ONGOING PROJECT
Concept
This project was born out of a reflection on the frenzy that constitutes the reality of contemporary life.We are living in an ever faster society, be it for the speed in which means of communication and technology develop, allowing greater access to places and information, be it for the reference and success models.
Today it appears that if we are not continually following things, gasping in the search to fit everything into a day, we will miss the train forever. Instead, it seems to me, the most important things happen in slowness, at their own time and that a relaxed or 'slow' spirit would allows us to see that which otherwise slips through our fingers.
Many people are becoming aware of the need to 'slow down' and take their own time because life is too brief to waste it running against schedules.
The Slowly Project has developed in me as a desire and a need to survive as a person with her own time for the development of her life and her art work. The piece is important because it projects an individual's needs onto society as a whole thus creating a calm eye in the hurricane of our common lives in which we might reflect upon what we do, why we do it and what value, if any, it might have. Slowness becomes a metaphor of a contrast between personal time and social time, between interiority and exteriority.
Slowness, like silence, is the opposite of the roar of stress, the noisy devourer of all things
Slowness as a reaction to the bulimia of wanting to consume everything while tasting nothing.
Slowness like the listening to the natural rhythm of things, a sequence of becoming that does not tower over us.
Slowness like the possibility to be amazed at a spontaneous event, silence in which a single voice might be heard.
Presentation
The Slowly Project is a work-in-progress, yet to be completed. It consists of my performances in various cities around the world and in the videos derived from those performances.
The performance consists of me moving in 'slow motion' in daily life, in busy places, walking and doing everything slowly (though a mirror image of 'normal' life) and thus becoming a shocking figure to the people around me. I am often an obstacle in their way.
The peoples' reactions are very important. Some are amused and/or interested, while others are astonished and/or impatient. Some even get suspicious. And others...
Each video from the performances is an autonomous piece of work. Two hidden cameramen shoot the performances and peoples' reactions to them and then I work on the editing and direction. The resulting videos can also be seen as anthropological and sociological observations because they compare the reactions of different cultures and peoples to the same performance.
As I stated above, each video is an autonomous work but the best presentation of the project as a whole is an installation with all videos running in loops simultaneously on wall projections in different places in the exhibition space.
The Slowly Project history:
Performances:
Dec. 2003 - Take your Time, performance in Milan - City Center
Jan 2004 - Take your Time, performance in Bologna – City Center
June 2006 - Art is Long, Time is short, performance at Art Basel, Opening
May 2006 - Take your Time, performance in New York – City Center, promoted by WeissPollack Galleries
May 2007 - Take your Time, performance in Modena – City Center, promoted and produced by Italian Ministry of the Environment
Up Coming Performances:
Feb 28, 2011 – New York, Union Square
Jun, 2011 – L’Aquila (I), City center after the 2009 Earthquake
Video completed:
2008 The Slowly Project: Take your time – Modena, Italy, colours, 11’01”
2004 -2009 The Slowly Project: Art is long, Time is short, Switzerland-Italy, colours, 14’45”
Video to be completed:
New York, Milan
(thanks to Claude Caponetto for translation)
Slowness becomes a metaphor of a contrast between personal time and social time, between interiority and exteriority.
To take ours time, in life and in art, beyond the formal stereotyped social ways.
