Still Lives: Venice

Durational Performance Installation
Artists: Luke George and Daniel Kok

June 2019
Via Garibaldi, Venice
La Biennale di Venezia, Biennale Danza (Venice Biennale 2019)

Gondola
Jute Rope
Gondolier: Matteo Rosa
Sound: Love songs

Photography: Lucio Fiorentino and Luca Gianfrancesco

Still Lives is a durational and site-specific performance installation series, in which artists Luke George and Daniel Kok ‘capture’ (with ropes) a significant moment or a movement in relation to its cultural context, time and place. Binding cultural objects and bodies in their place to allow new conversations to emerge and unveil hidden narratives regarding local history, social memories and personal attachments. Still Lives: Venice was a 4-hour performance installation for the 2019 Venice Biennale where the artists tied up a gondola and gondolier using 1km of locally made jute rope.

With its relationship to water and boats, rope is an ever-present material in Venice. Before it became a central venue for the Biennale, the Arsenale also housed the making of rope for its naval fleet. This durational performance-installation took place in a public square on Via Garibaldi, in front of the Giuseppe Garibaldi Monument - a common walkway for visitors to the Biennale traveling between the Giardini and Arsenale sites, and also a relaxing place for local residents to get some respite during the heat of summer.

As Luke and Daniel tied over 4 hours, people would happen across the developing installation, taking time to watch the image come to life, or, still life. Spectators took photos and chatted to the artists, sharing their own personal stories about rope, gondolas and the waterways of Venice. Several elders from local gondolier guilds came to inspect and approve the artists' ropework, offering a few pieces of advice here and there. Throughout the duration of the work, a series of nostalgic love songs from pop music were amplified and drifted across the square.

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