MAURIZIO vibes on the process of language acquisition with our pre-internet brains. Its video installation came to fruition over a span of a decade, a period marked by the careful selection and capturing of images, and finally, its exhibition in 2011. This lengthy timespan echoes one of the work’s key themes – the passage of time.
MAURIZIO as video-art presents a play of images drawn from an obsolete Oxford visual dictionary. These images, perhaps once clear and concrete in their meanings, are transformed into components of a visual collage, their original contexts altered and their significances repurposed. This act of recontextualization is a powerful commentary on the fluidity of meaning.
The installation is accompanied by Erik Satie’s third Gymnopedie, a piece known for its haunting simplicity and evocative beauty. The choice of this music brings an element of melancholy and introspection, enhancing the meditative quality of the piece and adding another layer to its exploration of time.
This tune is interspersed with silent arcs, introducing a temporal and spatial dynamic to the visual narrative. The arcs could be seen as a symbol of continuity, echoing the circular repetition of the video, but also of disruption, breaking the visual flow with their silent presence.
MAURIZIO engages with the theme of obsolescence, embodied in the use of a cathode ray tube television to display the video. Once a ubiquitous technology, these televisions have been largely replaced by modern digital screens. In using such a device, the installation not only comments on the relentless march of technological progress but also raises questions about the value and potential beauty in the discarded and the outdated.
The entire video is designed to repeat in a circular manner, reinforcing the concept of cyclical time. It compels the audience to consider the temporal dimension of human creations, their lifespan from inception to eventual obsolescence, and the possible cycles of rebirth and reinterpretation they can undergo.
MAURIZIO is also a look into the process of language acquisition with a pre-internet brain.
The installation serves as a commentary on the delicacy and complexity of language learning before the advent of the internet. It reminisces on a time when learning a new language was a painstaking process of immersion and repetition, and each new word was a kind of treasure of cultural and historical knowledge. Where other cultures where vultures of other worlds.
In essence, MAURIZIO serves as both a reminder of the laborious and tedious process of language acquisition and a critical reminder of our current cognitive state, constantly shaped and reshaped by the digital age's relentless pace.