InitiArt Magazine

	Issue 01 Summer (Aug - Oct 09)
Issue # 01

Artist in Focus

Interview

Special Report

People

Exhibition Review

Exhibition Express

Design News

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

A Venetian Illusion

Shadow of the editor on the shadow of Spencer Finch's Moonlight, (Venice, March 10, 200), 2009.
Arsenale, 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009.

Venetian Illusion

Venice taught me what ephemeral really means. The moment I arrived Venice in the name of art, I stepped into a world of illusion at my own cost. The decline of the oldest commercial city in modern form started in the 15th Century and today, people live among ruins. This is the proof of their past glory, a glory that leads to nowhere. Venice is sinking, so the world.

Eternity is a joke.

Contemporary art seeks no eternity. Who cares about eternity? Be the first holy saint to say you do. Everything is short-lived; everything is deemed to be disappeared. Glory, a religious word for both the induced and disillusioned, is born from the dying flame. The transient, the fleeting, the ephemeral… they are the Baudelairean beauty, the modern beauty. The precarious, the shocking, the deceptive… they belong to us and we live among this spiritual ruin.

Selina, 08 June 2009 14:12. Train from Venice to Basel

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Monologue

I love talking. Once I start, I can’t stop.
When the moon rises, I start telling stories. Age-old tales, episodes from great literary work, fresh ideas sparked at new encounters, myths and legends from the nostalgic plateau where horses chasing the wind. I remember all those endless summer afternoons in my childhood when the whole world goes for a nap. I never managed to sleep. Lying on my bed, I created a world in my head.

Writing is my monologue.

Living my life in constant geographical changes means losing old friends and meeting new friends, forgetting old language and learning new language. At the core of it, is this delicate strategy of "attach and detach". People to whom I dearly attached have never left my life. I am in constant dialogue with them. Sometimes I forgot how their voice is like. But I recognize their facial expression, their gestures, and their habitual use of certain words which I unconsciously picked up. They are detached from my daily life, and I talk to them in my monologue.

Selina, 20 July 2009. 03:47 Paris

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Quotations

Mario says:
"What’s interesting is that, they might mean to catch attention, but then how do they use that attention, this is more important." (on monumental art work)

"The void left by things is sometimes more interesting than the information they had."

Qiu-Lin says:
"What I learnt from the process is that, artists are problem-identifiers, but never the problem-solvers and even less the arbitrators of social problems."

Paul says:
"Sade is very relevant: he is the court philosopher for any country spreading democracy and freedom today."

"I have no faith to place anywhere. Besides, humanity doesn’t need faith as much as a new reason to be itself."

Zilvinas says:
"An artwork might not have a 'beautiful' shape, but it takes you below the visible surface of the piece and moves you in unusual ways."

"Art may as well be seen as the most sophisticated form of entertainment."

Tozer says:
"He asked me, 'How did you know I’d be here?', I told him, 'I really didn’t know… but I’ve been waiting for you here for a long time!'"

Ming says:

"Things have always changed and are changing, the 'landscape' and the 'mindscape'."

My deepest gratitude to the artists without whom this magazine would never be realized. My sincere thanks also to all those who encourage, share and support me in this attempt. Enjoy reading!

Selina, 01 August 2009, 03:30. Paris

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