Cut. Not Voracious, Just A Pause
Granite, pulverized concrete, sweat, remains of ashes, sanded wall paint. 210 x 130 x 250 cm
Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
2015
A section of floor that had used to serve as a bed for an unknown individual was secretly extracted from a sealed-off factory building in Rosarno, a small town in the South of Italy, which is one of the main sites of migrant labour exploitation (“Caporalato”) in the country. Ostracised from the local community, the workers there are forced to live illegally in deserted factories and abandoned farmhouses.
The floor section was later inserted into the exhibition space, camouflaged with the architecture. The walls were painted with the museum’s paint mixed with sanded sections of the factory wall, where traces of the inhabitants’ fingers had been left. The room size has been shrank to match the floor section, in this way turning the insertment into an invisible presence.
The erasure of the traces by the steps of the initially unaware visitor becomes a shaping process in itself. At the end of the exhibition the floor was removed and the tiles became a new independent sculpture.
Collaboration with ‘Progetto Terragiusta”, MEDU, Italy.
Cut. Not Voracious, Just A Pause
Granite, pulverized concrete, sweat, remains of ashes, sanded wall paint. 210 x 130 x 250 cm
Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
2015
A section of floor that had used to serve as a bed for an unknown individual was secretly extracted from a sealed-off factory building in Rosarno, a small town in the South of Italy, which is one of the main sites of migrant labour exploitation (“Caporalato”) in the country. Ostracised from the local community, the workers there are forced to live illegally in deserted factories and abandoned farmhouses.
The floor section was later inserted into the exhibition space, camouflaged with the architecture. The walls were painted with the museum’s paint mixed with sanded sections of the factory wall, where traces of the inhabitants’ fingers had been left. The room size has been shrank to match the floor section, in this way turning the insertment into an invisible presence.
The erasure of the traces by the steps of the initially unaware visitor becomes a shaping process in itself. At the end of the exhibition the floor was removed and the tiles became a new independent sculpture.
Collaboration with ‘Progetto Terragiusta”, MEDU, Italy.