Photos by Alexis Macklin
Phoenix welcomed two visiting Italian artists who organized the “Celebration of the Living” procession that moved through the streets downtown Phoenix on Saturday.
Greg Esser from the ASU Art Museum International Artist Residency Program and director for the Desert Initiative said this event has been going on for several years in Italy, but it was the first time it was hosted in the United States. Esser said the project began in the village of Lecce in Italy in 2010 by a group of artists called Lu Cafausu.
Esser said the procession was put together with help from the Windgate Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“We are using the support of the students and nonprofit philanthropy innovation, and we are also working with the school of art and school of dance,” he said.
Artists and members of the procession pushed a car containing a sheet of red velvet with names of the deceased being remembered. The Bad Cactus Brass Band led the way with a low, solemn jazz tune.
The procession started on Third and Garfield streets and ended at Saint Mary’s Basilica on Third and Monroe streets. The car was pushed through the entire path.
The final part of the procession involved the Saint Mary’s choir singing from Mozart’s Requiem on an outdoor balcony of the Basilica.
Esser said the Art Museum had been working to put this project together for more than a year. The museum chose the two Italian artists, Emilio Fantin and Giancarlo Norese, based on their interesting backgrounds.
“They were two very accomplished and compelling artists,” Esser said.
Esser said the two artists were part of a bigger group of five artists. He said the other three artists were in different countries working on their own projects.
Norese said they didn’t know anybody in Phoenix when they arrived here and that it was a very different experience from what they have previously done in Italy.
“It’s so strange for us, because the life and the visual landscapes are different from Europe. Everything is spread out. Even the perception of reality is different,” he said.
Fantin, who has been in the United States multiple times in places such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, said he enjoyed Phoenix.
“Here in Phoenix, there is a different situation for me and the entire collective, because there is a sort of emptiness in downtown that is filled by new ideas, artists who want to make projects, news, small bars and shops,” he said. “You walk down the street and don’t see anybody, but there are a lot of people making things.”
The artists had different ideas about what they hoped the procession and celebration would do for people and how they felt about it in general.
Fantin said it could be a symbolic event for everyone, not just for artists.
“It could be a new way for people to contact the dead and have a dialogue with the dead. We want to think about the dead in a (happy) way,” he said. “I hope we can share this to the people here.”
Norese said that it “wasn’t a proper art project.” He also said he and Fantin would have liked to do something else.
Lauren Mislove and Gary Allred-Hudspeth, two students from the College of Public Programs, were part of the celebration preparation. The two, along with other students, helped organize the reception held before the procession began.
Mislove said it was a pleasure working with the artists.
“It was cool working with people who were on the visionary side of it, while we were on the functional side of it,” she said.
She also said she has learned a lot about how community can be influenced by these projects.
“This has really shown me how much community activism can come from art,” she said. “It really brings together the fact that art can be expressed in so many different ways from so many different people. It doesn’t have to just be artists making art.”
Allred-Hudspeth also said he enjoyed working on the project. He said it was interesting to see how the artists put it together in relation to understanding the city and its different cultural aspects.
“It’s always nice to explore other people’s perceptions, especially when you get a different culture involved,” he said.
Contact the reporter at jadelaud@asu.edu
