The boat is almost ready for its next mission,
but I decided to head to Naples without it, to see my friend Siebren Versteeg.
He is participating in an art project at the Palzzo della Arti in Naples called ‘Emergency Room’ by the Danish artist Thierry Geoffroy.
The idea is that artists come every day and make work in relation to current events – ’emergencies’.
As an artist,Siebren is a great choice to participate in ‘Emergency Room’. His program based sculptures sometimes incorporate actual live news feeds – like this piece from 2003. It looks like a video of text scrolling by in the ‘coca-cola’ font, but actually it is a computer program that culls the internet for Asociated Press headlines and passes them continually across the screen.
He told me about the projects they had done over the past week and we tried to come up with something good for the following day. The story that I had been following in the news was about an American sea captain held for ransom off the coast of Somalia.
“I guess we have to take over the gallery – hold it for ransom.” suggested Siebren.
“I think this might be in violation of some of the rules of ‘Emergency Room’.” I worried.
“You can’t make art about piracy without breaking the rules,” said Siebren.
What should our demands be? What are the pirates asking for? It has to be something huge and impossible.
No one gets in here until there is free wireless internet access throughout the museum…
“If we had internet access, we could find out what is happening with Captain Richard Philips.” I said.
“How can a cultural institution expect its employees to research without reliable access to the internet?” wondered Siebren.
We could hear people on the other side of the barricade. They wanted in.
Negotiations started out amicably enough,
but broke down rapidly.
Soon the other artists removed the barricade and came in.
I suppose if we really wanted to get the internet up and running, I would have threatened to kill Siebren if anyone came into the gallery.
In a discussion later, one of the other artists said that he didn’t really see how our act related to piracy. As an artwork, it didn’t seem commensurate with the events in the Indian Ocean. No shit – I was thinking.
But Siebren spoke articulately about the piece – about how an art project can be scaled in relation to the museum and this specific situation.
Later that afternoon, we headed down to the coast – a spot recommended by one of the artists.
There were people grilling fish and playing ball.
It was hard to believe that 4228 miles away (by boat through the Suez Canal), Captain Richard Phillips was being held for ransom in a small life raft.
Can this even be the same ocean?
We walked back into Naples as the sun was setting,
and admired the boats and buildings piled up against its shores.
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