SANDFORD&GOSTI Visual Art Performance

SANDFORD&GOSTI, a renowned artistic duo from our sister city Perugia, are recognized worldwide for their innovative work. In October we were lucky enough to have them bring their captivating 15-minute bilingual performance "Vocabolario: Construction Grammar Geode 2" to Seattle as part of their acclaimed global journey. An enthusiastic audience at the Women's University Club watched the artists break apart papier-mâché “geodes” made from two iconic dictionaries, the Nuovo Zingarelli and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Jodi Sandford read random English words from the insides of these geodes, in which the dictionary pages represented the crystal core of volcanic rocks, and Valter Gosti intoned Italian ones, and the artists contrasted Carlo Levi’s idea that “words are stones” with the "sticks and stones" of English proverb. The piece ultimately advocated nonviolence and constructive language.

This performance, part of Giornata del Contemporaneo (Italy's "Day of Contemporary Art") was supported by AMACI (Association of Italian Contemporary Art Museums), the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, and Italy's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, promoting Italian contemporary art worldwide.