Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti

Application to Advanced Course in Visual Arts 2011

Fundazione Antonio Ratti

April 2011

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

La Batârde, 2009.3 superimposed layers of post-consumer recycled carpet foam,

tarlatan and raw plaster over full size fiberglass replica of the artist’s body. Access to this out-of use educational building’s only entrance is provided through a wooded area and a concrete ramp leading underground to a narrow 20-foot long corridor. A square space opens up at the opposite dead-end of said corridor. This installation intervenes the floor exclusively. With the passing of time and visitors, the plaster becomes worn and acquires the traces of presence around the body. The figure rises from or sinks into the floor’s surface, itself having acquired the consistency of flesh from its composition and tread. Above the threshold when exiting the space, one encounters the statement “I don’t want anybody to leave me.” Yet, one has seen traces of those who have previously abandoned it. This work stems from the memoirs of Violette Leduc.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

La Batârde, 2009.3 superimposed layers of post-consumer recycled carpet foam,

tarlatan and raw plaster over full size fiberglass replica of the artist’s body.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

Quarantined Old Chemistry Building, 2008. Performance and Installation.This structure was built in 1900 and suffered through the two earthquakes (1909 and 1989) that devastated San Brancisco Bay area. Due to the severity of the dam-age caused by the 1989 “Loma Prieta“ earthquake, the building was closed, boarded-up, and fenced-off. Regardless of its position at the very center of the Stanford University campus, it remains an off-limits zone to this day. Plans for renovation are not underway. Attempts at reclaiming it for alternative uses have proved futile.However, for a period of six months in 2008, access to the interior of the building was made possible after a large stone fell from the façade and landed on a ramp-way leading to a doorway into the basement of the building. The door was smashed open. The building’s interior, in utter decay, became the site of a spatial and acoustic intervention: I took up the personality and role of an individual trapped inside a laboratory room on the 3rd floor facing North towards the center quadrangle of the campus. Through repeated visits over the 5 months that transpired before the campus authorities became aware of the building’s newfound accessibility, I nested objects, scriptures, and sounds in the room, and invited various observers to experience the nest, the building, the entrance strategy and the surrounding spaces.The project and it’s corresponding video documentation were interrupted when an anonymous bystander alerted of the presence of individuals in the building, causing the arrival of the campus sherriff, who destroyed the footage and ordered the instalation’s immediate dismantling. The entrance was subsequently blocked.

Feasible Fence Access

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

NEST: Quarantined Old Chemistry Building, 2008. Performance and Installation.Installation views.

Rampway to Basement

NestLocationon 3rd floor

Feasible Fence Access

Feasible Fence Access

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

NEST: Quarantined Old Chemistry Building, 2008. Performance and Installation.Access views and Historical views.

following 1989 earthquake

following 1909 earthquake

MAIN QUADRANGLE

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Video work samples

Caenorhabditis Elegans, 2010, 7 min. 1 mm long worm in its bacterial suspension environment filmed through a microscope.

Caenorhabditis Elegans is a worm commonly used in neuroscience research due to the advantages offered by its linear and simple nervous system and the fact that its genome has been fully mapped for over a decade. The soundtrack in this work fills the silent microscopic space that a researcher confronts daily with a suggestion of what could be the ultrasonic sounds created by the worms’ environmental friction. These sounds were created by cooking vegetables in various ways and applying 2 limited manipulations to these recordings: of speed and direction (parallel to the limitations of Caenorhabditis Elegans’s movement.)

Fraction Lake and Other Cycles, 2008. Mapping and walking event, Performance Site.

Post-consumer redwood 4” x 4” beams, Centenial Oak Tree, muslin, projector, objects.Located on Stone Salamander Biological Preserve, Stanford University.

Starting at dusk in late Spring and ending at 2am, participants were invited to take part in an evening of path-following, map-reading, performance, video, collaborative cooking, and site-specific light installation in an environment scarcely visited due to its status as a Biological Preserve. Visitors were invited to find their way through a path with maps they could affect themselves by folding and combining theirs with people they found along the way. Once at the performance site, they were invited to help prepare the cooking supplies to be used at intermission. Two pieces were presented: “Carnicero Español” by Rodrigo García and “Meat“ by Jake Haskell. During intermission, and while the guests were invited to cook chicken and sausage on the barbecue, a video projection showed the traditional preparation of a range chicken (feather plucking, skin charring) at a self-sustainable biological farm in Western Spain. A concert from the top of the oak tree was given by experimental electronic composer Max Citron. The event was concluded by a second path-following, this time guided by a neon light installation and closing the cycle with the return to the point of departure, the New Guinea Sculpture Garden.

path leading to Site

performance Site

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Scenography work samples

map to find arrival path

Fraction Lake and Other Cycles, 2008. Performance Site. Structural Views.

The structure was built from post-consumer massive redwood beams, which were acquired from con-struction sites in the surrounding neighborhoods. The flanks in proximity to the Centenial Oak Tree were built with untreated beams. In progression towards the opposite wall, the beams used show increasing levels of distress (paint, perforations, markings) where a screen is installed for projections. The branch hanging over ground level is incorporated into the built structure and becomes the back-drop for the piece “Carnicero Español“ by Rodrigo García. The sound system is intalled on a platform high inside the Centennial Oak Tree.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Scenography work samples

Fraction Lake and Other Cycles, 2008. Performance Site. Structural View.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Scenography work samples

Fraction Lake and Other Cycles, 2008. Participatory intermission.

