ITALIAN ARTIST REVERIE PUTS ON A BRAVE PERFORMANCE

On November the 13th, from 18.00 to 20.20 the prestigious Estorick Collection, in Islington, hosted a brave performance by Italian Artist Reverie. The performance took place in several rooms, each furnished in a different way by Reverie, and what was really interesting was the dialogue between past and present. Space, indeed, is a sanctuary of Italian modern paintings and sculptures and Reverie added contemporaneity to it.

Reverie is just 24 years old, and her youth has gifted her with all the energy and strength needed to create intense performances, in the great tradition of late Gina Pane. Like Pane, Reverie doesn’t miss a chance to engender solemn performances that overwhelm most of the participants’ senses -hearing, sight, and touch- and through them, she carves out sentiments from past memories. She makes the participants speak and remember, she guides them in the realm of their own forgotten past, sometimes reassuring and sweet, other times disturbing and frightening.

Like Gina Pane, she uses red roses, delicate flowers that can also wound with their innocent thorns. But there is nothing nostalgic in the way in which she approaches performance art, in fact Reverie invited everyone to use their phones as much as possible, aware that, in today’s world, what is communicated via social media exists more than what remains shrouded in silence; and everyone posted, reposted, talked about it on their own Instagram channels, everyone including myself. It was impossible not to tell how unexpectedly good it was.

Growing up she will polish herself, of course, she will refine her style and she will learn how to praise her own strengths: her almost obsessive attention to the aesthetic details; the colors and shapes of her costumes; the music she chooses; and the ritual solemnity of the moments she crafts. She will also find out that less is more, and her holy gospel will become simplicity, the biggest achievement an artist can aim for.

It looks like the relevance of this young Italian artist Reverie and her work is here to stay as well as linger on.