Semionauti is the third appointment of Border Crossing, a project born from a meeting at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London between Gulsen Bal, Elena Cologni, and Karl Ingar Røys.

The central point around which the reflection of the three artists revolves, diverse in experience and culture — coming from Turkey, Italy, and Norway — is the theme of the border as a barrier, a line that delimits physical territory but also mental and temporal boundaries. In an attempt to deepen the dialogue established and understand the specificities of the different countries of origin, Gulsen Bal, Elena Cologni, and Karl Ingar Røys have adopted the practice of involving a locally operating artist at each new stage: for Border Crossing… Here And Somewhere Else in Istanbul (October 11-29, 2003, Gallery X) they collaborated with the artist Silvia Erdem; for Border Crossing Tur Re Tur... in Oslo (September 3 - October 3, 2004, Kunstforening Museum) with Hjørdis Kuras. In Milan, and in the following appointment in autumn in Bologna, the Italian artist Annalisa Cattani collaborates with the group.

“The aspect of involvement is very important in the project. Although working in different fields, our works arise from a common methodology based on the overlapping of roles and approaches, which includes dialogue, making, documenting, and academic research at universities. Careof becomes the space to collect our travel material toward a destination that, paradoxically, tends never to be reached. And this is what we focus on, the tending-to, the investigation that enables dialogue,” emphasizes Elena Cologni.

The Milan stage is characterized by the methodological choice to present one’s work in relation to that of one or more artists with whom a shared path is being built. Gulsen Bal, who deals with mechanisms that allow a critical engagement with artistic production as in the recent photographic work Now Voyager, invited the Azerbaijani artist Zeigam Azizov to present the video At the End of the World focused on themes of immigration and diaspora.

Elena Cologni, in collaboration with the critic Helena Blaker, reflects on the relationship between image-text-memory in performative practice and on the preservation of Live Art documentation. She presents traces of the performances Mnemonic Present, Shifting Meaning, and materials from the London archives Live Art Development Agency and Artsadmin.

Annalisa Cattani presents with Dialoghi Socratici the methodology of Darth (Annalisa Cattani, Adriana Torregrossa, Dragoni-Russo, Laura Mancuso, Sabrina Muzi, Stefano Pasquini, Davide Rivalta, Fabrizio Rivola, Petar Stanovic), an association of artist-curators that for three years has been conducting research activities, organizing meetings and exhibitions. Among Darth’s core activities are the “Incontri a porte chiuse” (Closed-door meetings), which each time include the invitation of a guest whose work is linked or tangential to art in an interdisciplinary way. On this occasion, documentation of selected events from previous meetings with Emanuela Dececco, Emilio Fantin, Eva Marisaldi, Cesare Pietroiusti, and Pierluigi Sacco will be shown.

Karl Ingar Røys presents Erna’s Video, a series of interviews shot in the former Yugoslavia about the Norwegian government’s information strategies to dissuade those seeking political asylum in Norway. During his research trip to Kosovo, Karl Ingar Røys met the artist Alban Muja, whose work focuses on the socio-cultural context of his country of origin. Alban Muja presents his video works Palestina and Free Your Mind at Careof.