"To have the freedom to change and invert once again the banal and static order of things, and the pleasure of abandoning the proper meaning of a work to explore the potentials that lie beyond the known territories is, in my opinion, one of the strategies that art has always employed and continues doing so today. But there has never been such an easily defined script. In any case, the conditions are heavy for only those who want to carry the burden, even when we sometimes have to live with hostilities of a biological nature. Technology has to its advantage the abilitiy to expand on that which keeps us barred in the accepted boundaries of logic. Which cutting edge is sharper: the electronic image in the cupboard or the opposing sharp-edged pieces of glass? (“Armadio fragile” - ed.) And who profits from having a catalogue of cold and calculated forms enclosed in shelves underneath? How difficult it is to separate the physical touch from the evocative materiality of the virtual! When will the codices of art history comprise critical reflections on the role and improper use of technical means? In the meantime, the cupboards will become rooms and the rooms will contain the cupboards... this is the great Chinese box of life. Here, the monitors won’t be domesticated any more. The cupboards, hard and cutting, present to all optimists of technology the consciousness and uneasiness of a separation, the disturbances of an ongoing process and a still open account. Behind iron bars, like in a zoo, the technology harbours the ferocity of a wild beast. This side of the bars we feel more secure and perhaps willing to risk a bit more. But we ought to hurry up! The traps of time are already waiting." Fabrizio Plessi
This text has been taken from the catalogue of Plessi’s encompassing exhibition of a long row of “cupboards” in Reggio Emilia 1990, which accentuate the theme of his installation work varying the topic of the structures. These pieces represent a summary of his work with references to previous installations as well as the basis of an open-ended series. Plessi will introduce his work showing documentaries and talk about his concept of “Low Definition” or the humanization of technology.