Future Tense / Past Tensions

A Proposal for the Guggenheim Museum Venice

The artwork, Future Tense/Past Tensions began when American artist, Deanna Sirlin began collaborating with Venetian Architect Monica Trevisan in a desire to create a 3 dimensional painting using the new technology Sirlin had developed in her past works of art. Trevisan and Sirlin were soon joined by well known composer by Giuseppe Gavazza from Turin. His sound composition would add to the dimensionality and content of the work.

Future Tense/Past Tensions stems from consideration of the meaning that an installation could have in a very specific place: the terrace roof of the Palazzo Venier, home to the Venice Guggenheim collection. The main idea of the installation is the bonds between time and place mixing the thematic junctures of present/future tense and past/future tensions; the installation will interpret these temporal dimensions in space, sound and color in a way that fuses the three artists' different memories and experiences. The three artists have sought to create an artwork that echos the Guggenheim Museum Venice, its architecture, history, placement, structure and collection. They will map their relationship to the Palazzo dei Leoni each within their own discipline, coming together to articulate ideas about time and space in relation to each other. They will each appropriate and sample the aspects of the Guggenheim significant to them.