Magma
2003
Site specific installation
video projection (colour, sound, 5 min),
via crucis (12 c-prints, 37 x 30 cm each)
Solo show, Associazione Prometeo, S. Matteo, Lucca, Italy
When I proposed to Marcella to conceive a project for this site she was attracted by the duplicity of the idea of shooting a video in a consecrated church and projecting it in a desecrated church. It was something she had in mind for a long time.
Magma is the title of Marcella Vanzo’s video. There is a legacy between this term and the
undefined fluidity that forces us to believe in something. The video sets up the ritual of Mass, shot
in a small church on the outskirts of Lucca. Everything is held in balance between a sedimentary
vision and a spurious spirit. The players (the priest and the faithful) and the statues too wear a white blindfold on their eyes. There is an immediate legacy with sacrifice, but if we follow the rhythm of the vision and the music, we progressively enter a different symbolic horizon.
In order to believe it is not necessary to see, eyes are not necessary, hence the white blindfold. But the white blindfold could be also a sign of blindness produced by the dazzling vision of faith, and white is the dazzling colour for excellence.
The camera moves up and down, from left to right, as the holy cross does. It is a clear reference to the adhesion to Christian rituals, and also a component choice that emphasizes the suspense of the tale. Yes, there is a great feeling of suspense in these ordinary visions. First of all because the Mass is an unexpected image in contemporary art. Second because the visual rotation between the vertical and the horizontal axis points out an inner research typical of a relationship with the divine and the individuation of our own individual truth. It never runs smoothly.
Francesca Pasini
