When dreams were public baths

2023, video installation, Palazzo Pio, Tresigallo (FE), Italy

To impregnate fascist architectures with songs and tales afflicted by senile dementia. The voices of the elderly are the necessary infiltration into the rationalist drawing of architecture. In this work, a harmless siege is enacted through the mute presence of fragile yet powerful bodies.

The image

A video installation allows visitors to listen to the songs and stories of the elderly in retirement homes. In the video projection, the voices and actions of the residents interact with the rationalist architecture from the Fascist era in the small town of Tresigallo. To experience the installation, visitors can sit on footrest stools donated by the retirement home.

The research

With "When Dreams Were Public Baths", a research project was conducted that intertwined the cultural fabric of the city of Tresigallo with its distinctive urban elements. Through an ethnographic approach, the act of dwelling was explored. After an in-depth study of the city, an active exchange was initiated with the "La mia Casa" nursing home. The project emerged from a relational, intimate, and secretive inquiry aimed at collecting personal, delicate, and fragile memories. The intent is to stage a coup against rationalist architecture through the dreamlike and biographical memory of the nursing home residents.

Credits