Site-Specific Project, collective exhibition: “Nonostante Tutto” (In spite of everything), curated by Raffaele Gavarro, OltreDimore Gallery, Bologna
The exhibition’s theme was based on the concept of the artist’s unconditional offering towards his/her viewer in spite of everything, in spite of today’s adverse economical conditions and in spite of the (Italian) cultural impoverishment which often makes the artist work not effective, not “embraced”. I focused my intervention on the viewer as subject and object of a constrained time and space, trying to establish a possible dialogue between my work and the experience of a psychoanalytic therapy’s session. I placed my installation in the gallery’s bathroom. I offered one viewer at the time my gift to him / her, saying: “I would like to offer you three minutes of the unconscious, here, behind this door. I am giving you this timer, already set to three minutes, so please do not change it. You are free to visit the space and do what you like in it, but please leave it as soon as you hear the timer beeping”.
Behind the door there was darkness, a mirror and a black sink, three wisdom teeth on it under a spot light and a second door, partially closed. Behind the second door there was even more darkness and, at the very end of the space, a 8 years old girl sitting in the corner and reading a book under a small white light. The girl was instructed to say “ask me” every time a viewer would enter the room. If he/she replied something, she would close the book and its light, then in complete darkness she would light up a candle and she would respond to every question the viewer would ask her until the timer would beep. Afterwards she would blow out the candle and then resume her reading.
credits:
Emma Di Ienno, Manuela Gavagnin,
Valentina Amendola, Andrea Silvestrini