Macchina per parlare da soli (Machine to speak to yourself)

1984

ø 120 cm.

45 cardboard cones ø 7 cm.

In the early 1980s, the reference point for my works was art. Studying it, I was overwhelmed by Marcel Duchamp, of whom I was especially interested in the “Large Glass” and who led me to the creation of a sculpture / tool, Macchina per parlare da soli.

Inside the “Large Glass”, two spaces coexist, the male kingdom below and the female kingdom above. One of the elements that characterize the male environment is the area of the Sieves, (les Tamis), cones that connect the Capillary Vessels, (Tubes capillaires), to the region of the Butterfly Pump, (Baratte-ventilateur). These cones, arranged in a semicircle, first filter and then convert the wishes of the Bachelor. Similarly, Macchina per parlare da soli maintained the semicircular structure and was made up of cardboard cones partially inserted into each other. Mouth and ear closed the circle when using the machine.

Macchina per parlare da soli was not born exclusively from the meeting with Duchamp but was the natural continuation of a previous event Dopo aver parlato a lungo da solo, finalmente ho deciso di ascoltarmi (After talking so long alone, at last I have decided to listen to myself), June 1984. Without dispersion or loss, as in the Large Glass, the machine traced a round trip. By building it, I legitimized an action normally consumed in the most bleak loneliness. I had created a specific tool, a tool of daily use suitable to satisfy existential needs in a public perspective.

Macchina per parlare da soli was the archetype and prototype of Strumento a perdifiato and contributed to his conception only for the concept of origin. Of the machine, an intimate and existential expression, Strumento a perdifiato contains the essence, however, developing new functions: it is a common tool similar to the telephone, or to the screwdriver: a tool available to humanity.

Machine to speak to yourself is made up of a series of forty-five cardboard cones (used for textile purposes) partially inserted into each other and modularly spaced 7.5 cm apart. about. The cones are arranged in sequence of red, striped gray, red, smooth gray, red and so on. The start on the left, x dimension from the ground, with the base of the cone and final arrival on the right with the vertex of the cone (y dimension from the ground). They are arranged circularly on a “U” shaped aluminum profile with a diameter of 120 cm. with a starting point lower than 8 cm. than the arrival.