Tabula rasa. Diary pieces
Long-durational performance (54 hours).
30.6.-9.7.2023, Folkwang Museum, Essen.
Curated by Marina Abramović and Billy Zhao.
Presented as part of the group exhibition 54 Hours Performances.
[Handwritten diaries 2013-2023; bar stool; live-translation program; microphone; projector]
Memories obsess me. I constantly document experiences and collect materials in order not to let memories slip away. I get stuck in the past, and this prevents me from fully living in the present.
In order to turn the page, I read aloud from my diaries of the last ten years, which I have never reread since writing them. I tear them out and crumple them, page after page. A heap of paper memories grows on the floor around me. These pages hold my most personal desires and fears, but also the mundane scenes of everyday life. They will all be evoked one last time.
In addition to these short clips, a complete archival video documentation of the entire 54-hour performance, with subtitles, is currently in preparation and will be made available here once the editing process is finished.
The catalogue of the exhibition is published by Hatje Cantz together with the documentation of the Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab held by Marina Abramović and Billy Zhao in 2022–2023, in which I took part. Below follows an excerpt containing the diaries I wrote during the workshop phases that led to the final exhibition, as well as the documentation of my performance Tabula rasa. Diary pieces.
FIPL-54-HOURS-CATALOGUE-Excerpts-Francesco-MarzanoThe complete text of the diaries written during the Free Interdisciplinary Performance Lab can be read here. The scans below show the original handwritten pages from the days of the performance.
Workshop-Diaries-Phase-4-Exhibition-24.6.-10.7.2023-_-originals