Aliki: Installazione Zafferano o spezie...

Aliki: Installazione Zafferano o spezie...

Church of San Pietro in Archivolto - LED light sensorial light installation -Take it or leave it -

The translation I have made of “take it or leave it” in Italian is “immediatezza o rinuncia”.

A feeling of having metabolised a little something after visiting an installation is fundamental! I believe that it is important that I communicate what I actually wish to transmit through this installation :

Today the senses are weakened and lacerated because technology and progress make all processes dramatically explicit.Senses are neutralised and lose their capacity to discriminate.We need to reflect on that…and maybe work on ourselves!

This interactive polysensorial installation was set in a church. Upon entering the church, you are immersed immediately and find yourself viewing a court metrage by Ruben Garbellini called Breve Sogno projected onto the Choir. The reason why I decided to project the film on the crucifix,was because I meant to involveThe Christ in our worldly tormented life as well as in the life of the protagonists in the film. I specifically chose John Adams's “The Grand Pianola Music” as the background soundtrack, with its syncopated rhythm to emphasise the dramatic context of our lives today, and that of the film's protagonists, in particular. I purposely added a pink filter on the film projection in order to focus on life's duality "la vie en rose" on the one hand, and the contrasting theme of the plot which is sad. My intention was to emphasise that, despite life’s solicitation, every individual can dream of some "vie en rose"! With the film's soundtrack muted, the spectator is directly exposed to the feature film's dramatic tone which is distinctly attenuated by the pink filter representing “la vie en rose”.

Another visual impact comes immediately from the soft white paper wall that surrounds the choir thus creating an added sense of privacy and at the same time records the idea of the confessional zone. I wanted to draw attention on that instant of expectation, meditation that precedes confession. A momentous" alone with oneself and one’s thoughts". The intention was to provoke moments of reflection on the part of the visitor without any kind of technological interference.

The atmosphere of the church left semi-dark with dimmed led-lights. The visitor proceeds to find out what is behind the white paper (RGB-LED lit) wall. There behind that paper wall an experience awaits to be lived. The moment the visitor sets foot on the orange-colour resin platform, the LED lights embedded in the platform light up and trigger a dialogue on the provided headphones.

In this dialogue a man and a woman simulate intimacy. At the end of their three-minute conversation we find out that they have met each other only twenty minutes ago… –

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Every time a new participant steps on that platform, all the senses awaken: from the visual (dimmed led-lights), olfactory (real clover scent diffused through a remote controlled compressed air system), to the tactile and auditory.In this sensorium- - the consumed senses-represented by five straps of skin textured and pigmented silicon—mask partially the view of the real world of relationships, that of the protagonists in the film of which the spectator hears the authentic dialogue this time while watching the same extracts privately within the soft wall confessional, and so it goes…

LED light sensoria installations-Aliki

Here is an event which ties in with my last projects “Zafferano o spezie…” Saffron or spices…at the Castello di Rivoli, Forte Wohlgemuth and equally “Take it or leave it” at the Chiesa of San Pietro in Archivolto, Piazza Duomo in Verona- all directly in conjunction with the various senses : olfactory, visual, auditory, tactile…

October 12-December 31, 2006
Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art: Part I
Massachussets Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
This two-part exhibition (Part 2: Feb 8-April 8, 2007), organized by the MIT List Visual Arts Center (LVAC), explores the various ways in which artists address technology that influences the senses. The impact of new technology has reshuffled the established hierarchy of the senses and radically changed people's lives, and artists are responding to this epochal shift. The LVAC staff has collaborated with an international team of curators and advisors to develop the exhibition and related publication. The exhibition will include several large commissions. The artists include Mathieu Briand, Janet Cardiff/George Bures Miller, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Ryoji Ikeda, Christian Jankowski, Bruce Nauman, Francois Roche, Anri Sala, and Sissel Tolaas. Curators: Bill Arning, Jane Farver, Yuko Hasegawa, Marjory Jacobson.

