Born from a dystopian reality – the COVID-19 pandemic -, Human Signs is participatory online art project by Yuval Avital that until today involves 177 performers of voice and gesture, from 46 different countries.
The project begins with Avital’s self-recorded art-testimony in which he expresses with his voice all the feelings experienced during isolation, and replicating the aesthetics of the virus, this mantra travelled throughout the globe entering into the artists’ homes inviting them to respond through voice and gesture –two of the most fundamental forms of human expression.
Among the Human Signs artists there are: vocalists, including some the most celebrated figures of ancient traditions, contemporary and experimental scenes; religious performers from every faith, and key figures of classical and baroque music; and dancers and soloists of leading contemporary dance and ballet companies; choreographers, and visionary performance artists, from every part of the globe.
For the past (six) months, Human Signs presented weekly live streaming of the art-testimonies in dialogue with each other, and with the Human Signs mantra through Avital’s YouTube channel. The dialogues take the form of Ensembles and Constellations, offering complex dynamic compositions, or static frameworks that resemble allegoric frescos with layers of meaning and metaphors to explore.
Since then, Human Signs has been constantly spreading, involving more artists, and shifting towards new forms of proliferation. Inaugurating the Human Signs website-as-a-museum, a portal that becomes a space for you to enter and wander among this chorus of voices and gestures, Human Signs opens the doors of its Living Digital Archive in Manifesta 13 Les Parallèles du Sud.
HUMAN SIGNS LIVE GRID N.1 New York
HUMAN SIGNS LIVE GRID N.2 Донцо, St. Petersburg
HUMAN SIGNS LIVE GRID N.3 Tel Aviv
HUMAN SIGNS LIVE GRID N.4 Bandung
Real Utopias is a proposal by Bianca Cerrina Feroni and Melania Rossi.
