19 September 2020 – Habitat /scenari possibili, “Cultural Aperitif” curated by Francesca Guerisoli, Cernusco sul Naviglio, Milan.
“…after distributing the masks, Chiara Mu goes back to the microphone, opening some pages which look like notes. She begins a heartfelt reading of the words of two people to their loved ones. Immediately something happens in my head, like a click. Simultaneously my body is being hit by shivering waves. I find myself catapulted into a state of emotional seclusion, it is as if I were in that room. Submerged by the smoke that advances, by the heat that floods the air. I feel displaced and translated through this very simple act, promoted by the sense of smell and hearing like I am in the Grenfell Tower. I am petrified, amazed, in the moment I am Marco, I am Gloria in their last phone call, like all the victims of the Triangle factory, of the Twin Towers, of any fire that has excluded a life. Only the tears that are now falling bring me back to my comfortable present, as if to extinguish that emotional fire, but inside me a wound has opened for the inhuman and terrifying experience that affected all the deceased people. I would like to remain in silence, letting the echo of those voices slowly slip away.”
Nicolas Ceruti, Artistic Director of RAMI (Multidisciplinary Artistic Residency Ilinxarium) and Habitat-Scenari Possibili Festival, Milan, Italy
I was invited to take part in a live event about Public Art at Cernusco sul Naviglio (Lombardy, Italy) with the task to explore the concept of “transmission” in Art; I produced an exercise for the public to be involved with.
After the exercise, I explained how associating sensoriality and emotional content was my key to connect everyone in perceiving, albeit for a few moments only, the same imaginary with all the emotional drifts that stemmed from it. We analysed together the value of having overturned the use of the mask which, from being an item of PPE and an element of separation between people, had become an element of sharing, a “bridge” (as defined by a participant) for an intense, collective experience.
credits: Serafina Melone, Francesca Guerisoli, Nicolas Ceruti