| Tract Live A rt |
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| Site specific live art and performance in and around Penzance, Cornwall, over three weekends. Summer 2006 | ||||||||||
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| Information on this site will be updated as part of the Tract Live Art Programme | ||||||||||
Gino Saccone
Morph Gino Saccone’s performance
examines ideas of memorial through
nature’s lifecycle.
Saturday
23 September
Gino
Saccone works mainly with performance and installation often including
sculptural and video elements. His practice is focused on perpetual interactions
that reference and investigate socio-political systems and ideas.
Saccone often works with outsiders. In ‘Decoder’ passers by
are unexpectedly drawn in using a phone ringing on the street. More recently
he has worked with a group of asylum seekers who are both socially and
civically excluded. ‘Turnstile’ was a workshop project at
Asylum Link culminating in a mirrored protest procession that took place
as part of the Liverpool Biennial. http://www.independentsbiennial.co.uk/page.php?20#gino
Other lines of work identify with notions of cloning and artificial migration
to reference concerns about scientific advance leading to the mutation
of nature. Recent shows include ‘Somewhere in between Norway’
at Gallerie Kit, Trondheim and ‘Inverse’ Transition 6, Newlyn
art Gallery.
Archive Gino Saccone Morph Performed at Penlee Park Saturday 23rd September
Gino’s work was, deliberately, one of the least visible of all the performances. He was hidden in the uppermost branches of a majestic tree in the middle of Penlee Park, crudely wrapped in shiny silver plastic so that he was partially visible, but not immediately recognisable as a human form.
There were no signposts or clues as to where he was, and visitors to the park were given binoculars in order to help them in their search. I spent at least five minutes finding him. Proud of having done so, though, I was immediately joined by hordes of children and young teenagers who stood with me looking up into the cool green leaves of the tree.
His presence evoked a range of responses. Gino had been there for several hours, and was so still, that none of the audience knew whether or not he was just a mannequin. Some of the children seemed to want to test this by throwing sticks at him. Others expressed genuine concern at his welfare, and one even suggested that I go and get some help.
For me this evocative and uncanny piece was a kind of reworking of art from the 70s in which the artist became merged with nature: except in this case the work seemed to also refer to the 80s, and to sci-fi films in particular ‘Predator’ featuring Arnold Swarznegger. Not only were there visual parallels with ‘Predator’ but also the performance had a vaguely threatening quality that was similar in the way it unsettled its audience.
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Photography
by Steve Tanner