While making preparations for my Lament for Ur paintings, a thought came to me: although the Sumerian poems I’d read to learn more spoke of very human feelings and emotions, these words were addressed primarily to the gods and the ruler of the day.
And the city dwellers? And those working the land? What was the cow-pen like that the bull fled from? What was left of the people’s homes? And the walls circling the city, also there to close in its inhabitants (property belonging to the lord, to generate wealth for him) but not to protect against external enemies? The canals, and the banks bordering them?
The work Corrupt ruins in fact started out from the idea of a wall, which then sparked reflection on boundaries ‒ both physical and mental ‒ and on the artificial limitations that physically and mentally imprison us while pretending to protect us.
But boundary walls, banks and barriers that are artificial do not last more than a few years, geologically speaking. They solve momentary problems, despite the ‘millenary’ empires craved by reckless powermongers. I believe that nature is stronger than the most powerful human, that we need to jettison the notion of bending nature to our momentary interests, and that migrations of peoples break down all artificial boundaries.
Thanks go to the ceramicist and sculptor Ylli Plaka for his valuable assistance.
Beppe Schiavetta – Artist
