ALONE IN THE DARK PROJECT
a performance experiment
by Francesca Fini

“Alone in the Dark” is an experiment in which I undertake a small personal investigation into the meaning of performance art today.  More than any other form of artistic language, performance art, in its fluidity, is called upon to interpret contemporary reality.  It is gesture and action that occur spontaneously, free of any representative or mimetic intention but are, instead, rich in a generative power that is unavoidable and unpredictable, and that succeed in fitting together in the anthropological and cultural magma in which we live.
Today more than ever, Art must become action and behave actively in the microcosms, trying to create a direct, intimate relationship with people, an authentic peer-to-peer relationship.  An aesthetic activism that becomes urgency.

Today more than ever,  Art must become "honest" and behave actively in the microcosms, trying to create a direct and authentic exchange with people, a true peer-to-peer relationship.  An aesthetic activism that becomes urgency.

“Alone in the Dark” project will take place online by means of situational incursions in social networks, video-chats, web radios and streaming services.  The idea is that of interference, of a cultural short-circuit, of emotional hacking.  The aim is to capture the attention of a public very different from the traditional one of museums and galleries, of the “come and see” type which, in the best of cases, will try to understand what they are watching, but always in their on-the-spot role of spectator judge, in the protective bubble of their little chair.  

For the very first session of the project, "Alone in the dark # ", I invited eight artists friends in my laboratory in Rome. My laboratory, built by me and by my partner in a special room of my house, is a sort of perfectly cubic performative black box which contains everything you need to perform and to record your actions. The performers didn't have any idea about the project and they were very surprised when I explained them that I expected them to perform in front of a webcam connected to the most controversial video-chat in the world, Chat-roulette.  It all took place on a dreary day in August, as the sun melted the thoughts in the mind and made way for action.  In this way, the sequence of  performances spontaneously assumed the rhythm of a ritual.  Strangely, nor perhaps not, all the performances shared the theme of violence (self-inflicted violence, social violence, violence between the sexes, group violence against the individual).

The second session of the experiment resurface such mechanisms and atmosphere, but its "container" will be this time a location open to the public. The live audience will become the true "voyeur" of a private ritual between performer and webcam.
The event is scheduled for May 30, 2012, at 7 pm, at the Gallery of Contemporary Art "The Bracolo" in the historical center of Rome.
With the performance of Tiger Orchid, DolcissimaBastarda, Flavio Sciolé, Francesca Fini.
Video installations by José Vieira and Francesca Fini.

The event is made in collaboration with Vasa Project, a network devoted to the promotion of digital art (http://www.vasa-project.com/)

Visit the project website:
http://aloneinthedark10.blogspot.com/