Ritratto Continuo mod. 3.375.020.000
In Ritratto continuo mod. 3.375.020.000 the number refers to the approximate total female population in the world and is a collective video portrait in which the women, cumulatively as well as individually, express a new concept of social identity centered on individual originality, on the vital strength of women, and on the typically female conviction that they can have a positive influence on the future of the world.
The artist asks every woman who participates to reflect on her identity and her role, and to sum it up by performing a symbolic gesture: to dirty her hands in order to propel a message well beyond the confines of the video itself.
Why ask participants to “get their hands dirty”?
It is an invitation to take action, express themselves, put themselves on the line, tell their stories, take a decision. The women write a message on their hands and cast it towards future generations.
As Miriam Mirolla explains in her critical essay: “These are all woman who, with different means, have found a pathway to establishing their identities and now, following the simple, friendly indications of the artist, enact, with pride and self-awareness, those parts of themselves that are symbolically the strongest: their faces, their bodies, their thoughts.”
How is the written message arrived at?
Each sentence springs from a free choice on the part of the participants; then the sharing and writing of the messages on their hands is arrived at with the artist, in an artistic process that is simultaneously an intimate and a collaborative action, which the artist calls “the journey of identity”.
How does the action unfold?
It is a ritual, silent, slow, hypnotic performance: sitting on a swiveling chair, the participant is seen from behind, she then turns and finally she shows the message written directly onto her hands. The video portrait, carefully fashioned in every detail of color, light and shot, acquires that extraordinary monumental quality typical of ancient statues seen from below.
Ritratto continuo mod. 3.375.020.000, is a collective video-portrait that includes all the women in the world. All the video portraits, each 90 seconds long, are edited together in sequence, with no sound. The overall length depends on the number of video portraits made and so far there are about 300. It is a work that has built up over a number of months, to be viewed by the public over a period of time that is protracted, cyclical, and random. The final result speaks a direct narrative language with strong visual impact, the contents of which are uncertain; these become manifest only cumulatively, portrait after portrait.
The artist asks every woman who participates to reflect on her identity and her role, and to sum it up by performing a symbolic gesture: to dirty her hands in order to propel a message well beyond the confines of the video itself.
Why ask participants to “get their hands dirty”?
It is an invitation to take action, express themselves, put themselves on the line, tell their stories, take a decision. The women write a message on their hands and cast it towards future generations.
As Miriam Mirolla explains in her critical essay: “These are all woman who, with different means, have found a pathway to establishing their identities and now, following the simple, friendly indications of the artist, enact, with pride and self-awareness, those parts of themselves that are symbolically the strongest: their faces, their bodies, their thoughts.”
How is the written message arrived at?
Each sentence springs from a free choice on the part of the participants; then the sharing and writing of the messages on their hands is arrived at with the artist, in an artistic process that is simultaneously an intimate and a collaborative action, which the artist calls “the journey of identity”.
How does the action unfold?
It is a ritual, silent, slow, hypnotic performance: sitting on a swiveling chair, the participant is seen from behind, she then turns and finally she shows the message written directly onto her hands. The video portrait, carefully fashioned in every detail of color, light and shot, acquires that extraordinary monumental quality typical of ancient statues seen from below.
Ritratto continuo mod. 3.375.020.000, is a collective video-portrait that includes all the women in the world. All the video portraits, each 90 seconds long, are edited together in sequence, with no sound. The overall length depends on the number of video portraits made and so far there are about 300. It is a work that has built up over a number of months, to be viewed by the public over a period of time that is protracted, cyclical, and random. The final result speaks a direct narrative language with strong visual impact, the contents of which are uncertain; these become manifest only cumulatively, portrait after portrait.
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