“Purposes”, critic text by Gaia Conti & Domitilla Musella, 2009, eng

"Pulse Red" is an artistic intervention focused on the synergy between art scene and public, aimed at establishing a direct communication, beyond any form of mediation, between the artist and spectator.

Within the context of the Outdoors project, Pulse Red is not simply an installation, rather it is a public art intervention. It is a meta-piece in which every aspect of representation functions, in reality, as a key leading back to a precise creative moment. A site-specific work created according to a reciprocal historic and visual linguistic pertinence. The first aim of the entire project - and of this work in particular - is to present art on the public territory, beyond the spaces traditionally delegated to it, encouraging new artistic practices of “contemporaneity” and a re-qualification of the territory and of the collectivity which inhabits it.

Recast, the work recounts the project proposed by the same artist in September 2004. At that time, an illuminated red interference, aimed at the golden globe on the Punta della Dogana da Mar, interpreted the idea of border. Thus, a public intervention with a strong theatrical impact and an undermining tone confronted the vast question of mass media communication. Now, in the cloister of the historic Fontego dei Tedeschi, an installation reproducing the video documentation of the precedent intervention physically fits itself into the central space, completely encompassing the walls of the well - a four-sided structure - almost as if to charge itself of the significance on many fronts.

Like Punta della Dogana, the Fontego dei Tedeschi was and is a place of exchange. This overwhelming building, erected by Venetians in 1228, is the point from which the commercial operations of Rialto were controlled. Not only is it the largest historic warehouse of Venice, but it is also the current headquarters of the post office. Here the city’s entire flow of information is sorted. This intervention creates a dialogue between the first performance and the place where it now repeats itself, developing a trajectory of meaning and continuity in the relationship it establishes with the sites.

The spectator is not obliged to adopt a predefined role which could condition his or her vision, as often occurs in museums and galleries. He or she is free to observe the work, through his or her own curiosity, in a space generally not employed for aesthetic purposes. The artist is the first spectator of spaces which tell, intervening through minimal actions and shifts of meaning that gradually accompany the public toward a centre of pulsing interest. In this specific work, maximum tension is reached the moment in which the ball of fire is revealed - the illuminated interference cloaking the golden globe of the architectural structure - the focal point of the performance itself.

The processes of image creation, as developing experience to be manipulated, reread or completed, here occur thanks to the video documentation. In this type of language, the aim translates as a narrative, which from an introductive prologue develops its plot along different paths until finally reaching an epilogue. The work loosens itself from the original context and charges itself with new significance.