Waving flags signal unrest. They signify a threshold to be crossed, a position to be claimed; they function as airborne markers of identity, they separate in life. Shrouds put things to rest. They symbolize the end of agitation and claim, they cover what has been exhausted or sacrificed, they unify in death.
AeReA is the first part of a diptych focusing on the object that has always marked the distinction between a hypothetical us and them: the flag. In constant proximity, as part of a single anatomy, humans and flags emerge from a thick darkness, becoming the only propulsive motor of images. Silvery grey, the flags are cleansed of signs and symbols, reduced to their plastic essence. A zero point, without connotations, in which anything can emerge, begin, or disappear. As if belonging to a near or remote past, spectral figures take form through a score of unveilings, evoking a close and ancient brotherhood between two textile objects: flag and shroud.
The title blends two Italian words that can be graphically overlapped and merged into a portmanteau term: Ara [altar] and Aerea [aerial]. Ara alludes to the place of antiquity that was dedicated to sacrifice; here, understood as a death-generating mechanism, inflicted as a gift on those invested with the highest power. Aerea points to the physical quality of the flag, which achieves its greatest expressive power once hoisted and billowing in the air.
The work premiered at Triennale di Milano (ITA) in 2019.
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