Battista, Silvia 2021. The Performances of Sacred Places: Crossing, Breathing, Resisting. London: Intellect
https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-performances-of-sacred-spaces
Description:
This new collection offers a multi-layered and contemporary approach to the question of sacred sites, their practices, politics and ecologies. The overarching critical framework of inquiry is Performance Studies, a multidisciplinary methodological perspective that stresses the importance of investigating the practices and actions through which things are conducted and processes activated. This is an innovative perspective that recognizes the value, function and role that practices and their materialities have in the constitution of special places, their developments in culture, and the politics in place for the conservation of their sense of specialness.
The questions investigated are: what is a sacred place? Is a place inherently sacred or does it become sacred? Is it a paradigm, a real location, an imaginary place, a projected condition, a charged setting, an enhanced perception? What kind of practices and processes allow the emergence of a sacred place in human perception? And what is its function in contemporary societies?
https://www.intellectbooks.com/the-performances-of-sacred-spaces
Description:
This new collection offers a multi-layered and contemporary approach to the question of sacred sites, their practices, politics and ecologies. The overarching critical framework of inquiry is Performance Studies, a multidisciplinary methodological perspective that stresses the importance of investigating the practices and actions through which things are conducted and processes activated. This is an innovative perspective that recognizes the value, function and role that practices and their materialities have in the constitution of special places, their developments in culture, and the politics in place for the conservation of their sense of specialness.
The questions investigated are: what is a sacred place? Is a place inherently sacred or does it become sacred? Is it a paradigm, a real location, an imaginary place, a projected condition, a charged setting, an enhanced perception? What kind of practices and processes allow the emergence of a sacred place in human perception? And what is its function in contemporary societies?
Stories of the Firefly: Silvia Battista’s “performance of the inside” - Interview with Silvia Battista by Joanie Magil - States of the Arts - January 20, 2020.
https://www.thestateofthearts.co.uk/features/stories-of-the-firefly-silvia-battistas-performance-of-the-inside/
https://www.thestateofthearts.co.uk/features/stories-of-the-firefly-silvia-battistas-performance-of-the-inside/
Conversations with Independents Biennial artists: Angelo Madonna and Silvia Battista
Interview by Joanie Magill, Independents Biennial Writer-in-Residence 2018
https://www.artinliverpool.com/features/artist-blog/conversations-with-independents-biennial-artists-angelo-madonna-and-sylvia-battista/
Interview by Joanie Magill, Independents Biennial Writer-in-Residence 2018
https://www.artinliverpool.com/features/artist-blog/conversations-with-independents-biennial-artists-angelo-madonna-and-sylvia-battista/
Battista, Silvia 2018. Posthuman Spiritualities in Contemporary Performance: Politics, Ecologies and Perceptions. London: Palgrave
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319897578
Reviews:
https://readingreligion.org/books/posthuman-spiritualities-contemporary-performance
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10486801.2019.1639326?journalCode=gctr20
Abstract:
This book provides an interpretative analysis of the notion of spirituality through the lens of contemporary performance and posthuman theories. The book examines five performance/artworks: The Artist is Present (2010) by Marina Abramović; The Deer Shelter Skyscape (2007) by James Turrell; CAT (1998) by Ansuman Biswas; Journey to the Lower World by Marcus Coates (2004); and the work with pollen by Wolfgang Laib. Through the analysis of these works the notion of spirituality is grounded in materiality and embodiment allowing the conceptual juxtaposition of spirit and matter to introduce the paradoxical as the guiding thread of the narrative of the book. Here, the human is interrogated and negotiated with/within a plurality of other living organisms, intangible existences and micro and macrocosmic ecologies. Silence, meditation, shamanic journeys, reciprocal gazing, restraint, and contemplation are analyzed as technologies used to manipulate perception and adventure into the multilayered condition of matter.
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319897578
Reviews:
https://readingreligion.org/books/posthuman-spiritualities-contemporary-performance
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10486801.2019.1639326?journalCode=gctr20
Abstract:
This book provides an interpretative analysis of the notion of spirituality through the lens of contemporary performance and posthuman theories. The book examines five performance/artworks: The Artist is Present (2010) by Marina Abramović; The Deer Shelter Skyscape (2007) by James Turrell; CAT (1998) by Ansuman Biswas; Journey to the Lower World by Marcus Coates (2004); and the work with pollen by Wolfgang Laib. Through the analysis of these works the notion of spirituality is grounded in materiality and embodiment allowing the conceptual juxtaposition of spirit and matter to introduce the paradoxical as the guiding thread of the narrative of the book. Here, the human is interrogated and negotiated with/within a plurality of other living organisms, intangible existences and micro and macrocosmic ecologies. Silence, meditation, shamanic journeys, reciprocal gazing, restraint, and contemplation are analyzed as technologies used to manipulate perception and adventure into the multilayered condition of matter.
