In this work in progress, Arrivederci Roma, I attempt to work with an installation approach and to use tools that I have never used before to achieve an interactive outcome. These are fans to achieve movement, spot lights with red and blue gels to create depth and shadows, music and objects, in this case the lampshades.
I chose some 1950s music from YouTube. I was looking for music that had a nostalgic feel to it. I decided that the popular Italian song Arrivederci Roma by Renato Rascel could work well. Arrivederci (or a rivederci), which literally means “until we see each other again”, is a common Italian equivalent of “goodbye”. The original lyrics express the nostalgia of a Roman man for the dinners and short-lived love affairs he had with foreign tourists who came to Rome. It recalls the popular legend associated with the Trevi Fountain.
I wanted, somehow, to bring back the life of these lampshades and to imagine the lives of their previous owners. I flirted with the idea of creating a new relationship between them, unknown to each other and to me. I wanted to recreate tenderness, a caress to the soul and new memories.
But why to represent nostalgia right now? What means nostalgia? And why is it for?
As per Wikipedia, the term nostalgia describes a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. It is also said that reliving past memories may provide comfort and contribute to mental health. One notable recent medical study has looked at the physiological effects thinking about past ‘good’ memories can have. They found that thinking about the past ‘fondly’ actually increased perceptions of physical warmth.
Comfort, that’s interesting. Do I want to provide with some kind of mental comfort to the viewer in some of my work? And does this work provides comfort? Do I want to make comfortable the sometimes conflictive process of ageing by using nostalgia? To provide comfort to myself?
Synonims of nostalgia are: wistfulness, longing/yearning/pining for the past, regret, regretfulness, reminiscence, remembrance, recolletion, homesickness, sentimentatily.
I wanted to recreate a whimsical dance, something very intimate and sensual, something that could captivate the viewer sensorially. This is how I felt when setting up this installation, comfortable. There was a floaty feeling in the room, very intimitate and romantic. It remind me of the theathre with spotlights illuminating the dancers, the rest of the room was dark and you could imagine people watching them… This is interesting too since I have been interested in theatre this year specially the theatre of the absurd and also in the Triadic Ballet (1927) of German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer Oskar Schlemmer 1888–1943). This tells me that I’m starting to recognise other ways to express ideas or emotions, I’m opened up to other fields…
This was a 1st experiment and it needed to develop further. I took the lampshades to the photographic studio where I recreate kind of the same set up. Using fishing line this time instead of ugly wire, and projections of swing dancers and Autumn leaves in a field. (Next post)
I enjoyed this work very much, but I haven’t show it in crits as the installation in flesh, I have only shown videos of them. I would like to know if really triggers an emotional response from the viewer. I’m not sure if I’m comunicating well my ideas behind here but it was worth a try.
Arrivederci Roma (Work in progress), 2013
