LLORANDO

Llorando is a site-specific installation realized on the occasion of the Biennale dell'Adriatico. A fifteen-meter-long tunnel was constructed at the main and only entrance to the exhibition space, obliging every visitor to pass through it in order to access the show.

The entrance of the tunnel measures only 60 × 60 cm and gradually widens along its length. The narrow opening forces visitors to bend their bodies and enter in an uncomfortable position.

All other doors were closed. There was no alternative path. Every visitor, without exception, had to pass through the tunnel in order to enter the exhibition.

The work transforms the simple act of entering an exhibition into a ritual gesture. By forcing the public to bow their bodies, the installation evokes a gesture of submission or reverence, as if the visitors were compelled to kneel before the supposed majesty of art. In a collective exhibition involving dozens of artists, the work questioned the authority traditionally attributed to the artistic space; yet the imposed respect was also an offering of devotion, a declaration of love addressed by the artist to her own art, in the hope of being loved back by her works.

The title refers to the song Llorando and to the Club Silencio scene in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, where the singer collapses and the voice goes on: the show continues beyond the vulnerability of the body. What surfaces is the risk of seeking love from something rather than someone: a choice that can cause pain and self-destruction, but can also offer an inexplicable beauty and meaning.