They Live We Sleep, 2008
149 megaphones (each Ø 20 cm.), steel, computer, electronic unit, mixer, electric wires
400 x 800 x 35 cm.

One hundred and forty-nine megaphones make up the sentence “THEY LIVE WE SLEEP”. Each one is connected to an electronic unit that activates them in random order, making each one pronounce the single words “They”, “live”, “we”, “sleep”. Intermittently, the entire sentence is ‘spoken’ by all megaphones. This sentence is taken from the 1988 John Carpenter film “They Live”, which is centred on an explicit and visionary critique of the power of television and the media in contemporary society. The work refers to the theme of the double level of reality proposed by the film, transferring the action to a field that is both auditory and visual, where the megaphone, tool used par excellence in street marches, becomes the material of the work, its emotional and political detector.

Installation view XV Quadriennale di Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 2008

Courtesy Matteo Viglietta S.p.A., Collezione La Gaia, the artist and Magazzino, Rome

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