Body of Building

Norma Jeane plays with the relationships that exist between human beings and technology, and in particular investigates the projection process to which technological objects are subjected.

For FUORI, the symbiotic link between human beings and technology is radicalized and physically translated into the external space of Palazzo delle Esposizioni. The arches of the entrance to the building are designed as a diaphragm that houses a system of lights which is activated every evening at sunset and remains lit throughout the night, connecting the interior and exterior, the exhibition space and the city deserted due to the pandemic. The adjustment of the intensity of the lights is linked to the frequency and intensity of Norma Jeane’s breathing, who for the duration of the exhibition will wear electrodes on her body that will send data in real time to the control unit that manages the lighting.

Palazzo delle Esposizioni thus becomes the Body of Building: a living container of artworks and a pulsating body that highlights the public role of art. The unevenness and regularity of Norma Jeane’s breathing will be continuously exposed to the view of the beholder, in a mechanism that is part of the reflection on the dimension of control and monitoring of the body. Furthermore, Norma Jeane’s work offers a very timely reflection on breathing, which in 2020, the year of COVID-19 and of George Floyd’s death by suffocation in Minneapolis, has become a central theme in the struggle for civil rights. Norma Jeane’s work, visible only when the exhibition is closed, invites us to reflect on the political dimension of breathing, which is more than ever present in today’s time.

Production: Quadriennale di Roma
Curators: Sara Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol
Technical partners: Politecnico di Milano (prof. Andrea Aliverti, dott.ssa Alessandra Angelucci, dott. Lorenzo Francioli) – BOTW, Pomezia
Video: Domenico Catano
“Fuori”, XVII Quadriennale di Roma, 2020-2021