Transcending Borders, a Calligraphy Performance by Monica Dengo and Mingjun Luo, at Museo Correr, Venice 2024
TRANSCENDING BORDERS – Performance
In April 2024, in the ballroom of the Correr Museum in Venice, the Chinese artist Mingjun Luo and the Italian artist Monica Dengo meet at the center of the hall. Around them are a stack of large cardboard sheets and a small table holding wide bowls of ink, assorted brushes, and quills. Monica lifts a sheet of cardboard and holds it upright before her. Mingjun begins to make marks; after a few moments, she pauses and sets the brush aside. Monica then places the cardboard on the floor and takes up a brush herself, while Mingjun raises a second sheet and holds it in front of her. Monica begins to mark the surface.
This silent exchange continues for about fifteen minutes, until the floor is covered with cardboard sheets bearing traces born of gestures shaped by their distinct cultural backgrounds—gestures that gradually dissolve into abstraction in order to enter an open, balanced dialogue.
The two artists had met in person only briefly the night before, having conceived the performance through emails and online conversations. Prior to this moment, they had never worked together; now, they are required to rely on and trust one another. Here, the mark does not merely represent—it exists, it responds, and it becomes a physical and aesthetic relationship. Dialogue is transformed into bodily exchange, emerging as a symbol of interdependence: not only between the two cultures the artists embody, but among all humans.
Download Bazaar Art article about the performance
