Nolens Volens
Apropos
Originating from Latin with volens (willing) and nolens (unwilling), this expression was used in Ancient Rome to describe the fatality of the Gods: whatever we say or do, if something should happen, it would happen. Its meaning spanned centuries, and can be found, today, as willy-nilly, designating the things on which we cannot influence and those which we must undergo.
The work Nolens Volens is a performative installation resulting from a series of workshops which took place in Meyrin, Geneva with a contemporary dance group of seniors , around the relationship between the notion of group games, team formations through collaboration and competition. Inspired by ancestral games such as tug of war or catch games, the workshops aimed to co-develop a new set of rules for a play involving the use of all flags of nations that could be found on the planet which are recognised, or not, by the United Nations.
From these workshops, an immersive happening took place during the opening of the solo exhibition Mordicus in contemporary art space Hall Nord. The remains of the performance took the shape of a sculptural installation resulting in knotted flags exposed on shelving units. This composition thus reveals the abstract and formal quality of the designs of flags lost in an amalgam of symbols.
This work has been shown at
