Stran22: Da me stesso non vegno
lighting installation
Breg 1
24th May–19th June 2021

»Da me stesso non vegno«^[1]

It would be difficult to imagine a more accurate depiction of the Latin word spectrum (image, picture) and its connection to the spirit (spectre). With recording and playback, all these mirrored and multiplied reflections are caught up in endless wandering where, according to Mark Fisher, “in some important sense, there is no present that can be captured and articulated.” As Dante wandered the Beyond, a spirit foretold his expulsion from Florence, adding that “we don’t know anything about how you live for yourself now.”

So how do we live for ourselves now? We’re so stuck in a chronic lack of time that we’re oblivious to which fears are haunting us and whose invisible hands so stubbornly defend us from them. Maybe that is why “Da me stesso non vegno” floods us with a lower (infrared) spectrum light so we can identify ourselves as spectres too. As Derrida says in Specters of Marx: “the future belongs to spectres.”

STRAN 22 is a collective that brings together creators of visual and performative arts, of architecture and design, of authorial music and poetry. The combination of their varied skills allows and inspires them to discover new artistic expressions away from conventional approaches.

*1 »But I am not of myself« (Inferno, X, 61, trans. Capuder). in the title that includes both »I come not of myself« (Longfellow) and »My own powers have not brought me« (Mandelbaum).

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