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Bordalo II staged “Walk of Shame,” printed with €500 banknotes, to call out the multimillion-dollar price tag of hosting Pope Francis
When he learned of the eyebrow-raising cost of hosting Pope Francis in Lisbon, Portugal, for a week-long event known as World Youth Day, installation artist Artur Bordalo (better known as Bordalo II) took matters into his own hands.
On July 28, Bordalo II and his team accessed the event’s custom-built main stage to roll out a red carpet printed with €500 ($546) banknotes, directly confronting the Portuguese government, the Catholic Church, and the Lisbon and Loures city councils for the collective €161 million (~$177 million) spent in preparing for and hosting the Pope.
“In a secular state, at a time when many people are fighting to keep their homes, their work and their dignity, millions of public funds have been invested to sponsor the tour of the Italian multinational,” Bordalo II wrote in an Instagram statement along with images and videos of the carpet roll-out that he dubbed the “Walk of Shame.” Official reports outlining cost estimates for the first World Youth Day since 2019, an international pilgrimage event devoted to deepening the faith of young Catholics, were made public at the end of last January.
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Portuguese citizens were both slack-jawed and outraged at the nine-figure estimates considering that half of all Portuguese employees made less than €1,000 per month and house rents have soared over 40% since 2017, with Lisbon clocking in at a 53% increase. Despite the overwhelming financial crises affecting the nation, Lisbon’s city council agreed to an original cost of approximately €4.2M ($4.59M) for the Pope’s stage, justifying its potential for future use down the line on top of an additional €17m ($18.6M) investment to prepare the surrounding grounds for World Youth Day.
While the cost of the stage alone was eventually brought down to €2.9M after enough pushback, the cloud of controversy surrounding the Church’s ongoing sex abuse scandal also loomed over the Papal visit. Primarily celebrated for his trash-based installations protesting pollution and excessive waste production, Bordalo II addressed the scandal last year through a series called Cruzes, Credo, Canhoto (2022), consisting of a crucified baby doll and a large cross made of stuffed toys situated in Portuguese churches as well as revamped street signs calling out the manipulation of the clergy.
Rhea Nayyar
Hyperallergic
Merci A-E D.
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Why haven’t I heard of the artist Hilma af Klint?
Tate Museum, USA, 2023, 2 min 30 sec
In this film, Frances Morris (Director Emerita, Tate Modern) discusses the visionary work of Swedish painter, Hilma af Klint. Explore Klint’s interest in scientific discovery, spirituality and philosophy, as well as her otherworldly paintings, which she believed were commissioned by higher powers.
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HILMA AF KLINT (26 October 1862 – 21 October 1944) ‘was a Swedish artist and mystic whose paintings are considered among the first abstract works known in Western art history.’
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Beyond the visible
Halina Dyrschka, Germany, 2019, 93 min
Hilma af Klint was an abstract artist before the term existed, a visionary, trailblazing figure who, inspired by spiritualism, modern science, and the riches of the natural world around her, began in 1906 to reel out a series of huge, colorful, sensual, strange works without precedent in painting. The subject of a recent smash retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, af Klint was for years an all-but-forgotten figure in art historical discourse, before her long-delayed rediscovery. Director Halina Dryschka’s dazzling, course correcting documentary describes not only the life and craft of af Klint, but also the process of her mischaracterization and erasure by both a patriarchal narrative of artistic progress and capitalistic determination of artistic value.
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Meditation Drawings by OLGA FRÖBE-KAPTEYN (1881-1962) (September 7, 2020)
FREDRIK SÖDERBERG (March 15, 2011)
‘… channel(ling) the spiritualist photography of the 1860’s’ in Salem, MA.
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Séance (2019) by SHANNON TAGGART (August 29, 2019)
Thomas Glendenning Hamilton’s Photos of Ectoplasm (February 22, 2010)
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WOMAN OF DARK DESIRES (June 2, 2023)
LEA SANIEZ (March 19, 2023)
NAYA KOTKO (July 31, 2022)
MARCIN NAGRABA (February 25, 2021)
NICOLAS BRUNO (February 14, 2021)
NONA LIMMEN (June 13, 2020)
COURTNEY BROOKE (March 10, 2020)
JASON W. BLAKE (July 2, 2016)
CHRISTOPHER McKENNEY (April 16, 2016)
COLETTE SAINT YVES (April 22, 2014)
CLARENCE JOHN LAUGHLIN (March 12, 2014)
KRIST MORT (December 17, 2013)
TOMMY NEASE (August 27, 2013)
ELLEN ROGERS (August 7, 2013)
ALEXANDER BINDER (February 17, 2010)
RIK GARRETT (rikgarrett.tumblr.com)
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Woman of dark desires
‘Metalhead based in Germany’
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LEA SANIEZ (March 19, 2023)
NAYA KOTKO (July 31, 2022)
MARCIN NAGRABA (February 25, 2021)
NICOLAS BRUNO (February 14, 2021)
NONA LIMMEN (June 13, 2020)
COURTNEY BROOKE (March 10, 2020)
JASON W. BLAKE (July 2, 2016)
CHRISTOPHER McKENNEY (April 16, 2016)
COLETTE SAINT YVES (April 22, 2014)
CLARENCE JOHN LAUGHLIN (March 12, 2014)
KRIST MORT (December 17, 2013)
TOMMY NEASE (August 27, 2013)
ELLEN ROGERS (August 7, 2013)
ALEXANDER BINDER (February 17, 2010)
RIK GARRETT (rikgarrett.tumblr.com)