The Art Journey of Plexus International Continues
In the 1980s, during a period of significant cultural vibrancy and artistic experimentation, Plexus International was born in New York and later expanded to Dakar, Cagliari, Rome, and Amsterdam. It was founded by a diverse group of artists who, rejecting the dynamics of the art world and market, sought a different space-time to freely share ideas and experiment, aboard a metaphorical ship of art slaves, beyond the limitations of existing artistic scenes.
From 1983 to 2023, Plexus has carried out numerous collaborative projects in various parts of the world, bringing together musicians, visual artists, performers, poets, theatre actors, dancers, playwrights, scholars, and community activists. These projects have involved both established names and emerging artists (a complete list can be found at www.plexusinternational.org). These events, which have characterized Plexus's journey and included over 1,000 artists, remain an unexplored part of contemporary art history.
This eclectic collaborative mix has become the hallmark of Plexus's artistic events, creating an atmosphere full of inspiration, where ideas flowed freely like a river in the creation of a unique form of collaborative art known as "The Plexus Art Co-Opera."
The Art Co-Operas have been the distinctive feature of Plexus's journey, uniting diverse communities of artists with varying visions and artistic forms, while also providing opportunities for art networking among the public on pressing issues such as human rights, peace, biodiversity loss, desertification, and the value of cultural diversity. In 2008, they launched a call for the Safeguarding of Cultural and Natural Heritage of Humanity from the House of Slaves in Goree, Dakar, symbolizing the erosion of our historical memory.
Over the years, various interactions with new communication technologies have also been explored during this journey:
- In 1987, within the framework of the art co-op “Serpente di Pietra" in Gavoi, Sardinia, digital exchanges occurred via the Bitnet network between the Dax Group of Carnegie Mellon University and the Physics Department of the University of Cagliari, before the advent of the internet.
- In the 1990s, as part of the "Navigating Global Cultures" project between New York University, the University of Cagliari, and Cooper Union in New York, there were fax communications and slow scan motion digital face-to-face exchanges.
- In the 2000s, from 2004 to 2019, the construction of Metr'Art was undertaken, featuring 935 digital artworks from 469 artists worldwide, reproduced on photocopies and connected as they traveled between Dakar, Cairns (Australia), Lecce, Rome, Dakar, Rio de Janeiro, and Jerusalem.
- In 2014 and 2015, the "Cargos Art & Food with no Borders" project involved hybrid virtual and real events among Cairns, Cagliari, and Rome, with Skype connections to Dakar, Jerusalem, New York, Santa Fe, and Barcelona.
- In 2018, within the art opera “The Butterfly – The Return of Art in the Community”, at the Macro – Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, Plexus virtually connected the project of the Atelier des Arts des Enfants de la Medina of Dakar, with the community initiative Carovana SMI in Cagliari with the Center for Australasian Theater in Cairns, Australia with the online transmission of the 935 digital works of the Plexus Metr'Art.
The underlying premise of all Plexus International activities has been the belief that fostering a more conscious understanding of the value of diverse artistic practices and the role of art as a sustainable community resource could significantly strengthen the mutual respect needed to coexist with diversity and face the challenges our planet is confronting together.
Each Plexus event took place in its own present, made up by recalls of past concepts and activities, while projecting itself into the future, in which art, like food, is an essential element for our evolution.
In a global world where different values and cultures are increasingly clashing, Plexus International offers an open model of art that allows for global participation even for small and distant communities, often separated yet sometimes close to one another.
The journey of Plexus continues in 2024 from Sorano, Maremma Toscana.