17/02/2021
Digital Mourning
Digital Mourning, curated by Roberta Tenconi, is the first major solo exhibition devoted to
Neïl Beloufa in an Italian institution, and it stems from a reflection on the current times and
on the concept of life in our digital world. Right from the title, the exhibition alludes to one
of the most striking paradoxes of contemporary society, which is the existence in a
technological world and its parallel disappearance. The association of the two words—
“digital” and “mourning”—comes about in the encounter between an artificial world and the
absence of life, in a dimension in which life itself is simulated by means of models specially
created to understand its true essence. Playing on a combination and intermingling of genres, Digital Mourning is a complex new
multimedia installation conceived specifically for the space of the Shed at Pirelli
HangarBicocca, presenting, at the same time, a retrospective of Neïl Beloufa’s video
works. The exhibition consists of a wide selection of films and video works that retrace the
artist’s career from his debut (with Kempinski, 2007) through to his most recent
productions, few of which are projected inside multimedia installations originally designed
for them by the artist. Together, these form part of a computerised activation and re-editing
system that abolishes any hierarchy between the different types of information.
Resembling the scenario of an “amusement” park, the space embraces a large selection of
works, including the artist’s most relevant installations and walk-through sculptures.
However, mimicking the current state of affairs, it is forbidden to use the “attractions” and
the exhibition appears to come alive only through a series of narrative voices. In
presenting the works and explaining the viewers what to see in each area, the narrators
introduce and discuss different positions, from utopian aspirations to the opinions of the
youngest generation. While making a new total artwork out of former works, the exhibition
is as well adapting the way we consume culture these days, for example by playing with
the flux of information and the attention span standard viewers have or by providing links
to watch films directly at home.
Right from his first work, Kempinski (2007), Neïl Beloufa has called conventions into
question. Shot in Bamako, Mali, the video consists of a series of brief interviews in which
the artist subtly breaks the stylistic rules of the genre. While maintaining the spirit of
authenticity that is typical of documentaries, the dialogues between the participants
describe a world totally devoid of any of the stereotypical ideas about the African
continent. Instead, he creates fantastical, surreal scenarios simply by using the present
tense to talk about a hypothetical future. This allegory of the contemporary world and its
fragility can also be seen in the kinetic installation People’s Passion, transparency,
mobility, all surrounded by water (2018), which includes the homonymous video. The
work is based on a series of interviews by the artist with the inhabitants of a new
residential complex in North America, revealing all the artificiality inherent in the perception
of lifestyle and wellbeing of the Western world. Equally powerful is the idea of the highly
rhetorical reality presented in World Domination (2015), in which Neïl Beloufa uses nonprofessional
actors and role-playing to defend positions that are arbitrarily attributed.
Projected onto the irregular surface of a motorised wall that moves on a track, the video
shows five diplomatic tables and scenes where international issues such as obesity and
financial investments are discussed, often ending in clear contradictions and calls for war.
Lastly, the show presents a new expanded version of La morale de l’histoire (2019),
made especially for this occasion. The immersive installation is conceived as a
technological fairy-tale that tells the story of a camel and some fennecs who built a stone
wall in the desert to shelter from the sun at the expense of a colony of ants. The work,
which deliberately uses the narrative form of children’s stories to create a metaphor of the
capitalist economy, closes the exhibition and truly acts as a conclusion or summary for all
the other stories and works.
The various installations turn Digital Mourning into an immersive environment, in which
the impulses created by the images, sounds and lights are synchronised in a complex
sequence that guides the viewer’s movements. The switching on and off of one or more
works at the same time creates a one of a kind choreography, in which some works come
to life while others lie in frozen sleep. The rhythm of the narrative is set by the narrating
voices, the so-called “Hosts”, in which the audio channels are programmed to give the viewer
“orders.” This means that, as the artist puts it, the public is “in a free but
uncomfortable position that should lead to thinking about what is shown instead of
believing it”. In creating this control system, Neïl Beloufa brings into question permeable
concepts such as truth and fiction and shows how they interweave in the contemporary
world, explaining their mechanisms as clearly as if he was describing the devices and
wiring at the heart of his works.
What’s more, in the spring Neïl Beloufa will present his exhibition The Moral of the Story
in the city center. The project is promoted by Fondazione Henraux and will comprise four
previously unseen installations by the artist, on display in the amphitheater of the Apple
Store in Piazza Liberty. The works, produced by Henraux in marble, will be on show both
during the day and into the evening.