Untitled, 2021
velvet pillowcases, arduino, xbee modules, 3d print, cotton, foam, ten elements 50x50x20cm each

Video:

https://vimeo.com/514316584

A group of pillows, equipped with an internal mechanism, breathe in synchrony. Slow and continuous, synchronous breathing recalls a kind of telepathy, technological animism. Indeed, the idea of the work is to transfer breath from the body to objects. The pillow thus results as inhabited by a ghostly presence, and the group as a kind of silent chorus, immersed in suspended time. The slowness of breath is reminiscent of sleep or meditation, in any case a threshold state between consciousness and unconsciousness, of surrender but also of submission, in this case to a computer code. This ambiguity between something as delicate and vital as breath and the rigidity of code reflects my poetics’ more general interest in the interweaving of the equal and the other, the familiar and the unfamiliar.

Exhibitions:

2022 Casting the Castle III -  They Repeat Themselves Constantly, but Do Not Create a Sense of Habit, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide (PG), curated by Saverio Verini
2021 Peng on the Beach, Circolo Tennis Italia, Bologna, curated by Xing

Ph&videos: Manuel Montesano