1992-2021
Centre d’Art Tecla Sala
Mite (Legend) is a performative installation published on video, that refers to recognized, let us say legendary artists and writers of the twentieth century. Later, in 1994 and 2009, Vacca re-used the name of this piece in two works also related to the idea of legend.
Having noticed the short time it took for phosphorescent letters to fade into darkness, I distributed, in a large space, the names and the dates of birth and death of four “legendary” characters from the environment of literature and art; and on one of the walls of the space I placed the statement: FIRST THEY MAKE THE PATIENTS, THEN THE HOSPITALS. All in adhesive phosphorescent letters.
In the darkness, I aimed a portable spotlight closely at one of the phrases, and when I turned it off the phosphorescence enabled me to read it in the dark for a few moments; I repeated the action with the other phrases in a sequence that ended with the phrase on the wall.
The performance became a video-tape, where it is shown how difficult it is for the facts and the legacy to persist of those whose actions have referred to the procedures used in retrospect to ensure the permanence of their memory.
This fact can be extended to a multitude of actions in which the consequences have been undervalued and infallibly call for corrective effects that would otherwise be unnecessary.
