Desireless

"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in just the way in which our visual field has no limits."

~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 6.4311

In a post-capitalist and perhaps post-war Europe, the CEO of an unnamed corporation presents a new product. It is calledWarp, a digital service that enables manipulation of the space-time continuum and access to a new Lebensform. It promises to dissolve nostalgia and the ambiguous passions that tinge the future into the fold of an endless present.

Part speculative science-fiction and part Commedia dell'arte,Desirelesstakes the viewer into the depths of this temporal dimension. Through a blend of monologues, choreography, and live music, the performance by Nicola Genovese, curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, exposes the masks, codes, and feelings of a semi-privileged humanity, torn between the remnants of a late-imperial world, the bondage of a technocratic hell, and the fantasy of a biomedical Nirvana.

The work itself is conceived as a machine of doubt and indistinction. In creatingDesireless, Nicola Genovese has collaborated with artists Dustin Kenel, Patricia Meier, Dauen Park, Maria Sabato, Thembeka Sincuba, the goth rock band They Die, and various artificial intelligence apps. The stage/exhibition space thus coincides with the action field of a collective mind that extends beyond the individual identity of the artist. Video installations and sculptures become props and vice versa, depending on how they are activated. They transcend the boundaries between theatre and visual arts.

--

Nicola Genovese is an Italian artist, born in Venice in 1971 and currently living in Zurich. After graduating from the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in 2017, he pursued aCreative Work PhD at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. His work has been recently exhibited and performed at various venues, including Haus Konstruktiv, Cabaret Voltaire, Fabrik Theater, Helmhaus, Zoological Museum, Rietberg Museum in Zurich; HDLU in Zagreb; Südpol and Kali in Luzern; Kunstraum Aarau; Shedhalle Frauenfeld; Schwarzwaldallee Basel; Sonnenstube in Lugano; the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg. In 2019, the artist was awarded the Werkstipendium grant from the city of Zurich.

Encompassing sculpture, video, performance, and music, Nicola Genovese's multimedia practice critically researches the aesthetics that shape masculinity and class identities in Western societies. Hierarchies and power relationships are translated into the combination of various materials, allowing the artist to explore the social history of decoration. As an Italian immigrant residing in Switzerland, he frequently assumes the roles of the fool, the punk, and the Pierrot in his performances and theater pieces.

Curated by: Francesco Urbano Ragazzi With: They Die, Dustin Kenel, Patricia Meier, Daeun Park, Maria Sabato, Thembeka Sincuba Sculptures production assistant: Ricardo Meli Light design: Imanol Egea External eye: Ketty Ghnassia Image: Daniel Drabek

Funded by: Stadt Zürich Kultur, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Walter Haefner Stiftung

Co-production: Fabriktheater Rote Fabrik Zürich

Duration: approx. 60 minutes

Language: English

Where: Toxi offspace, Zimmerlistrasse 4, 8004 Zürich

Following the performance on Thursday 7.12. there will be an audience discussion.

The stage can be visited from 03.12. to 11.12.23 from 4 to 7 pm, by appointment onlyvia toxi@toxi.space

>>> This performance is not wheelchair accessible