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Speak That I Can See You
2007, Interactive performance of varying duration and installation
An interactive itinerary on communication. Medical videos of open heart surgery, an eye scan, a fetus, and sounding vocal cords shape the exhibition space. Voices speak in three languages a text about fear. At the centre of the space, a body is offered as a canvas for thoughts. The visitors are invited to write with a feather or a nail on the male’s naked back. It derives a blood-like effect, but the action is smooth and gentle. The woman cancels the word with water and collects the liquid in a glass container, labelling it with the actual written word.
The performance is inspired by the sentence attributed by Erasmus to Socrates "Speak, so that I may see you [Loquere igitur, in quit, adolescents, ut te videam]"; meaning thereby that a man’s character is reflected less fully in his face than in his speech.
Held at
Ali Pasha Castel, Porto Palermo, AL
On the occasion of ArtKontakt, Curated by Andi Tepelena
August 2007
Kosovo Contemporary Art Gallery, Pristine, KS
On the occasion of Mulliqi Prize 2007, Curated by Suzana Varvarica
December 2007
Fondaco dell'Arte, ArteCommunications/Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, Venice, IT
Curated by Barbara Schweitzer
April 2009
AdmCom, Bologna, IT
Curated by Roberta Venturi
June 2009
XIV Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Skopje, MC
September 2009
Fabrica Braca de Prato, Lisbon, PT
On the occasion of Epipiderme. Curated by Nuno Oliveira
January 2010
Bogota, CO
On the occasion of ACCION EN VIVO Y DIFERIDO. Curated by Tzitzi Barantes
March 2010
St. Salvator Church, Prague, CZ
On the occasion of TINA B. Contemporary Art Festival, Curated by Monika Burian
October 2010
PingPong Artspace, Taipei , ROC
Curated by Eva Lin
September 2012
London Art Fair, London, UK
Presented by Eagle Gallery/Emma Hill Arts Project and KARST Gallery. Curated by Emma Hill
January 2014
+ Winner of ArtKontakt Prize, Tirana, Albania (2007)
+ Read the essay by Dana Altman on Art & Multiplicity
Photographs by Edward Smith
Speak That I Can See You examines, among others, the hollow actions, performed by millions with no identity just for the sake of comfort, and tells us that communication has become another one of them which needs to be reevaluated with a fresh eye. (...) Andrea Pagnes and Verena Stenke are here to tell us that real communication cannot be replaced by mechanical, mediated actions which have no relevance because they do not convey anything, and the need to exist as individual willing to open up and exorcise all fears is more acute than ever in the twenty-first century, in spite of all the cultivated illusion of the cocooned global village.
Dana Altman, Art & Multiplicity, New York