Le nostre prigioni dorate (Our gilded Prisons)

Pier Giorgio De Pinto
Le nostre prigioni dorate (Our gilded Prisons)

Le nostre prigioni dorate (Our gilded Prisons)

Fabric, plastic, glass, brass, paper, 19x19x13 cm, 2020

The sculpture was made for the exhibition Il Respiro dell’arte” (the breathing of art), at Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, Italy, September 2020. The work was also exhibited in July 2021 for a group show at Breed Art Studios, Amsterdam. Curated by Virginia Monteverde in collaboration with Luca Rezzolla.

Il Respiro dell’Arte (The Breathing of Art) is an art project devised and organised by the Art Commission association to bear witness to the difficult period the world is going through as it grapples with COVID-19. The project was launched during the lockdown period and involves the participation of many Italian and foreign artists. A select group of artists were asked to interpret – each from their own point of view and each using their own technique – what has become the symbol of the fight against the virus, namely the mask. Masks have a strong symbolic value: on the one hand, they are a bulwark against the aggressiveness of the virus, while, on the other, they also represent a tangible sign that each of us has begun to observe rules of behaviour that have suddenly convulsed our everyday habits. At this point, art is called upon to play its role as a witness to the times by drawing on its special enduring quality as a universal language.

Virginia Monteverde

You can follow the video-interview, in Italian language, by Bettina Bush here

In these days of forced exile within the four walls of our homes, I have repeatedly heard people complain about too much “sweet nothingness”.
I saw photos of homes overflowing with objects, entertainment of all kinds, movies and TV series on Netflix, homes full of food and snacks and junk food… all elements of well-being and not strictly to the tri-nomial of survival eat-drink-sleep typical of a real prison and/or state of war.

Real gilded prisons from which they started monologues of dietrology and absurd comparisons with other political and social phenomena. Forces that have, of course, awakened the typical human factiousness accompanied by the usual stale ideology.
I have thought many times, because of what has been written above, that many people more than a mask, in this particular historical period, should be put a “soundproof muzzle”.

Instead, I preferred the idea of creating a mask that would symbolically represent an object that is certainly annoying to use but that was somehow representative of the well-being in which we allow ourselves even to complain.

In our prisons we have the best that any true prisoner would desire. Furthermore, from home we can virtually “travel” around the world, to do shopping, even if deliveries are slowed down, so what are we complaining about?

I also thought about how the mask limits some important functions of our mouth that we always take for granted:
– it doesn’t allow us to see part of the other person’s facial expression, which is so important in communication, even nonverbal communication,
– creates a block that does not activate the facial recognition of some devices like the iphone.
– creates a block to eating and drinking.
– Once removed, after prolonged use, it leaves marks that in the selfie culture of Instagram certainly does not promote that “filter smoothing” that many use.

I would like to make a mask using only what I had at home; to accentuate the fact that many stores are closed and we have pretty much everything we need at home.
I used a hat from a carnival dress to take the fabric and the gold ribbon. This is also symbolic because it has been said that one of the causes of the surge in contagions was attending carnivals in February 2020.

Pier Giorgio De Pinto on the occasion of the exhibition “Il Respiro dell’Arte”, (The Breathing of Art), September 2020