Tate St Ives - Rivane Neuenschwander 'I wish your wish'

Images Moving Out Onto Space

'What happens when art works are set in motion? When they move around the gallery or out into the world? Images Moving Out Onto Space is an exhibition that asks these questions. The galleries are animated by light, colour and movement, and are full of bodies in all kinds of different states: flattened and fragmented, illuminated and reflected'.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/exhibition/images-moving-out-space

 Tate St Ives has a fascinating and interactive installation entitled "I Wish Your Wish" by artist Rivane Neuenschwander. Fantastic exhibition - the colour and visual impact is great and then as you read the ribbons and realsie that these are peoples wishes makes it seem very special. Selecting your 'wish' from the wall and then adding your own wish to continue the exhibition seems a real responsibility - very thought provoking what we individually wish for and the sadness, mystery and fun behind some of the short wishes.

Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander’s large-scale participatory work I Wish Your Wish consists of thousands of multicoloured ribbons each stamped with one of 60 wishes that have been gathered from local residents over the last few months. Visitors are invited to take a ribbon from the installation in the hope that when it falls, the wish upon it will be granted.  In this way the installation encourages a literal movement of the work into the space of the gallery, the town and beyond.

Neuenschwander has drawn upon elements of her cultural heritage and created a regenerating project based on a ritual that takes place in the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim, the most famous Catholic church in Salvador, Brazil. At the church, religious believers tie a silk ribbon either around their wrists or at the gates in the belief that their wishes will come true once the ribbon has fallen away. Neuenschwander's installation has adapted this concept and when you enter the room you are bedazzled by over 10,000 brightly coloured ribbons hanging from the walls. 

Each ribbon has one of approximately sixty wishes printed on it, such as "I wish my life wasn't so screwed up," "I wish I had a turtle and that there were no wars," "I wish I had more time for myself," and "I wish I had magical powers."

Participants are invited to take a ribbon and then in return you are expected to write your own wish on a piece of paper and put it in the hole on the wall from which you took the ribbon. In following with the tradition, you are supposed to wear the ribbon until it wears away, and then your wish is said to come true.

Neuenschwander then prints the written wishes onto new ribbons and thus the project sustains itself.