Arabesque Special Limited Edition official launch in New York
Following the pre-launch in Miami during the long-awaited American edition of Art Basel in December 2021, D'ORO Collection now officially presents Dara Birnbaum’s "Arabesque Special Limited Edition ⓒ 2021" at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York.
"Arabesque Special Limited Edition ⓒ 2021" is the first work in the D'ORO D'ART project. It will be unveiled and illustrated in every single detail on March 22.
The presentation will describe the intimate value and cultural importance of the artwork discussing how it originated and developed, requiring over two years of work and being the result of an unusual but at the same time innovative and inspiring collaboration between both sides of the Ocean.
Dara Birnbaum is expected to take part in the event: using a creative adaptation process, the artist took on the challenge of transforming her original four-channel video Arabesque (2011) into the first D'ORO D'ART artwork: Arabesque Special Limited Edition ⓒ 2021, a single-channel video in vertical book format. Dara will expand on her personal view of the project, explaining its deep meaning and the future impact of this type of artwork. She will talk about her approach to the artwork for creating something magic, not only as an object, but also as a concept, illustrating the new meaning of video art inside a D’ORO D’ART book.
In the video, sound and image are integrated, and together retrace the love and artistic relationship of Robert and Clara Schumann. Birnbaum brought together selections from films of performances of Robert Schumann’s Arabesque Opus 18 and from films of Clara Schumann’s Romanze 1, Opus 11. She juxtaposed these clips with still images made from footage of the 1947 film about the Schumanns, Song of Love, which tellingly features only Robert Schumann's Arabesque Opus 18. Birnbaum’s Arabesque delicately reflects on the troubled love relationship of Robert and Clara Schumann, a love relationship closely linked to music, as they are both pianists.
Alongside Birnbaum, Salvatore Giorgio Dino, CEO of D'ORO Collection and creator of the D'ORO D'ART project, will explain how the idea of a book that is a true work of video art came about. A journey behind the scenes of an artwork which is the result of the creative mind of Birnbaum, but also of the work of masterful artisans with unique abilities, capable of innovating in full respect of the traditions that have been handed down for generations.
Of course, both curators of the project will also make their contribution to the official launch of Arabesque Special Limited Edition ⓒ 2021: Barbara London, founder of the Department of Video Art at MoMA in New York, and Valentino Catricalà, curator of the Soda Gallery in Manchester, who will join the event online from the United Kingdom.
London and Catricalà will bring their first-hand accounts of an experience that was "the first" for everyone. A video art book had never been produced before and the professionalism of these two great curators played a fundamental role. Profound knowledge at the service of an absolute novelty, a challenge that both London and Catricalà welcomed and developed at their best, for an artistic, international and cultural project.
Indeed, the D’ORO D’ART project started with their choice of Dara Birnbaum, an important pioneer of video art, one of the artists that most inspired the future generations towards a political and ethical critique of the world of media images. This precise choice meant that the direction of the project is not only in space but also in time. It means launching an innovative project with an artist who represents the history of this form of expression and who can still tell us a lot about our contemporary times.
