Art to die for
Pippa Bacca in Istanbul a few days before she was killed. Image by Sirio Magnabosco. Source: The New York Times.
Two performance artists, Pippa Bacca and Silvia Moro, conceived the idea for the “Brides on Tour” project for peace about a year ago. Wearing white wedding dresses, they would hitchhike from Italy to the Balkans to the Middle East to send a message of peace and “marriage between different peoples and nations.” Hitchhiking in a wedding dress, Pippa Bacca was murdered in Turkey.
According to The New York Times, the message delivered by “Brides on Tour” has been muted by tragedy:
“After just three weeks on the road, one of the two Italian artists, Pippa Bacca, 33, was killed by a driver who offered her a ride. Her naked body was found on April 11 in some bushes near a Turkish village after a suspect led investigators to the site. Although an official cause of death has not been given, local Turkish authorities said Ms. Bacca had been raped and strangled. The killing has stirred broad public anger and grief in Turkey and Italy. Still, what Ms. Bacca would have wanted, her family and friends said, was her message of peace to live on. “She thought that in the world there were more positive than negative people, and that it was right to be trusting,” said Rosalia Pasqualino, a sister of Ms. Bacca, whose real name was Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo. “Trust is a very human factor, and she believed that to understand people, you had to get to know them. The performance piece, a trip through nearly a dozen countries in the Balkans and the Middle East, many of them ravaged by war recently, was meant to underscore that “by overcoming differences and lowering the level of conflict,” individuals and cultures could come together, Ms. Moro said in a telephone interview. “Meeting people was the key.” Ms. Bacca’s trip was cut short near the village of Gebze, about 40 miles southeast of Istanbul. An unemployed man, Murat Karatas, 38, has confessed to killing her shortly after picking her up on March 31, the authorities have said.”
Accepting rides with strangers was crucial to the art performance’s success, Ms. Moro said. The artists’ statement at their Web site, bridesontour.fotoup.net, says, “Hitchhiking is choosing to have faith in other human beings, and man, like a small god, rewards those who have faith in him.”
Pippa Bacca (left) and Silvia Moro hitchhiking through the Balkans as Brides on Tour (bridesontour.fotoup.net).
Art performs many functions for humankind. Art challenges us, inspires us, enriches us, gratifies us aesthetically, and encourages us to think. The story of Pippa Bacca’s murder causes me to think of the writer Henry James. James once proposed three questions you could productively put to an artist’s work:
What was the artist trying to achieve? Did the artist succeed? and finally, Was it worth doing?
The purpose of “Brides on Tour” has been defined by Bacca and Moro; the viewing public understands the intent of the artists. The success of their performance piece is yet to be determined. To succeed, Bacca and Moro’s message of peace must be communicated through the print-based and electronic media to as wide an audience as possible. Ironically, this purpose may be enhanced by the untimely death of one of the artists.
The difficult question is: Was it worth doing? My gut-reaction as the father of two children: No art work is worth the life of its creator. I admire the idealism and courage exhibited by both Bacca and Moro. Performance artists hope to change the world. But the risks inherent in this performance piece far outweigh any potential benefits to society. My prayers go to Pippa Bacca, Bacca’s family, and Silvia Moro.
~TAB
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This is just heartbreaking and sadly it has, in my mind, invalidated the art and message.
I agree with you Mad Silence. Thank you for a sensitive presentation and discussion of this tragedy. I hadn’t known about it and it saddens me.
Thinking about this some more, I think the tragic flaw was in the artists’ expectations that the world would fit to their perception/agenda. This is OK in the studio, but when art starts interfacing directly with ‘reality’, things can go wrong. In no way is this meant to place blame, innocent people are killed every day. But I recognize this unconscious arrogance from some of my own and others’experience, and can see how it could land one into danger that otherwise might have been perceived and avoided.
Corrine, it is indeed a terrible event. And Sarah, I agree with you. I’m not a fan of performance art, finding much of it contrived, forced and in-your-face. A type of arrogance and self-importance is often found in the performance artist, although this can be attributed to the artist’s zeal to transmit their message. And this may be where the problem lies. Content overcomes form. I don’t consider much of performance art as “real” art, not truly. If you want to get your message across, write an essay. The “Brides on Tour” concept might make an excellent play.
A real tragedy and travesty. There are things that worth one’s sacrifice, but this is definitely not one of them.
Thanks for informing us on this one. I agree with your (brave) take on performance art, and thanks for being candid.
No amount of criticism/analysis can make this event go away, though. It certainly leaves a wound on my heart.
Speaking of “art to die for,” this sort of reminds me of an artist I’ve been told about, Maria Abramovich (also a performance artist) who once did a piece where, in front of an audience, she consumed a large amount of various drugs and then allowed the audience to observe the changes that took place with her body. Apparently, the audience stood by motionless as she went into convulsions and finally became unconscious. Why didn’t they do something?
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(BTW, glad I found your blog
Celestyna, I’m reminded of Danish artist Marco Evaristti’s Blenders with living goldfish. Do you know the story? It involved a row of ten blenders, each containing a live goldfish, and each capable of being turned on, depending upon the viewer’s choice. At the exhibition opening, two fish were blended. The museum replaced the creatures that were liquefied, “to maintain the original work of art.” Then five more fishies were diced by members of the viewing public. Could you have stood there while the goldfish were blended? Five surviving fish were later stolen from their blenders by animal liberationists. Then the SPCA got the police to order the plugs pulled on the appliances.
Blenders with living goldfish
http://www.evaristti.com/work/installation/HELENA/index.htm