Coinciding with the 60th Venice Art Biennale 2024, ERA presents Lingua Ignota, a specially commissioned project by established Romanian artist Victoria Zidaru, curated by Adina Drinceanu. The project builds on a two year program done in collaboration with the Istituto della Pietà and it is supported by Valorizzazioni Culturali Group, Romanian Cultural Institute in Venice and Ferma de Arte.

Lingua Ignota emphasizes Victoria Zidaru’s artistic vision, which over the past four decades has reinvented and transcended historical textile art paradigms by integrating vegetal textures and olfactory elements with conceptual and sensuous dimensions. Her multidisciplinary approach encompasses large scale installation, sculptures, performance.

The concept of the project expands upon the artist’s vision to explore an interconnected approach to knowledge, bridging ecological, spiritual, and collective actions in an intimate and urgent dialogue with environmental justice challenges.

Lingua Ignota unfolds in two interconnected acts:

An immersive performance on April 15th at the Archivi della Misericordia;

A site-specific large scale installation in the garden of the Istituto della Pietà, inaugurating on May 11th and open to the public until 29 of September.

The project is complemented by ‘Donate a Word’, a series of collective actions through pedagogy and participation that reflect on the relationship between healing, nature, and spirituality.

Victoria Zidaru’s artistic lexicon is deeply entrenched in the vernacular of her native Bucovina, employing vegetal materials, words, embroidery, sewing, and braiding as conduits of expression. Her practices are embedded in the rhythms and cycles of natural life and gestures of ancient rituals, emphasizing the importance of organic materials such as cords of aromatic herbs, leaves, seeds, among many others. Through her multidisciplinary practice, Zidaru advocates for a sustainable, interconnected form of knowledge, rich with the sacral undertones of ancient rituals and the organic essence of the natural world.

Lingua Ignota draws inspiration from writings and sonic images of Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th-century figure renowned for her mystical, theological, and ecological insights. The project’s title, “Lingua Ignota,” references Hildegard’s innovative linguistic creation, a form of literacy aimed to reach a state of linguistic plenitude by capturing a holistic spiritual and natural wisdom. This language, featured in her seminal work “Riesencodex,” represents an early attempt at constructing a language that transcends traditional modes of expression, offering a medium for exploring the divine and the natural world.