Adoration

Adoration (censored version) is a collaboration between French artist Pauline Curnier Jardin, curator Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and the Venetian cooperative Rio Terà dei Pensieri, which helps reintegrate convicts into the working world. For its presentation at Venice LIAF - Lofoten International Art Festival, the curators invited the artist to create a project with the sixty inmates of the Giudecca Women＇s Detention Center.

The video, whose script and animations were created by the artist and the inmates, is inspired by the history of the prison structure, which was once the Monastery of the Converted. Here, starting in the 16th century, the nuns, mainly former prostitutes, performed in theatrical performances for the citizenry during Carnival. The nuns wore lay clothes for the festivities, and for a moment were able to suspend the social rules that＇d forced them into a monastic life.