Tra cielo e terra;
  //2001

"Tra cielo e terra" is a computer-game-sculpture. A television monitor is built into a metal table with wheels. The observers can play the game using buttons built into the upper side of the monitor.

The work refers to the first interactive computer game "Pong", invented by Nolan Bushnell in 1971. The ball shows the body of a bathing woman in a round format. The choice of this form is an art-historical reference to the many "tondo"-pictures which have, in the course of the past centuries (from the renaissance to Ingres and until today), made use of this special geometrical figure in reference to the female body: The naked female body as the projection surface for masculine aesthetic sensibilities.

The game is designed for two players, the background images show virtual materials which simulate earth and sky. Each player is connected with one of these background materials. With each change of server the background also alters and upon reaching a set score the winner is rewarded with a tondo-video sequence of the bather. In the course of the game the players are allowed short views of the bathers progress.

The game possesses a strong psychological connotation. It reflects a particular mental condition: undecided between heaven and earth, cast up and down, psychotic states between euphoria and depression.