antonio aricò
antonio aricò
Performance
2016
Antonio Aricò was selected to participate by Silvana Annicchiarico Director of the Triennale Design Museum in addressing the theme of Utopia by Design to produce an installation in Somerset House, London. He wanted to examine the form and symbolic meaning of the White Flag, interpreting this object through the use of hanging white sheets. Exploring the themes of ‘surrender’ and ‘belonging’, Aricò chose to visit an abandoned village in the heart of the Aspromonte, close to his family home in Southern Italy. The ‘ghost’ village of Roghudi on the southern slopes of the Aspromonte was selected as the site of Antonio’s artistic intervention. Abandoned in the 1970s, the residents deserted their homes, resettling throughout New Roghudi. By draping the village with white sheets, Aricò aimed to repopulate a lost and abandoned place, bringing life back to the village with his creative energy. The photographs have been displayed as a part of the London Design Biennale installation alongside the Designer’s reimagining of the ‘White Flag’. Aricò’s flag is deconstructed, no longer in its archetypal and iconic form but simplified to a large bed sheet tied to a wooden pole like an improvised white flag. Drawing from memory, Antonio Aricò recalls a nostalgic snapshot of the South with images of clothes hanging in the sun evoking a sense of freedom, conviviality and simplicity. Roghudi, brought to life with white sheets, creates a metaphor of a utopian and imaginative repopulation of the South. These sheets act as a symbol of the flight from the south (as surrender) while also echoing the memory of village life and the dream (utopia) of returning home. A very personal yet universal theme.
Client: Triennale Design Museum
photos: F. Zaminga