BCB Art

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.