LIQUID LIFE 2022
Video installation
Full-HD video, black and white, sound, loop,
TV screen, Shards of glasses and bottles
Dimension variable
MACT/CACT Bellinzona
04.04.- 28.08.2022
We lead what is known as a ‘Liquid Life’, characterised by fragile emotional bonds, increasing inequalities and a general discontinuity. We are constantly in search of new stimuli to compensate for the feeling of existential emptiness and, as the philosopher and sociologist Zygmynt Bauman states in his book ‘Liquid Life’, we try to fill this emptiness primarily with consumption, i.e. by buying material goods.
The installation ‘Liquid Life’ consists of a video shot in Queens, Long Island, showing the crowd in full anticipation of an unforgettable and exciting experience as they exit the Vernon Blvd-Jackson underground station and walk to Gantry Plaza State Park to take part in the Independence Day celebrations.
The video is accompanied by an installation of broken bottles and glasses scattered across the ground.
The video scenes, which allude to the anticipation of a moment of happiness and hope, contrast sharply with the shards scattered on the floor. They suggest a violent and painful action and are fragments of a reminiscence of disappointments, frustrations and unfulfilled desires that define a very precarious present.
The work focuses on the dichotomy between the private sphere and the external world, between imagination and reality, expectations and disappointments, desires and needs.
Credits: © Patricia Jacomella