SCREENS, Culture dello schermo e immagini in movimento, Museo MA*GA, Gallarate, 2022; Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Florilegio, 2021.
FLORILEGIO
HD video + archive footage, 9’ 40’’, 2021 .
Voice recording by John Giorno.
Florilegio explores the material and immaterial forms of memory transmission connected to mourning rituals. It collects archive footage—mostly amateur—found on the internet, depicting notorious people’s funerals and memorial services that shaped our contemporary collective memory. All human forms contained in the images were destroyed through extreme close-ups and chroma key techniques, in an eort to erase all contexts in which these events occurred. The focus is then left on the symbol (the flowers) and on movements manifesting madness, joy, or the need to control oneself.
Juxtaposed with the archival portions of the video, the artists then perform elements of funeral rituals collected by the sociologist Ernesto de Martino in his book Death and Ritual Mourning, shedding light on ways in which embodied performance can partake in preserving memory.
The video is accompanied by the recording of John Giorno performing his poem Welcoming the Flowers, thanks to the support of the John Giorno Foundation NY.
Installation view, MEGA, Milan, 2021, Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Florilegio, 2021.
Installation view Sant’Andrea De Scaphis, Rome, 2022, Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Florilegio, 2021.
Stills from video. FLORILEGIO, Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, 2021.
Installation view, THINKING BEYOND - Moving Images for a Post-Pandemic World, Manifattura Tabacchi, Florence, 2021, Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Florilegio, 2021.
Photo credit: Federica di Giovanni.