Kozyra

madonna from pelago

madonna from pelago

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squated Road Festival in Pelago,
July 2005

The small Tuscan town of Pelago (home of the Fondazione Lanfranco Baldi) and the surrounding hills were the site of the artist's first procession, which combined elements of a religious pageant and a traveling folk festival. Four men carried a bier upon which stood a figure. Though modeled after iconographic portrayals of the Madonna standing on a crescent moon, the figure wore the facemask of Kozyra and held an open umbrella in its hands. Leading the procession was the Maestro, wearing a rat mask and a purple cardinal's robe, dancing to the rhythms of Olympia's aria from Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffman played on portable speakers. At the top of a hill, the figure disappeared and observers saw a blue raincoat soar into the sky. Kozyra then appeared as a cocotte, wearing a deep cut dress, feathers in her hair and heavy make-up. Conducted by the Maestro in his purple cardinal's robe, she performed the Queen of the Night's aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute. As in Fassadenconcerto, so here the artist freely sampled and combined elements from various poetics and realities.