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Valeria Muteri
‘Il Balcone’ reflects on what it means to be a ‘dissident' in a Sicilian society dominated by mafia mentality. The project is set in Castelvetrano, a town in southwest Sicily, homeplace of Muteri and the current godfather.
A balcony is where the private addresses the public. Valeria draws on its spatial politics as the basis for four acts of dissidence. The first is the large-scale reconstruction of a Castelvetrano balcony, using original louvred doors supported by a steel frame. This structure forms the basis of performative reading where a gathered audience of ‘spect-actors’ are invited to read aloud public reactions against mafia collected in Castelvetrano and to honour the brave resistance of anti-mafia activist Giuseppe Cimarosa. This performance is accompanied by a film paying tribute to the families of those killed by the Sicilian mafia, and its script is inserted into a fascist guidebook, using Benjaminian allegory to interrupt an official history of Sicily with a dissident version.
Each act of dissidence encourages us to reflect on how individuals can take a stand. By reframing site, foregrounding the voice in public, showing resolve in grief, and intervening in an existing narrative, Il Balcone implores us to speak out for collective change.
- Images
1. Mutu, Valeria Muteri, 2019.
2. Il Balcone, Valeria Muteri, 2019. Photo of a performance (courtesy of Jan Kattein).
3. Augusta Schiera - Survived By (video still), Valeria Muteri, 2019.