Maurizio Mercuri, Camere Fisse 1995 - 2004
In Maurizio Mercuri's videos the stationary camera films and delineates gestures. It acts as a witness to the activity going on. Through the video recording the artist can therefore enable a future audience to experience first hand what happened. In this way the actual process of a performed gesture is recovered and in some cases can completely absorb the spectator. On this occasion four short videos, projected one after another, show single actions that are repeated in a potentially infinite sequence. A domestic interior is the setting chosen for Boccadoro where the only person featured is shown dose up, while yawning over and over very widely and contagiously. An enclosed space, but this time intentionally anonymous, is also the backdrop for two more works: Spelling and Rizoma In the first, Mercuri covers his hands in liquid glue, spreading and massaging it over his skin until he gets a thin covering that he then removes sadistically slowly, provoking another uneasy reaction among the audience. Rizoma on the other hand features coloured balloons that the actor tries continuously to blow up. In his last video, the scene offers more information about the actor, who performs following the same method, senselessly and continuously playing the cymbals. The situation becomes even more maniacal as a result of the red curtain behind him and the provincial band uniform, shown 0ff together with dark glasses. These videos are paradoxical in their obtuse repetitive tendency and are Iow-tech recordings in which the most important thing is to fix everyday stories that isolated in this way are filled with an unexpected allure.