Margherita Pevere

installations

Lament

A performance, installation and community engagement programme on post-wildfire ecologies. Lament was awarded the COAL Prize 2024’s Transformative Territories Mention.

A nude performer lies on a white area in a curled position before the start of the performance. Her limbs are wrapped in red flexible tentacles and burnt barks. Above her and throughout the whole space, there are a hundred suspended small glass sculptures. In the background, there are people observing the performance, some seated and some standing, with a musician ready to start playing a cello.

Through a striking aesthetic coupled with rigorous transdisciplinary research, Lament (2024) delves into overlooked stories and post-wildfire ecologies. It considers wildfires beyond the spectacular moment and rather in their less-spoken-about aftermath, where soil, communities and ecosystems are exposed to both erosion and regeneration. Lament reflects on the ecological roles of wildfires, but also the anthropogenic shifts in the so-called “fire regimes” that lead to extreme wildfire events.

The project belongs to my ongoing research on more-than-human perspectives on death in times of eco-disruption. Lament makes space for the contemplation of death as an ecology, and harnesses solastalgia and ecological grief as artistic and epistemological tools for the times to come.

The installation is conceived as a more-than-human death-bed. On the immaculate floor there are heaps of soil and ash and a hundred glass sculptures hang low from the ceiling. The sculptures host burnt soil, moss and charcoal which I collected after the 2022 wildfire on the Karst Plateau (IT/SI). I treated the soil with bioremediation methods based on a particular species of moss adapted to grow on burnt soil. The tiny ecosystems in the glass sculpture will develop during the exhibition and invite the viewers to notice and appreciate their slow becoming. The installation can host the performance and remain in view afterwards, or exhibited separately.

As a 45-minute long performance, Lament features a solo performer, cello and live electronics. With crawling and sliding movements, I become a creature of the soil who interacts with the dense yet lyrical musical score, the soil on the floor and the hanging sculptures. The setting transforms as I crawl and slide on stage, smearing soil and charcoal powder around. At the start of the performance, the setting is luminous and immaculate. At the end, it is violent and expressionist. The performance’s high dynamics are meant to open up an adequate emotional space.

The development of Lament included a community engagement program to empower those impacted by an extreme wildfire to share their stories. It resulted in the “Resilient scars map,” a canvas of local communal memory that tells stories of communities’ remembrance and resilience which was presented at my artwork’s premiere, then returned to community who created it. Read more about the community engagement program here

View of the “Resilient scars map” created with community members of Santa Comba Dão. The black canvas is filled with personal experiences of the extreme Prtuguese wildfires of 2017, such as photographs of burning houses, personal items, and local plants. The map illustrates plan of the city with key landmarks of the area highlighted. Blue and red yarn mark the spread of the fire, as well as the rivers present in the municipality.
Berlin-based artist Margherita Pevere before the start of the performance Lament. She appears as a posthuman tentacular being with limbs replaced by burnt barks and striking red tentacles. Small glass sculptures hang above her and contain soil microbes, charcoal, and moss which she sampled in wildfire areas.View of the performance Lament at at iMAL in Bruxelles. The performer’s more-than-human body is stretched out after a sudden movement, in reaction to the live music played by musician Ivan Penov.The performer is stretched out on a white background with striking red details of her costume. Her face seems calm while the body executed a sharp position.The performer is using her limbs as if they were tentacles. With a burnt bark tied to her leg, she sharply scatters a heap of black soil, extending her body across the white performing area.After an explosive movement, the performer stretches out on the white floor in a posthuman, contemporary lamentation. The floor is mudded with soil initially placed in pristine heaps. Above her, hundreds of glass sculptures glisten. In the background, cellist Ivan Penov plays his composition.In a calm and relaxed manner, the performance artist is lying with her back on the floor while raising her legs between the glass sculptures which contain moss, soil bacteria and charcoal. The artwork is a lamentation for queer death in ecology.Pevere lifts her torso in an effort to reach one of the glass sculptures containing burnt soil. In a poignant moment, Pevere is offering grief for the non-human death.A close-up of the performer’s face against the floor, yet with a tender and calm face expression. Next to her face, the red tentacle on her arm looks smudged with soil.The performance artist executes a dramatic pose, with her limbs extended behind her. Her costume consists of red flexible tentacles and burnt tree barks makes her appear as a tentacular more-than-human creature.Musicin Ivan Penov is seen behind the glass sculptures which are suspended at various heights from the ceiling. He is playing a composition in which field recordings interplay with live electronics and cello to shape a dense and lyrical piece.A nude performer lies curled up on a white surface, wrapped in red fabric and charred bark, awaiting the start of the performance. Behind her, a cellist is starting to play an original musical score, a composition for prepared cello and field recordings written especially for Lament.Sliding and crawling under the glass sculptures, Pevere strikes a strong pose, stretching across the white surface and coming in contact with heaps of soil.Installation view of Lament, a transdisciplinary artwork. A white surface with neatly arranged mounds of dark soil. Above them, a hundred hanging glass sculptures create a suspended landscape. In the background, a “Resilient scars map,” a canvas marking personal stories of community members in Santa Comba Dão who experienced devastating wildfire in 2017.A close-up of a glass sculpture containing black soil. The content of the sculpture is prone to change and transformation during the exhibition, with the seemingly dead matter coming back to life and re-growing. The small sculpture is organically-shaped and created in a glassblowing studio.Installation detail. Lament asks how to mourn something that is not human, how to deal with environmental disruption, and how this affects common ideas of life and death.Margherita-Pevere_Lament_picture-by-Romane-Iskaria_s-60A detail of a collection of glass sculptures in the installation. They contain soil microbes, charcoal, and moss collected from burnt regions in Europe. Since they will start to regrow, they tell a story of urgency, death and rebirth.The remnants of the costume lie on the smudged white surface. Originally striking red, the costume is now smudged with soil. The remnants point to the presence of an unidentified creature.

Award
Lament is COAL Prize 2024’s Transformative Territories Winner.

Artwork credits:
Margherita Pevere: concept, performance, installation, bio-protocols, costume and glassware design
Ivan Penov: music (composed and performed by)
Diana Viera / JRC: scientific advisor
Céline Charveriat / Pro(to)topia Consulting: research advisor
Lucía Iglesias Blanco / Nature Conservation Unit (DG for Environment, European Commission): conservation advisor
Jurica Mlinarec: project management
Lena Böckann: costume maker
Jason Hitchcock / Berlin Flameworking Studio, Berlin Glass: glassblowing
Caterina De Donato: studio assistant
Romane Iskaria: photography
Daniele Lucchini: video
Bruno Georis: audio description
Realised with the support of NaturArchy – Resonances Project at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
Special thanks to: Alfredo Branco, Daniele De Rigo, Margherita di Leo, Duarte Oom, Jesus San Miguel
Mattia Bianco, Marco Donnarumma, Mira Fabjan, Alessandro Ruggero, Gianmarco Lupi, Marco Revelant.

Commissioned by the EC Joint Research Centre in the framework of the SciArt project’s Resonances IV cycle on “NaturArchy: Towards a Natural Contract”.