Art in Second Life still seems to be thriving, as can be seen from the arts category of the destination guide. Berg by Nordan Art caught my eye whilst browsing the destination guide and I decided to pay a visit.
Berg by Nordan Art is owned and curated by Kate Bergdorf. The gallery is actually a number of galleries and sim space, making good use of the lack of physical constraints in a virtual world by using the sky and ground.
On the ground you will currently find Penumbra by Meilo Minotaur and CapCat Ragu. Visitors are advised to set their region windlight to London 2026 and turn their sound up. This is because this is a visual and audio exhibition and the audio definitely adds to the atmospheric setting.
The notecard for the exhibition informs us :
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” This is, usually, the quote we most see attributed to Antonio Gramsci, the Italian theorist, politician, and freedom fighter.
However, this is not the true quote. In Italian, what Gramsci wrote in Quaderni del carcere (Prison Notebooks) was: “La crisi consiste appunto nel fatto che il vecchio muore e il nuovo non può nascere: in questo interregno si verificano i fenomeni morbosi piú svariati.”. This would more accurately translate to: “Crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born, in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” But Prison Notebooks suffered several translation mutations, such as: “Le vieux monde se meurt, le nouveau monde tarde à apparaître et dans ce clair-obscur surgissent les monstres.” This mutation was carried over to portuguese translation: “O velho mundo agoniza; o novo mundo tarda a nascer, e, nesse claro-escuro, irrompem os monstros”. Back to English, this would translate to “The old world is dying, the new world is slow to appear and in this chiaroscuro the monsters arise.”
The word “penumbra” exists both in English and Portuguese. It means partial illumination, a chiaroscuro, the dusk. Going back to the original quote, this penumbra, this forest, is the interregno, mutated by the flux of words in translation, adding poetic resonance to Gramsci’s pragmatism.
Beware of the “morbid symptoms” you might embody!
The voices for the audio are by Rita Eustáquio, Luís Eustáquio and Catarina Carneiro de Sousa. Sound capture and editing is by Takio Ra.
At the main landing point you will also find an exhibition entitled “lacromioare” by Huckleberry Hax.
The smaller art gallery spaces include Gallery M, which is a permanent exhibition space exhibiting the work of artist Mich Michabo and then there’s L’Annexe which features the work of the owner and curator of Berg by Nordan Art, Kate Bergdorf. L’Annexe does feature some slightly more risque art.
The current schedule for art and exhibitions is (according to the notecard in the gallery) :
January through March 2017
- Meilo Minotaur and CapCat Ragu (installation)
- Huckleberry Hax (photography)
- Haveit Neox (installation)
- Mich Michabo (photography)
April and May 2017
- daze Landar
April through June
- Igor Ballyhoo (installation)
- Imani Nayar (photography)
July through September
- Maloe Vansant (special photography exhibit in gallery and on ground)
October through December:
- Livio Korobase (installation)
- ◦⊱ Mi ⊰◦ (photography)
This is an interesting and atmospheric gallery that is well worth a visit.
SLURL To Berg By Nordan Art : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nordan%20om%20Jorden/155/233/1001