Maria Domenica Rapicavoli

Seeing others, seeing oneself. Human relations in complex and intricately interwoven events are the focus of Maria Domenica Rapicavoli’s artistic investigation, which by means of video and photography describes subjective experiences that take on an absolute value. The observation of the social context developed from a fact or an event followed by the deconstruction of the mechanism that leads to an opinion are a few of the basic elements on which the young artist’s quest is based. Her work makes the emotional link to some of the more meaningful performance art experiences, particularly from the 1970s onwards. Very often, a change in viewpoint is necessary, and this is precisely what happens in one of her videos, One, No-One (2005). Maria Domenica Rapicavoli hands over the camera to a few strangers to film her face so she can attempt to reconstruct her identity by analyzing the images. What is apparent on the surface does not necessarily correspond to a common visual convention – or at least not always. Investigating the subjective motivations that lead to a judgment is a method that, considered carefully, is actually a passage toward defining the structure of human existence, and it may become a roadmap for quickly changing one’s mind.

The sensations thus defined little by little become spaces that surround our physical selves and enable us to feel welcome, comfortable, accepted – or, on the contrary, rejected and inadequate. Similarly, they may represent a gaze that, depending on the geographical, historical and social context, can completely alter its modality. The artist takes precisely this approach in her work about the Sicilian village of Corleone. Through video and photographs, she shows oblique views of the village’s roofs, documents of the famous mafia “maxi trial” and records the faces of those who live in the village, who would be the first to want to change how the world perceives this place by seeing it from a different point of view, one that takes into account new physical and mental realities.

Paola Nicita