22 June 2022
ART IN FAULTS - MUNA MUSSIE
#Persona
We all have merits and flaws. The greatness of being human often consists in combining these contrasting aspects, which make us imperfect, but unique. Being able to expose even the worst of oneself is not easy, but it can be an ironic way to relieve tensions and play with social conventions.
In her project Persona, presented at the 2022 edition of Oplà - Performing Activities, artist Muna Mussie wanted to emphasise precisely this concept, with the intention of making visitors accept - and perhaps appreciate - their worst flaw, through a performance of embroidery and communication.
MIC wanted to support the artist, providing her with a reflective yarn that would make her performance more visible.
"The time of research and experimentation is the time I need to acquire new knowledge and progress in the development of a poetics that does not seek to crystallise, but to constantly listen and discuss."
Muna Mussie
PERSONA (2022)
Muna Mussie's project for Oplà 2022 is called PERSONA. It consists of an ad personam encounter mediated by the practice of sewing, in which language becomes a political-affective space. After several studies and developing her own sewing and embroidery technique, Muna wanted to approach the public, looking for a way to apply her knowledge in conjunction with a theme that would appeal to an audience of all ages.
Persona is an intimate experience, the result of a private dialogue that visitors to the fair had with the artist, in order to externalise some of their inner traits.
During the fair, Muna, totally disguised in a black dress and a mirrored face, asked visitors to confess their worst defect, and in a process of acceptance, she finally proposed to have it embroidered on one of the items of clothing they wore. The confrontation with his own image, reflected in the mirror mask, and the dialogue accompanied several visitors on an inner journey towards self-acceptance and self-limitations.
The artist's embroidery technique made it possible to fix on a dress of the participants' choice a word that encapsulated what came out of the inner dialogue. The use of a reflective yarn - REFLECT-MIC - enabled the result to be emphasised.
OPLÀ PERFORMING ACTIVITIES
From 13 to 15 May 2022, Arte Fiera in Bologna welcomed a new cycle of performative actions. It is Oplà Performing Activities: a contemporary fair that creates occasions, contexts and times that aim to show not what art is, but what art does.
Oplà insinuates performances into a functional context, activating the possibility of participation and sharing in the live work.
The artists who participated in the fair chose different ways to express themselves. Muna Mussie, with her text embroidery project, proposed Persona.
Reflective yarn 33% PES - 67% PU with glass microspheres.
Reflective yarn with round section, recommended for sewing or knitting where visibility is the distinctive element.
"Welcoming the space that hosts me is a way for me to be welcomed by the space; to create alliances of intent; to exchange information; to create coalitions between mutually intrusive bodies. Entering a space is a creative coexistence with rules that are partly inscribed and partly writable".
Muna Mussie
MUNA MUSSIE (Keren - Eritrea, 1978)
An artist from Bologna who investigates new languages on the perfroming arts scene, through work that combines gesture, vision and word to give shape to the tension of modern life.
She began her artistic career in 1998, training as an actress and perfomer in theatre.
Since 2006 she has been creating fully authorial works, in which she takes care of conception, staging and interpretation.
Her most recent productions include the performances Oasi (2018), Curva (2019), Curva Cieca (2021) and PF DJ (2021), which investigate ghostly apparitions and minor history.
Object-based interventions include the project Punctuation (2018) based on the practice of sewing, and Persona (2022) based on sewing, embroidery and communication.