#5 Séance

As part of a broader investigation into the worlds of magic and illusion, this performance saw the artists enact a remote séance via video call. While the artists remained in their studio, a custom-made Ouija board and a screen were installed within the gallery space, enabling visitors to engage with the performers and actively participate in the spiritual session. Among the various options, the pointer’s movement across the board occasionally landed on references to past performances by the duo, reactivating a range of previous personas and actions. Through gestures, keywords, and costumes reminiscent of late-night telemarketing or televised fortune-tellers, the performance looked at the physical and ethical boundaries between performer and audience, to the point where it had to be interrupted due to increasingly aggressive audience requests. It questioned the systems of control and agency enacted upon the body when the routines of daily life are suspended, and proposes a critical reflection on the limits of embodiment within mediated spaces.

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Macchina Dematerializzante e Gabinetto Spiritico per l’apparizione di corpi dispersi, #5 Séance, 2009. Video stills from the online performance at One moment in time.