnes, attempting to translate whatever was said or occurred to him into Italian

The 1982 work ‘All Communication is Translation’ plus a 2022 version of my scanned face will be on display. ‘ Venice Performance Art Week 2024 brochure