Dr. SANDRO DERNINI: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PLEXUS

My adventure with Sandro began decades ago, when I encountered him as the doctoral student of my colleague Dr. David Ecker. Sandro came to NYU already in possession of a PhD in Biology, but he was engaged in the art of life, and all forces conspired in the 70s-90s as to make NYU the place where new interactive artists gathered to enshrine proactive art as the shaping energy of artists around the world. Sandro Dernini articulated a destiny that seemed to have its own efficacy. This personal covenant matched perfectly with David Ecker's commitment to phenomenology and qualitative research. It was David Ecker, who in the 1990s launched Navigating Global Cultures. It was in that context and energy of Sandro Dernini founding Plexus that a series of events unfolded which brought Sandro and myself back together in recent times. I created a video I DO NOT KNOW and submitted art to participate in Plexus celebration at the MACRO Museum of Modern Art on December 12, 2018.

Sandro writes of our initial collaborations and the necessity of charting a new course in the wake of COV-19 Pandemic:Within the collaboration on  Navigating Global Cultures between New York University and University of Cagliari,  in 1995, for the 100th Anniversary of the Guglielmo Marconi's discovery of the Radio, Plexus International was launched.
THE OPEN CALL FOR THE WELL BEING IN THE XXI CENTURY (21 September 1995, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy)

WE ARE A SINGLE, INTERDEPENDENT, WORLD-WIDE SPECIE.

WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT, WE ARE INTIMATELY BOUND UP WITH EACH OTHER AROUND EARTH.EAST AND WEST, NORTH AND SOUTH, OUR FATE IS LINKED TOGETHER.THUS A GLOBAL VIEW OF HUMAN HEALTH IS MORE ESSENTIAL NOW THEN EVEN BEFORE.”(Introductory statement by the Chairman of the 37th Assembly of the World Health Organization, on the Role of Universities for the Health for All, Geneva, 15 May 1984)

HEALTH is defined by the WHO (World Health Organization of the United Nations) as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

In the light of the current Covid-19 crisis, more then even, there is a need for a change of route, from the disease to the well-being by not only thinking to manage this pandemic or the next ones  with vaccines but with a more complete state of well-being, as stated in the WHO definition of health.  Therefore, a more multidimensional cultural navigation  is needed for changing the current dominant paradigm of health as presence or absence of diseases or infirmity.  Let's collaborate all together for a new Well-Being World, to be launched  on Human Rights Day 2020, 10 December, with a global artists.

Extract From David Ecker's paper “Cultural Navigations”presented at the International Forum “The Well Being in the XXIst Century, held in Carloforte, Sardinia, Italy, in 1992.

The idea of a kind of “cultural navigation” arose out of this initial discussion, the notion that what was required of us was to re-think the significance of Columbus’s landing in the light of a new global awareness of interdependence.  Further meetings generated a veritable “fleet” of proposals.  One of these proposals, made by Dr. Sandro Dernini of Plexus International, is now reaching fruition, a Reconciliation Forum to address the question of what will constitute well-being in the 21st Century for all the inhabitants of the globe.   For many of us, the initial idea of cultural navigation led quickly to the question of cultural identity.  

The nutritional, social, ethical and economic aspects of well-being will undoubtedly receive critical attention in the proceedings of the Forum.  But surely the artistic and aesthetic dimensions of life as we live it must figure in any formulation of a comprehensive vision of well-being. 

The arts make visible our cultural identity and provide a direct measure of the vitality of the culture in which a particular art object or event is embedded.  It follows that the arts have a special role to play in relation to the well-being of the members of each of the cultures of the world.

