James Luna at the Venice Biennale, 2005

Luna will present a complex three-part work titled Emendatio, the Latin root for emendation, defined as the act of altering for the better, or correcting what is erroneous or faulty; improvement; removal of errors or corruption. Like Luna’s previous performance and installation work, Emendatio is multifaceted, incorporating audiovisual elements, video projections and layered screens, photographs, found objects, dance and audience participation. The exhibition honors a Luiseño Indian, sent in 1834, from a California mission to Rome, where he died seven years later, leaving behind a written history of his people.
Emendatio recalls and renews historical, geographic and cultural links between Italy and indigenous America and connections between past and present. It continues a discourse initiated by artist Fred Wilson in his 2003 Venice Biennale exhibition, Speak of Me as I Am, which examined historical connections between Venice and Africa. Emendatio is curated by National Museum of the American Indian curators, Truman Lowe and Paul Chaat Smith.


Artists

James Luna at the Venice Biennale, 2005