LA REPLICA E LO SPETTATORE (2020)

ArtEZ BEAR Arnhem Graduation Show: Something Where There Should Be Nothing (2020).

When I studied for a half year in Italy, I visited Florence many times. This city in Tuscany is an example of a city that has a strong identity connected to art (from the Renaissance). The city offers visitors countless reproductions of these famous historical artworks. Of all these cultural treasures there was one ‘Mona Lisa’ for me. It was the David of Michelangelo. I became intrigued by the hyper-commercialisation and subsequent mass-production which essentially converted a classical art piece into a novelty souvenir. So I bought a replica of the David and took it with me to the Netherlands. This reproduction then created many interesting questions, regarding the relationships between mass tourism, mass consumerism, art history, culture and originality.

In my graduation installation “the self” becomes part of the iconic artwork. The work speaks of a paradoxical relationship between the viewer and the image in space. When one enters the space, a dilemma arises. The re ection of “the self” is opposed to the fragility of the work. You are drawn to work, but also rejected. There is also a paradox in visiting the “original” David. The visitors know the image from mass reproduction. The consuming self wants to strengthen its identity in relation to the image, by means of sel es for example. The iconic image attracts masses of visitors. The more money there is around the David, the more it is at the expense of the authenticity of the statue. The original will die more and more to the parts of the David will turn into mass-produced arte facts.