The diverse cooking supplies were gathered at community thrift stores. Attendants invited to cook and prepare com-munally. Blankets and warm clothes were also gathered at community thrift stores and provided to the attendants.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Scenography work samples

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

Exit Guide, 200812 neon tubes, bushes, fencing, woods. Located along the perimeter of Lake Lagunita, Palo Alto, California

Final portion of path-following performance event.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

Exit Guide, 200812 neon tubes, bushes, fencing, woods. Located along the perimeter of Lake Lagunita, Palo Alto, California

Final portion of path-following performance event.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Performance work samples

Six Easy Pieces, 2011. 3 Channel video instalation. 9 min loop. Animation using human beings as puppets at the rate of one shot every 1.5 seconds. The camera was mounted on a circular rail and controlled through an Arduino pad. Parts of the filming were open to the public as live preformances. Directed by Reynold Reynolds.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

Temporary Greenhouse for Weeds, 2010.2m x 2.5m patch of land, uncultivated and unseeded since 1955, wood pallet, plastic.

This patch of land was rotated mechanically in March and immediately compacted manually. No seeds or compost were added. After a short rainfall, a wooden structure covered in firm transparent plastic sheeting was placed at its center. Airflow and water intake were secured through slits in the plastic as well as from underneath the 7cm elevated structure. The land and structure were left untouched until late May, when the area had become overgrown with the autochthonous weeds and the structure was practically unrecognizable. The interven-tion resulted in an overwhelming increase in the growth of one particular weed, the Amaranthus retroflexus, usually known as Red-Rooted Pigweed or Common Tumbleweed. This weed is typically passive, and does not prosper in the company of other plants. However, through the soil-rotating action taken in March, the dominating weeds were appeased and the Amaranthus retroflexus had a chance to prosper both inside the structure, and in the area along its perimeter. Finally, the perimeter was cleared with a mechanical “weed-whacker“ in order to discover how the Amaranthus inside the structure reacted to the plastic containment. The structure was subsequently removed and the patch of land newly put into cultivation as part of a watermelon field.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

Above: Soil rotation and structure installation in March.Below: State of growth in May.

Temporary Greenhouse for Weeds, 2010.2m x 2.5m patch of land, uncultivated and unseeded since 1955, wood pallet, plastic.

This patch of land was rotated mechanically in March and immediately compacted manually. No seeds or compost were added. After a short rainfall, a wooden structure covered in firm transparent plastic sheeting was placed at its center. Airflow and water intake were secured through slits in the plastic as well as from underneath the 7cm elevated structure. The land and structure were left untouched until late May, when the area had become overgrown with the autochthonous weeds and the structure was practically unrecognizable. The interven-tion resulted in an overwhelming increase in the growth of one particular weed, the Amaranthus retroflexus, usually known as Red-Rooted Pigweed or Common Tumbleweed. This weed is typically passive, and does not prosper in the company of other plants. However, through the soil-rotating action taken in March, the dominating weeds were appeased and the Amaranthus retroflexus had a chance to prosper both inside the structure, and in the area along its perimeter. Finally, the perimeter was cleared with a mechanical “weed-whacker“ in order to discover how the Amaranthus inside the structure reacted to the plastic containment. The structure was subsequently removed and the patch of land newly put into cultivation as part of a watermelon field.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Installation work samples

Temporary Greenhouse for Weeds, 2010.2m x 2.5m patch of land, uncultivated and unseeded since 1955, wood pallet, plastic.

This patch of land was rotated mechanically in March and immediately compacted manually. No seeds or compost were added. After a short rainfall, a wooden structure covered in firm transparent plastic sheeting was placed at its center. Airflow and water intake were secured through slits in the plastic as well as from underneath the 7cm elevated structure. The land and structure were left untouched until late May, when the area had become overgrown with the autochthonous weeds and the structure was practically unrecognizable. The interven-tion resulted in an overwhelming increase in the growth of one particular weed, the Amaranthus retroflexus, usually known as Red-Rooted Pigweed or Common Tumbleweed. This weed is typically passive, and does not prosper in the company of other plants. However, through the soil-rotating action taken in March, the dominating weeds were appeased and the Amaranthus retroflexus had a chance to prosper both inside the structure, and in the area along its perimeter. Finally, the perimeter was cleared with a mechanical “weed-whacker“ in order to discover how the Amaranthus inside the structure reacted to the plastic containment. The structure was subsequently removed and the patch of land newly put into cultivation as part of a watermelon field.

Feasible Fence Access

Hanging Nida, Neringa Municipality, Lithuania April 12-30, 2011

This site was used historically for annual performances of Lithuanian Folklore ensembles. Lithuania has the highest suicide rate in the world. 70 people out of every 100,000 take their lives each year. The second most used method for this is hanging (gunfire is the first.) Starting on my birthday and for the duration of the month of April, I will hang from this structure by attatching a rope to the tallest beam and connecting this rope to my wrists. 16mm film will be used for documentation.

Johanna Sophie Santos Bassetti Work in Progress: durational performance