Rome, Italy
Mission Title: Transgender Tropicalia - Assume Vivid Astro Focus in Rome
Mission By: Francesco Nappa, Luigi Maria Brusciano
Mission Finished on Date: 12-07-2008
SCRIPT
- Visit Largo Argentina and the avaf installation the day of the launch.
- Interview avaf and ask them how did he approaches such a particular ground. What do they think about the Italian culture as it's being internationally exported? Does site specific also apply to culture or is it best to clash?
- Show the installation both from afar and in detail. Pay attention to its mood and the way it collides with the environment esthetically.
- Interview some of the many people passing by, who will be a lot, and different. How is the piece being perceived by the various audience?
- Invite avaf to party that evening, got to dance clubs and parties, capture on camera the artist in the milieu he so loves to recreate.
TRAVEL BAG
How do artworld debaucheries and transgressive behavior clash with the public sphere?
Assume Vivid Astro Focus throws transgendered, pop culture demolition derbies which many people have taken to calling art. He installs psychedelic sex clubs in museums, makes tropicalia for porno friendly pop stars you've never heard of, and all in all looks like he's having alot more fun than any hardheaded minimalist, though his cause has yet to be handled by any historian. A typical site specific installation of his is a pop pastiche, meshing the energy of dance music with the low-rent glamor of a No Wave New York remembered as perhaps a lot more fun than it could possibly be.
Colorful, rough and sexually ambiguous, avaf (for whatever silly reason Eli Sudbrack's faux collective prefers a lower case acronym) features varying materials from wallpaper, wood, and neon that seem to be chasing after a squat-chic with a colorful coke habit. Assume Vivid Astro Focus brings their carnivale to Rome's Largo Argentina claiming the ruins, passed by thousands daily, as a surreal space where ancient debaucheries shot through with the contemporary, can be relived as surreal adventures. How daring this darling gets outside of disco fancy design remains to be seen, but one has to respect a guy who employs a giant spread eagled sex toy no matter what the context.
Mission Report
The mission assigned to us has first of all been a real experience, that gave us the opportunity to confront ourselves with places and people.
Despite our poor experiences in quality of reporters, we’ve deeply become one with the role, trying to offer a faithful view of the installation by the Brazilian group.
Assume Vivid Astro Focus has definitely carried out something indescribable, opening up the access to the archeological finds of Largo Argentina, mainly provoking a sort of visual shock for the visitor, who almost feels bewildered when entering. The variety of the images realized, along with chromatic plays of light, strikes the eye of the passer-by and enriches the area, which tells of a distant time.
Our only regret was not being able to meet and interview the organizers or the people responsible for the event, but we know that this was due to a postponement of the mission.
We’ve very much appreciated this journey and the opportunity given to us, and we wouldn’t mind at all proposing ourselves again for a future experience.
Francesco Nappa, Luigi Maria Brusciano
