October 15, 2016Strength of sticking together
Collaboration means to put together forces in order to create something great and the story that we are going to tell you today is about a Cracking Art work that represents this idea.
The meerkat was born in a delicate moment of the movement history. The idea of creating this work took shape in 2008 and the impulse was the abandonment of a group member who decided to follow a personal artistic career. The creation of a new artwork in a difficult moment like that meant to reaffirm the importance of the group dimension and to affirm that working as a team could be possible.
The meerkat is a small social animal that communicates the idea of a great collaboration. It lives in families of 20/30 members and represents the ability to adapt to external circumstances because it is able to survive even in the most hostile conditions.
Moreover, the meerkat is a very responsive creature, able to communicate quickly and to be a sentinel within the group, indicating the presence of potential dangers. For this reason the artists decided to represent the animal standing up on its feet in order to guard the surrounding area while the others are involved in the hunt. It’s not a case that in Cracking Art installations the meerkats are curious observers placed in strategic places around the city.
The first Cracking Art installation with meerkats was in 2009 at Sanremo during the period of the Song Festival. The event was titled “Chesa(n)remo” and it was characterized by the presence of six giant rabbits and fifty small meerkats. The idea was to express the uncertainty of the human progress characterized by the opposition between few large powers and a lot of small realities.
Later there were the installations in France at Chartres, Le Mans and Calais or the performances through Siena historic streets or at the wonderful garden in Valsanzibio . Sometimes the meerkats have been associated with messages by the use of signs. This is the case of the ironic “Save the plastic” at Tortona in 2011: an invitation to recycle the plastic giving it new life. Same thing in Bangkok where, after the first attack suffered by the nation in 2015, meerkats brought strong messages of social cohesion in order to create a better world in which to live.
Because in the end the true meaning of collaboration is to share the action of creating and sharing creativity is part of Cracking Art deep nature.
