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EROSIONS AND RENAISSANCE SHOW

Plexus International is a network of artists and scientists, that since its beginnings in early ‘80s has created many community-based cross-cultural experimental art & science events, involving on some occasions hundreds of participants across Europe, Africa, Australia and Americas. It has played a seminal role in numerous institutional scientific projects, linking the notion of "art" - as a resource for sustainable development - to the concept of "well being", as a human right for all to enhance the quality of life in the community.

The Plexus International traveling event “Erosions and Renaissance Show” is a global cultural navigation project to raise attention on the increasing forms of “erosions” underway in our living Earth planet. It is focused on the cultural mapping of the dramatic sea erosion of the Door of No Return of the House of the Slaves in the island of Goree ( Dakar), Senegal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as symbolic “erosions” of humankind universal memory, of all types of erosions, from human rights to biodiversity and living traditions.

“Erosion”: This category includes not only genetic erosion and the erosion of species, soils and the atmosphere, but also the erosion of local knowledge, cultural diversity, living traditions , and the global erosion of human and civil rights, freedom and peace . We are losing biological resources and traditional knowledge relating to the management of ecosystems and biodiversity”

The Erosions and Renaissance Show, traveling on board the Ark of the Well Being, from 2004 to 2006, has been staged in Dakar, Ballarat ( Australia), Lecce ( Italy), Rome, New York, Barcellona, Dakar, Las Palmas, Sassari ( Sardinia).

Act I was presented in Dakar, Senegal in June 2004 at the 2° Triangle de l’Art Festival. It called attention to the sea erosion at the “Door of No Return” in the House of Slaves on Goree Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as a symbol of all humankind erosions.

Act II was staged in Ballarat, Australia in December 2004 for the Eureka Rising Rebel Festival by Culture Lab International. It called attention to the erosion of Aboriginal living traditions, symbolically represented by a sacred emu eggs site in the Maroota Plateau, in the Blue Mountains.

Act III started in Lecce, Italy, in May 2005 at the Academy of Fine Arts. It ended on October 1 2005, at the National Academy of Dance in Rome, in collaboration with the Food Science Institute of the University La Sapienza of Rome. This Act has the aim to highlight the erosion of the healthy Mediterranean lifestyle and the growing prevalence of childhood obesity.

The Act IV started in New York on December 10, 2005, Human Rights Day. It concluded in Barcelona on March 8, 2006, International Women’s Day.

The Act V l anded on May 14, 2006 at the Door of No Return of the House of the Slaves in the Island of Goree and measured the advancement of its sea erosion. The documentation together with the reproduction of all artists’ digital contributions arrived from all over the world, were exhibited at the ancient city hall of the Medina of Dakar, on the occasion of the 3 rd Triangle of Art Festival,held from May 19-21, 2006, within the “DakArtOff” of the 7° Biennale of Contemporary African Art. It concluded in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, on July 21, 2006, at the House of Christopher Columbus, on the occasion of the training seminar, Advancements on Nutrition and Obesity, organized by Research Group on Nutrition of the University of Las Palmas University in collaboration with Nutricion sin Fronteras.

The Act VI landed on November 24, 2006 in Sassari, Sardinia, to call for attention on the increasing desertification in Africa and in the Mediterranean area

Door of No Return at the House of the Slaves in Goree ( Senegal) became for Plexus a symbolic portal for repatriation of art and memory, especially of the diaspora of slavery, back into the communities from where the works and their cultural history were harvested.

In 1988, in Gorèe, Dakar, Plexus International presented at the House of the Slaves, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Manifesto Art Slavery on board of a metaphoric artists slave ship as a statement against any form of human slavery. S ince 2002, at the House of the Slaves, every two years, Plexus International is measuring and mapping with exactitude, certified by the Mr. Joseph NDiaye, the House’s curator, the advancement of the sea erosion in front to the Door of No Return, as symbol as symbolic “erosion” of humankind universal memory. In 2008, it will be 20 years that Plexus International is keeping attention on the erosion of the House of the Slaves.

LE VOYAGE CONTINUE