Sensorial LED light installation - "Take it or leave it" - Church of San pietro in Archivolto - Piazza Duomo - Verona

A polisensorial interactive experience

To be wrapped up in a film, to fall into it with the help of poly-sensorial, tactile, and olfactory stimuli, as well as those of sound and sight: this is the effect of the installation Take It or Leave It by Aliki, an artist with a complex cultural background - basically Iranian and Russian but with French, English, and North American influences. The installation was inaugurated on Friday November 3rd, with a presentation by Marco Ongaro, and will be open to the public from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. until Sunday in the Church of San Pietro in Archivolto, next door to the Cathedral, Piazza Duomo in Verona.

Aliki, who has lived in Verona for some time now, had already made her mark with gripping environments full of colour, lights, and odours in which we could enjoy particularly inventive and intense experiences. Her language has even become more complex and sophisticated, more abstract, full of temporal shifts and able to capture profoundly whoever is willing to experience what the artist offers.Take It or Leave It alludes to the dichotomy between immediacy, which is continually forced on us by a society used to having everything automated or remote-controlled, and the ever rarer ability to say no. Rejection/Renunciation has a meaning that is both positive and negative Aliki explains:

Today we would always like to be satisfied straight away, immediately: something that is at times impossible. Our senses are violated, they suffer and are in pieces; we no longer know how to distinguish, discern, discriminate and give ourselves the time to choose, accept, or even to say no. The force of renunciation vanishes and, as a result, we are weakened.

And this is why Aliki asks us to take a minute on her illuminated platform and undergo, individually,immersed in the flow of John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music, an experience that starts from our bare feet to arrive at our nose, our eyes (the sequence of images are derived from a brief film by Ruben Garbellini), our ears and, finally, our heart.

Camilla Bertoni

translated by Michael Haggerty

Un'esperienza polisensoriale

A San Pietro in Archivolto un’esperienza polisensoriale

Essere avvolti da un film, caderci dentro attraverso anche l’aiuto di stimoli polisensoriali, tattili e olfattivi, oltre che uditivi e visivi. È l’effetto dell’installazione "Take it or leave it", creata da Aliki, artista dalle complesse origini culturali, tra l’Iran e la Russia, sulle cui radici si innestano rami francesi, inglesi e nordamericani. Un’installazione inaugurata venerdì, con una presentazione di Marco Ongaro, e aperta al pubblico ancora stasera dalle 19 alle 21 nella piccola chiesa di San Pietro in Archivolto, di fianco al Duomo. Aliki, che da tempo ha scelto Verona come città di residenza, si era già cimentata con ambientazioni avvolgenti cariche di colori, luci e odori, nelle quali poter godere di particolari esperienze dolci e intense. Ora il suo linguaggio si è fatto più complesso e sofisticato, più astratto, denso di sfasature temporali e capace di catturare in profondità chi si presta a vivere l’esperienza che l’autrice offre. "Take it or leave it" allude alla dicotomia tra l’immediatezza, a cui siamo continuamente forzati da una società abituata ad avere tutto sempre automatizzato o telecomandato, e la capacità, sempre più rara, alla rinuncia. Rinunciare ha una valenza sia negativa che positiva, spiega Aliki:

Oggi vorremmo sempre ottenere soddisfazione subito, nell’immediatezza, cosa talora impossibile. I sensi sono violentati e soffrono, sono a pezzi, non sappiamo più distinguere, discernere, discriminare, darci il tempo di scegliere, accettare o anche rifiutare. La forza della rinuncia svanisce e questo ci indebolisce.

Ecco perché Aliki ci invita a prenderci qualche minuto e a vivere, da soli, nel silenzio della chiesa, un’esperienza che si accende a partire dai piedi nudi per raggiungere naso, occhi (le immagini sono tratte da un cortometraggio tutto da scoprire), orecchie e infine il cuore.

Camilla Bertoni

Verona 5/11/2005