READING THE NEWS, a performance by LUCIO POZZI
at the HUDSON OPERA HOUSE 327 Warren Street, Hudson, NY
April 19, 2008
"Reading the News" is an 8-hour long action that I performed for the first time in 1998 at the Esso Gallery in New York. It has since been presented on a few other occasions in the US and Europe.
It consists in spreading all the local press of the week around a chair on which I am sitting in the middle of a room. Some grapes, nuts and a bottle of water are placed under the chair. I continuously read loud all the information that my gaze stumbles upon–world and local events, publicity, birth and death notices, marriage announcements etc. I replace all men's names with the name John Smith and all women's names with Mary Jones. This leads to a weird representation of reality. Like many of my works in painting, this action seeks art while also investigating notions of identity and style.
The audience comes and goes as it wishes."
PERFORMED
SATURDAY, APRIL
19TH AT THE
HUDSON OPERA
HOUSE 10-6PM
Reception to
follow, with
a 2 week exhibition
of artworks
by Pozzi at
BCB ART 116
Warren Street,
Hudson, NY.
The exhibition
will be a survey
of his 'rag
rug' paintings:
a reoccurring
motif in which
leftover paint
from his palette
is added in
strips to create
new pictures-akin
to the tension,
confusion and
blur of the
'News' performance.
Also on view
will be a video
documenting
"Paper
Swim",
a performance
done by Pozzi
at the DIA Center
in Manhattan
in 1992.