Caretto|Spagna | Prove di colori galleggianti, test preparatori per la performance e l’installazione: Ceromanzia: sette domande al fiume Rodano (Studies for floating colors, preparatory tests for the performance and installation: Ceromanzia: seven questions for the Rhone River)

Prove di colori galleggianti, test preparatori per la performance e l’installazione: Ceromanzia: sette domande al fiume Rodano (Studies for floating colors, preparatory tests for the performance and installation: Ceromanzia: seven questions for the Rhone River)
2010
Oil based colors and turpentine on common 80 gr. paper
Cm 29,5x 20,8

Unique piece, signed

Experimentations on paper, achieved through the floating colors technique, executed on the occasion of the project «De la Vallée de la chimie au Port de Valence. Une expérience artistique à l’échelle du paysage», commissioned by CAP (Centre d’Arts Plastiques) in Saint-Fons, and art3, Valence, France (2010/2011).
Following this experimentations the artists had various experiences of acquaintanceship and interaction with water streams in different parts of the world, that brought to life
works such as: Céromancie: sept questions au fleuve Rhône, Francia, 2011; Questions to the Yamuna River, New Delhi, India, 2012; The Ischiator Conversation, Valle dell’Ischiator, Vinadio, Cn, 2017.
Caretto/Spagna use an ancient divinatory practice based on the interpretation of the shape taken by drops of color as they fall onto a water surface. After pronouncing a question—addressing the river’s waters—the artists pour a few drops of color on the surface of the water; as the pigment floats, it takes on different configurations that are rapidly “fixed” by placing a piece of paper that instantly registers the shape taken by
the color particles on the water.
The use of divinatory practices that create potentially interpretable shapes, is one of the ways in which the artists investigate the origin and the meaning of shapes,  understanding the latter as the manifestation of incorporated strength, the expression of a “relational field”. These kinds of ritual acts, widely practiced historically, explore the possibility that shapes could carry meanings, and are therefore never fortuitous or neutral, but always capable of communicating information.