Gilles Clément writes in “Nuages” : Dis-trahere, in other words, move elsewhere, bring one far away from reality. When does that happen? How can we go beyond this threshold? The Virgin Mary of housekeeping is an unstable cleaning operation which final outcome will be an installation, the result of an exercise conceived for Altofest Napoli 2018. The starting point is this intuition of Duchamp: if a sound has an extended duration then it becomes something else, it hardens, like a sculpture, and it is like if it would materialize. What interests us is the idea of using words like objects, creating a connection between our languages. The structure of Altofest allows us to come into the life of the space donors citizens and from there starts our practice. The Virgin Mary of housekeeping comes to your house with the intention to live a moment of care. She thoroughly fixes and cleans the room of your choice. Once the cleaning is done, the rite of purification is completed with the composition of a photographic memory “tableau vivant”. This way, we travel from everyday life to the world of imagination.

a project by
Federica Terracina:  concept, cleaning, setting, photo

in collaboration with
Mario Avallone: recording, processing, sound design

photo by

Mario Pavone

photo by

Vicky Solli