POSA B
INSTALLATION - ACTION - VIDEO
Posa B is a site specific project in collaboration with Collettivo Scena in their exhibition spaces in Cesena, Italy. A garage rediscovers a new light with the activation of 30 light bulbs ready to become the target at which the visitor could shoot with a toy gun: each bulb hit creates a lower brightness. The last broken light bulb will create the cancellation of the space and time of the work and of the exhibition: a successful failure. Thanks to the staging of a classic popular game, Posa B also tries to provoke and unhinge, in an ironic way, some dynamics and habits inherent in artistic practice, in the system of art and its use.
Posa B (or Posa Bulb) refers to the use of a photographic exposure time longer than the available pre-set times. Its name comes from the English "bulb" (light bulb) in reference to the bulb that operated the shutter of early cameras.
Taking a cue from its etymology, Posa B becomes an exhibition project that acts in an empty space, an aseptic garage or the body of an old camera, giving it a "new light," about 30 bulbs. Inspired by fairground games, Orecchie D'Asino installs a bench on which he arranges toy-guns and long shelves on which lighted bulbs are installed, instead of the classic empty cans. Here the visitor can activate the work and shoot at the lights, getting less light intensity with each successful shot. The intangible prize gained is thus one less aperture, one less "exposure" time, and one its control at the same time.
Orecchie D'Asino, POSA B, installation, curated by Collettivo Scena, Cesena, 2022
The light bulb, the quintessential icon of the idea, represents the pivotal element of the action and the light "the shot" useful for diving into the act and the process itself: the artists' practice thus continues to dwell on the very development of creation, seeking a reflection on the different methods and languages of photography, installation, object and action within an "organic" and changing space and time.
Through the staging of a classic folk game, Pose B also attempts, in an ironic way, to provoke and unhinge certain dynamics and habits inherent in artistic practice, the art system and its fruition. As Byung-Chul Han argues, "to enter the playful imagination is to free oneself from need, from purpose, and to bring out a soul that lies beyond the grievances of utility, which ill suits the performance-oriented, efficiency-oriented society of production. Play transcends the economy of labor and production and heads toward a ritual atmosphere."
Body and emptiness, light and dark, work and play, production and consumption are thus the main dialectical contrasts that present themselves under the spotlight of many small light bulbs and the eyes of observers who will want to break them along with its antagonists.
Orecchie D'Asino, POSA B, action, curated by Collettivo Scena, Cesena, 2022
Orecchie D'Asino, POSA B, video installation, curated by Collettivo Scena, Cesena, 2022