“Besides keeping out the unwanted,
it imprisons those inside.”
Video by Francesca Fini
“THE PAPER WALL is a pictorial-performative installation that will develop during daily sessions for a whole week. The installation begins with the construction of a symbolic wall, made by assembling cardboard modules found by chance in the network, whose sinister shape—which would seem to be the fruit of the manufacturer’s unawareness—fits perfectly into the concept of the work. The Wall, whatever its color, its latitude and its substance, material or mental, is a diabolic idea: besides keeping out the unwanted, it imprisons those inside. The Wall therefore has a double value: separation from the outside and control of the interior.
This principle has its plastic manifestation in the second phase of the work, when, within the area circumscribed by the Wall, I mark the territory with the colors, symbols and shapes of the local national flag. In this phase I am assisted by some small robots that interact with the installation. Those that I place inside the Wall, equipped with black markers, contribute and at the same time constantly interfere with my design, but also tend to expand their random trajectories, ending up inevitably at the borders, where they attack the cardboard bricks looking for a way out. The performance then develops in my attempt to continue the design, while in the meantime I try to monitor the behavior of the robots, bringing them back within the fixed perimeter when they manage to get out and restoring the wall failures: a clumsy and labored dance in which is consumed the grotesque nature of control.” —Francesca Fini
Francesca Fini is an artist working with new media, experimental cinema, and performance art.
With in-depth training as a digital artist and filmmaker, she has worked for fifteen years in the field of TV production: as production coordinator for the twenty-one episodes of “Alfabeto Italiano (Italian Alphabet)”, for Làntia Cinema and RAI3, for the series “Senza Fine (Endless)” with Gualtiero Peirce, also for RAI3, as writer and director of three creative documentaries, currently offered by the platform “On The Docks.”
© Francesca Fini 2019