torna a casa
TNT machine-stitched, 2009

torna a casa, a sculpture/performance, takes form during a 48 hours residency in the underground passage in bologna as part of the performing group show WASTED curated by MK/Xing in march 2008. several artists were invited to share a space for two days reflecting about the living unit.
I spent my time working for the first 40 hours building an object (as a performance) and the last 4 hours showing it to the audience.
torna a casa has been realized through some accurate indications:
the night before the performance, in the intimacy of my house, I made a 3D model about 50cm long, assembled using a singer sewing-machine. the form has been inspired by: 1) the inside of pyramids, 2) various pictures of some catacombs, 3) personal memories of some dark rooms.
I spent the day after using: 1) a roll of dark white TNT, 2) a singer sewing-machine, 3) a pair of scissors, 4) a metro 5) few paper tape rolls, 6) a manual of male technical application, in order to replicate, in the human scale, the little 3D model made the night before.
the work has been reproduced cutting and stitching every part with no measurement tools (only by sight), the manual of technical application was the only tool for referencing to the forms volume.
at first the sculpture was assembled together and then raised as a whole piece. the object doesn’t have a rigid structure inside and stands up with a series of ribbons made of the same material as the sculpture and fixed at the ceiling with the paper tape.
what I was interested in wasn’t only the final form but also all the physical acts of its on-going realization and, like a live performance, without any possibility to go over all the mistakes which are evident, if necessary, in its final shape.
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