For one organization represented here, ISALTA, it is not enough to document the arts in their cultural settings, but to take steps to enhance the arts and thus the quality of the lives people live.  The name of this intentional group states its purpose:  The International Society for the Advancement of Living Traditions in Art.  Historically,  artistic decline accompanies the loss of cultural identity.  The felt need to preserve the meaning of a tradition in modern life is directly proportional to the loss of spiritual and material well-being of the artists and artisans sustaining their own cultures. Western solutions to the world’s misery, suffering, and destruction have tended in the 20th Century to be technological and humanistic, whereas earlier they tended to be religious or political solutions.  In the name of science, human nature, or God, the assumption underlying these solutions is that they transcend culture and have universal efficacy.  In contrast, we believe that the very meaning of “doing good for others” is culture-bound, as is the word “art”.

Cultural crises, whether caused by natural or man-made, whether caused by forces from outside or within a particular culture, are ideally to be resolved on the terms set by the affected culture.  What this ideal suggests is that there should be no “privileged discourse” in multicultural exchanges.  Communication on both “inside” and “outside” understandings of issues affecting well-being in the 21st Century must be encouraged from all cultural perspectives.  

PLEXUS, as founded by Sandro has sustained many incarnations through world-wide initiatives. Perhaps one of the most recent undertakings was the world wide celebration of Human Rights Day, December 12, 2018.  With Plexus, Sandro with many colleagues, and especially David Ecker, established many living traditions and challenged past cultural inequities and crimes against humanity.

 MACRO is the equivalent of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but maybe slightly higher rating for being more on the leading edge of arts movements and trends. It is an impressive structure that invites large scale installations, and PLEXUS represented a large scale installation of multiple artists as well as a connection with other sides via the Internet and projected as part of the happenings at MACRO. Human Right's Day as celebrated by PLEXUS was a collage of sight, sound, touch, and technology that unfolded in the spirit of a happening as those in attendance were treated to an abundance of simultaneous activities throughout the museum. Maestro Riccardo Santoboni with his magical trombone, often provided musical commentary as well as leading spontaneous parades through the space. Bodies entrapped in mummy-like encasings wandered through the space until they spontaneously erupted in breaking free of the shackles through dancing and celebrations as they moved from confinement to freedom.

Participating Artists in PLEXUS Human Rights Day at MACRO.

This celebration at MACRO was an extraordinary happening, not unlike those of earlier days when spontaneous eruptions of collaborating artists created unique events throughout New York City in unexpected places such as abandoned buildings, warehouses, theaters, and the Projects. This group photo is on the outside steps of MACRO around 9 p.m. as HUMAN RIGHTS DAY wound down to a close, having begun as a celebration 12 hours earlier, but even a day before December 12, as they installed their works throughout the museum. An almost infinite continuum or trail of artworks submitted to be archived by PLEXUS could be seen throughout the space, followed as a path through the other installations. To document, I made a video of my tracing the path through the museum, but as I walked came upon showings or happenings that were taking place by the many collaborating artists. In many ways, this visitors that came to witness the event became a part of the installation, so that in fact, everyone became a work of art as they shared this extraordinary moment in time. In this sense, everyone was a collaborator, an instigator and reveler in this spontaneous interaction of shimmering facets of activity.

This is why I felt compelled to not let this celebration go unnoticed. It seems more than coincidence that as I left IMPACT and started to chart a new course for my post NYU career, that independently I came up with ARC (ARTS RENAISSANCE COLLABORATIVE), as a new path to pursue and research all I learned in collaboration with faculty, staff, participants, and students during my time at New York University. How stunning a revelation to see the flag raised by PLEXUS as the ARK of WELL-BEING. How well this Ark serves the dedication to the ideas launched in the 90s for NAVIGATING GLOBAL CULTURES. My own sense of ARC, also saw the metaphor of a vessell, but in addition the sense that ARC represents connection, a span to the future and well-being, but also as energy, that spark that ignites a revolution of BEING and MEANING. In these troubling times, Sandro Dernini's quest to maintain PLEXUS as Arts Advocacy for Human Rights and Well-Being has kept the organization at the forefront of relevant metaphysical and spiritual inquiry.