Francesco Vezzoli at the Guggenheim

Francesco Vezzoli at the Guggenheim.

In his first live performance, Francesco Vezzoli, the young Italian video artist whose work has revolved around an interest in celebrity, restaged Luigi Pirandello’s 1917 play ‘Right You Are (If You Think You Are). The play is an investigation and dissection of the character Signora Ponza, played by Cate Blanchett, by a group of provincial Italians. Signora Ponza is absent throughout the play, created for us through the multiple vantage points of the other characters – a character with no presence, defined only by the attention devoted to it.

Set on a black stage in the center of the Guggenheim’s main rotunda, the performance and its proceedings exceeded what I anticipated. It came complete with stars being ushered from black SUV’s past anticipatory crowds, an hour and a half wait, closed guest lists and color-coded tickets. The museum generously provided opera glasses to view the stars (Including Natalie Portman and David Strathairn) to those of us not lucky enough to be seated on the rotunda floor.

The actors, who were seated and in costume, read their lines from stands set before them. The acoustics were bad higher up and the text hard to understand. With the exception of seeing Natalie Portman in a mustache (playing the part of Laudisi) there was little to hold one's visual interest. The crowd, already on its feet for almost two hours to get in and still standing, thinned quickly.

The hook for remaining was the anticipated appearance of Cate Blanchett in a costume designed by John Galliano. Let in on the grand finale by a nearby Guggenheim employee ('she’ll take the elevator to the fifth floor and then walk the ramp down past the people while the strobe lights go off') and tired myself, I left after the second act.

It is always interesting to see what is revealed by an artist shifting medium. What is notable in Vezzoli moving from his earlier video that used socially popular types (‘Caligula’, which mimics a film trailer, and ‘Marlene Redux: a True Hollywood Story!’ an expose on his own death) to performance is that, where those media types allude comically to other experiences – a film about a film that was never made and a film about a life that was never lived - this performance made no allusions, it simply was. There was no imagined deferral, no shared laughter at the possibility or impossibility of it, no self-deprecation, and no medium to humorously buoy us above the exclusivity of the fame that was its true content.

It is troubling to note in relation to Vezzoli's preoccupation with fame and exclusion (and perhaps it’s the gleaming black stage and David Straithairn’s leather pants that brought it to mind) that amongst Pirandello’s many achievements he is remembered for having given Mussolini his Noble Prize in Literature to melt down for the war effort.

John Bock's 'Stapelung' at P.S. 1

Performance as video as performance as sculpture

John Bock “Stapelung” (Stack)

2007, P.S.1, New York

“Stapelung,” meaning ‘stack,’ is indeed a stack of videos, running on monitors sitting on shelving units. It shows 5 video films, each arranged as a loop of a different performance.

All the films combine performance footage that has been shot exclusively for the camera, and documentation footage of public performance and public sculpture. The piece, seen as film and as sculpture, takes performance as a starting point, as well as its backbone, and is loaded to the breaking point with cinematic elements.

The nature of John Bock’s performance originates in visual art, particularly in sculpture, and its dependence on the relation with the scale of the human body. The artist invents extensions for his physical limits, including the brain, both in logical and in associative thinking. All props are fabricated as sculptures, and after the performance and/or film has been shot, remain on display as sculpture within a visual-art context. In this aspect, the film becomes a documentation of kinetic art.

To review this John Bock piece in a descriptive manner is bound to fail due to the time limitation given to me as a visitor at an exhibition. In the content of the sculpture/performance/video, ‘stacking’ continues endlessly within each element. All visual elements appear colorful and compelling, as do the masses of associative chains in Bock’s monologues.

Bock’s characteristic use of an overwhelming mass of material comes combined with his gimmick of pseudo child-play elements within the performances. These seem to let him get away with ignorance of any of the individual topics that he uses in his writing. This is disturbing, especially when it comes to ignorance of racial politics. The same applies to the props’ visual solutions. However, Bock’s stylistic method of primary directness throws the viewer back to their own naivety—indeed, a good immunization against criticism.

Another good trick for ‘waterproofing’ art is coming to a full circle within an original associative chain. And for this one, I would like to give him full credit. “The world is the stage is the wood is the world.” (John Bock)

First review!

The first NAKED ATTIC review will be posted Sunday, October 28th, 2007.
It will be on John Bock's "Stapelung", which will take place at P.S.1, Long Island City, New York.