Chat by Anna Scalfi

Faculty of Economics – Ca’Foscari University of Venice
Cannaregio, Fond.ta San Giobbe, ex Macello, 873

From 5 June to 30 November 2009, from Monday to Friday, from 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m., Saturdays from 8.00 a.m. to 12.00 a.m

With this installation, Anna Scalfi translates through paradoxical terms the size of the impact of climate changes on sea water levels, by placing at the entrance to the University a metal ladder, about 8 metres tall, the first 6 of which without rungs, as if already turned to rust by the sea water.
The result is as if it were an ordinary artefact placed on the street, the interference of a functional anomaly capable of triggering other scenarios.
The theory it evokes is the one where the increase in global average temperature is such as to cause a partial melting of glaciers and thus a rise of up to 7 metres of sea water levels. This is the level that would be reached should greenhouse gas concentrations keep on increasing at the current rate.

The Venetian installation is subsequent to a project on climate change launched in 2007 called “Histogram” in which last century’s volumes of CO2 gases are depicted as in a sculptural histogram on the columns standing outside a stock exchange building, partially wrapped in artificial grass rolls, each one in increasing proportions so as to indicate the progressive rise in emissions.

 

The installation was initially designed for the columns of the historical stock exchange building of Palais Brongniart, but permission was withdrawn and so it was exhibited inside the building (ANSA - Parigi,16 Nov). Permission to exhibit the installation at the sites of notable buildings of the economic and financial scenario throughout the world has recently been applied for.

Since the early 20th century, CO2 emissions from the combustion of hydrocarbons have risen from 2 billion to about 30 billion tons a year.
Studies carried out in the last 50 years have led to the assumption that the rise in global average surface temperature is mainly caused by the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. 
Some have labelled these theories as “chat”, as the prophecies of ecologists, dark degeneration of the responsibilities to be taken with future generations, which will take centuries to climax, when our progeny will have become extinct and all property will be in ruins, hoping that the wealth of knowledge has remained sound.
The analysis of the scientific data produced by the international academic community and assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, provides precise indications on the measures to be taken to address the problem and which indicate as today the time to start acting and within the next 30 years the time limit for cutting back CO2 emissions produced by human activities.
The level of excellence in scientific research on environmental issues reached by the Faculty of Economics of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice make it the ideal location for setting up the installation.

Anna Scalfi (1965) lives art as the frame that profoundly changes the borders of permitted action. The entire organizational process of her projects falls under the analytical perspective of the mechanisms of negotiation between art and civil society. An independent artist, she intervenes with site-specific projects capable of triggering currents of participation that go beyond the strictly artistic context.
She is currently working in London on her latest project, "From inside (I like the system)", a PhD programme with the department of Accounting, Finance and Management of the University of Essex. Her research is the result of an inter-disciplinary education at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, the S. D’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts and the university faculty of Sociology of Trento.
Some of her most recent works are: "Celata (sotto la piazza scorre una roggia)", Manifesta 7 Parallel Events, Trento (2008); "Italia, esterno notte, agosto 2008", Loggia degli Abati, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa (2008); "Ogni nostra cognizione prencipia da' sentimenti", Videoart Yearbook 2008; "Always half full", Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene d'Alba (2008); "Welcome to Italy", Mart, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (2007); "Money will save the World", Palais Brongniart, Place de la Bourse, Paris (2007). Web site: www.annascalfi.com