La Domenica
(2025)
author(s): Giovanni Pilato
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023
BA Fine Arts
This Graduation Research Project is a script for a catholic Mass. It consists of two
main parts: La Domenica and La Predica (translated from Italian: The Sunday and
The Sermon).
The text and design of La Domenica are based on the handout people receive at the
start of the catholic Sunday Mass in Italy. In La Domenica you can find the scriptures
of the day, the prayers to recite, some general information and relevant quotes for
the day. In this first part I assembled some biblical and non-biblical texts together
with pre-existing prayers and self-written prayers. The texts vary in topic such as the
story of the creation, the passion of Christ, but also Notes on Camp. The content of
those texts is then reflected upon in La Predica. It is therefore advisable to read La
Domenica first, up until The Sermon, and continue with La Predica. After La Predica
the reader can get back to La Domenica to finish the Mass.
La Predica is the script for the sermon: A personal essay on the relationship between
the Catholic traditions and Camp aesthetics. La Predica is a contemporary reflection
on the scriptures which starts with the creation. This story then leads to art creation,
matters of taste and homosexuality in Art. Homosexuality and erotica are then
related to the scene of the passion of Christ, specifically to suffering and death of
Christ as scenes for arousal. The theatricality of Catholic visual tradition is then
analyzed through Susan Sontag’s Note’s on Camp. What follows is a comparison
between queer visual culture, thus Camp, and Christian tradition.
Smitte som skapelsesmaskin
(2021)
author(s): Liv Kristin Holmberg
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
The exposition ”Smitte som skapelsemaskin” (Contagion as a creation machine) is based on the artistic project ”Kroppsliturgiske eksperimenter” that explores the boundaries emerging when performing arts and human bodies enter the sacred space of a church. To what extent does the church as a social and architectural environment, shape human conceptions of bodies? What might the history of theology and of the Christian church tell humans about our relationship to our own bodies? The pandemic has put the above questions in a new light: It made the skin a potential carrier of life-threatening infections. At the same time, we suffered the lack of mutual human touch and of physical presence. Caught between the fear of being infected by touch and a hunger for being touched, the project ”Kroppsliturgiske eksperimenter” appears both challenging and attractive. Crisis has produced a desire for new forms of touch, in art and in human life. This contribution to VIS was created in collaboration and dialogue with performer Hanna Barfod, priest, professional singer and research fellow Mathias Gillebo, film photographer and editor Mats Christian Rude Halvorsen and priest Arne Jor.