// Alba D'Urbano
//
Main;
Projects() {
Esposizione Impraticabile();
Mare();
Der negierte Raum();
Hautnah();
Touch Me;
Stoffwechsel;
Il Sarto Immortale();
Die Wunderschöne Wunde;
Tra cielo e terra;
L'età dell'oro();
Venere;
Private Property();
Monitoraggio;
corpo_insegnante();
Natura Morta(); Redden/Erröten; Son_no;
Airbag;
Collaborations();
Net-Works();
History();
Imprint;
monito_raggio() {
The Installation;
} //2006
The centre of the installation is dominated by a circular setting of 12
glass objects, which are placed at different heights and fixed to the ceiling
and to the floor by means of wires. The construction with its subdivisions
makes one indirectly think of the connection between time and space, of the
cyclic phenomena whose occur on the surface of the globe, of the different
time zones and the flow of information which is transmitted between them.
At a closer inspection one can see that each glass object is made up of
two discarded monitors stuck together. The spaces inside the surfaces, once
blazing in color, have been filled with ruby-red liquid. So, this mass product,
used for a different purpose, acquires the splendor of the precious materials
of times gone by. In the 18th Century ruby-red glass was a very valuable substance
whose production was a secret very well guarded by the makers of glass. Apart
from this, the installation generates in the mind an association of ideas
with another liquid just as precious: blood. The monitors are connected to
each other an in this way they give the observer a strong impression of a
blood transfusion.
In great contrast with the monitor screens, which are
unusually silent and soundless, pictures have been
attached to the walls of
the surrounding spaces. They have been fused between two sheets of glass with
a special process especially developed for this project. The pictures come
from Alba D'Urbano's
research on the web, from the site tenbyten.org (the site does no longer exist) "10x10 - 100 Words and
Pictures that Define the Time", an artistic project constituted as an
open source database. Every hour this webside shows those 100 pictures and
terms, that are used most frequently in the news and can be used by other
people for artistic and didactic purposes. Through monopolisation, these images
imprint the collective memory with a sense of political upheaval.
The look of the installation is insistent and oppressive for apparently effortlessly,
it creates links with the images of violence stored in the minds of viewers,
transported via the medium.
* 10x10 was designed and developed by Jonathan Harris of Number27, in conjunction with the FABRICA communication research center in Italy.