After the extraordinary success of the public during the opening days and the enthusiastic reviews by the international press, for the next two weekends – Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th June, and Saturday 30th June and Sunday 1st July, from 10am to 8pm – the site-specific installation Protocol no. 90/6 (2018) created by the artistic duo MASBEDO for Manifesta 12 will once again be available in the Archivio di Stato di Palermo (State Archives of Palermo, Gancia venue – Cortile della Gancia) for visitors holding the ticket of the biennial.
Protocol no. 90/6 is a site-specific video installation born as a spin-off of Videomobile project, especially conceived for Sala delle Capriate inside the Archivio di Stato di Palermo as tribute to the vicissitudes of the film director Vittorio De Seta: a Sicilian puppet – a hand-made sculptural object animated by Mimmo Cuticchio, made specifically for this video installation by his family – moves on a video stage, placed high up rather like an icon, behind a suspended curtain of cables and LED lights. Several times, during his professional career, De Seta was subjected to the control of the authorities. His art, so close to the world of the humblest workers, fishermen, farmers and miners, was suspected of concealing a hidden agenda in favour of “communist” subversive societies. During the period of work undertaken in the State Archives of Palermo, and thanks to the unique experience of the staff working there, the artists discovered the existence of a very unusual folder: dated 1956, it contains numerous dossiers and reports concerning artists, directors, writers and journalists. The document, which immediately attracted their attention, was compiled by the Carabinieri of Petralia Sottana, a small town in the Parco delle Madonie. This dossier became the symbol of the meaning of their video installation, displayed at the entrance to the Sala delle Capriate, a place of absolute mystery and silence dedicated to the preservation of a non-organisable memory, an archive arranged in accordance with the non-rules of time and chance. Thousands and thousands of un-catalogued documents that time has transformed into stratified matter, paper fossils, dust and ink.
The video installation Protocol no. 90/6 (2018) is accompanying the other work by MASBEDO for Manifesta 12, Videomobile (2018) on display at Palazzo Costantino until November 4th. Protocol no. 90/6 and Videomobile are commissioned by Manifesta 12 for The Planetary Garden. Cultivating Coexistence, and produced by Beatrice Bulgari for In Between Art Film.