PLEXUS: An Endless Voyage of Collaboration

PLEXUS is a group of artists who began collaborating in the late 1970s and whose endless artistic voyage continues even now. In 1982, these artists formed PLEXUS, Much of their work was conceptual, evolutionary, and revolutionary, as artists extended themselves into furture renderings of work that was ongoing as dynamic, changing entities.

A historical synopsis can be found on the Internet at Plexus Forum which provides a chronology of events from 1992 to the present time. But the details and the spirit of these dynamic happenings recede into the background, waiting to be restored.

On the website of ISALTA, a recent news release promises to bring these years to life through a new book by Sandro Dernini:

I am pleased to inform you that today, on the 25th anniversary of Plexus (born on June 13 of 1982 in New York), finally I signed a contract with the Academic Press of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” to have published the book Plexus Black Box, A Multicultural Aesthetic Inquiry into an International Community Based Art Project. In the attachment there is the book cover made by Micaela Serino that I really thank for her continuing support in all these years in Rome.
The book will be out at the end of July. It will cost 23 euros and it will be possible to order it directly online from the University of Rome Academic Press.
More info will be posted on www.plexusforum.net.
Artlove, the voyage continues…
Plexus23s
Sandro Dernini

This is good news indeed. It is time that the chronicles of this remarkable arts collaborative project spanning more than two decades are brought into perspective.

I am thinking of one such excursion in which the hallowed halls of academia at New York University were literally transformed into an oasis of contemporary artsmaking, unfolding as a dynamic happening, a continuation of a project called The Serpent.

The Scene: November 11, 1988, New York, Bobst Library of New York University. The Snow Room. Il Viaggio del Serpente, second act of The Serpent, performances by Dinu Ghezzo, Sandro Dernini, Miguel Algarin, Arturo Lindsay, Stephen DiLauro, George Chaikin, Lynne Kanter. It featured an Italian art group show by Marina Cappelletto, Antonia Carmi, Franco Ciarlo, Dionigi Cossu, Ivan Dalla Casa, Baldo Diodato, Cosino Di Leo Ricatto, Roberto Fabricciani, Manuela Filiaci, Dinu Ghezzo, Andrea Grassi, Gianfranco Mantegna, Renato Miceli, Beatrice Muzi, Luca Pizzorno, Renzo Ricchi, Elisabetta Zanelli.

Walking into the space was like undergoing a transformation. A parade of the serpent had begun earlier in the Village and ended on the 12th floor of Bobst, much to the bewilderment of security and the library staff. Suddenly a space that is dedicated to the preservation of past achievements was the locus of activity for the creation of new works. Exhibits and artifacts were scattered throughout the space like a garden of new artistic conceptual works unfolding as the evening progressed. Dinu Ghezzo composed a short work. A violinist performed it on the telephone to a location in Italy where a computer processed the music as a parchment of visual art which was immediately FAXED back to the library where it was installed on the library wall. None of this was linear. These were multitextural utterances, overlapping Time and Space, so that the distinctions were blurred and intermingling.

In these pre-WWW days, the spirit of PLEXUS anticipated the new technology and formed the process that would later be replicated almost effortlessly on the Internet. The 12th floor of Bobst momentarily shimmered like a new work of art emerging from the staid confines of the endless stacks on levels below. The evening was one of music, dance, and artworks forming a splendor of artists connected to the moment.

That moment has faded into the past, and The Snow Room has been recaptured by Academia. If their ears and minds were so attuned, those occupying the space now might hear the resonance of the past filtering through… an endless Voyage of Plexus, still crossing new frontiers of imagination, still intent on reconciling cultures.