Superficially

Superficially, the exhibition at MOCA Taipei was an opportunity to trigger a critical debate on the carelessness and superficiality with which we continue to deal with the everyday, starting with the commodification of the historical heritage of major art cities, where the use of memory cards has replaced the use of the brain. The need to accumulate and share images, all of which are homogenized, is what guides us in our (non)observation of the world.

How do we approach culture and art and how does technology change our perception of our surroundings? How much is dependence on technology actually changing our daily lives, the way we communicate and relate in the physical world? The MOCA show was the perfect opportunity to activate a grounded reflection on these questions.In this sense, the parallel between Taipei and Florence - my hometown - was almost immediate, thinking about the way tourists, the main users of the city, relate there, namely through a digital screen.

The exhibition consisted of four new works created ad hoc, three videos and a public installation designed for the museum square: Illusion, Everywhere but Nowhere, Relocation and Façade.

Illusion

Three-channel video, colour, sound, 6’29; Italy 2017

Illusion is a realistic depiction of the daily scene of Florence - being overwhelmed by the tourists. 
The artist displays this three-channel video in an enclosed black space, allowing visitors to emerge in an atmosphere surrounded by images when they view the work as if they are surrounded by the countless tourists in the Florence plaza. 

Everywhere but nowhere

single-channel video, color, sound, 3’52”, Italy 2017

Filmed in Florence, Everywhere but Nowhere documents a boy sitting in a historical building. Being absorbed in his smartphone, the boy seems to ignore everything but the screen, even being in the middle of the crowd and busy streets.

Relocation

Single-channel video, colour, sound, 8'08”, Taiwan 2017

In the work Relocation, the artist temporarily transforms the urbanscape in something unexpected, creating a dialogue between the architectures of Florence and the Taiwanese capital. The purpose is to activate a debate on the role of images within the contemporary society. The video also features interviews with Taiwanese intellectuals who share their opinions about symptoms of mediatization in Taiwanese society and the phenomena of smartphone addiction across Asia. 

Façade

440 x 440 x 510 cm
pvc, scaffolds, cement

The installation designed for the MOCA Taipei square recalls a peculiar aspect of the tourist cities of recent years, namely that of covering the scaffolding of the works in progress of the most prestigious buildings with a cloth that reproduces the very image of the architecture object of the construction site.

In the case of “Superficially” the artist has brought to Taipei four details of the facades (in 1: 1 scale) of four symbolic places of his city of origin.

Encouraging the public to re-examine the superficiality with which we face everyday, the work is also an invitation to use the smartphone in a critical way instead of being used by the device itself: whoever takes a selfie in a close position is as if he/she were in Florence ( at least this would appear from the photo) but it is actually in Taipei.

Superficially
Solo show at MOCA Taipei, Taiwan

curated by Huang Yi-Han
commissioned by Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei