The Impossibility of Balance

The video Sulla retta via (On the straight and narrow) (2014), featuring a performance created especially for Rimini, shows a line of people moving along the foreshore of a deserted beach. Each is concentrated on his/her own footsteps, trying to follow the fleeting border defined by the waves as they leave a feint trace along the point where the elements, water and earth, clash against one another, united and separated at the same time. The attempt of the individuals to lay down a perfect line along the edge of the waves is, however, one that remains unachievable given that the path sought after is continually broken. This impossibility is caused by the perpetual and irregular movements of the sea, which become an evocative metaphor of man’s impossibility to find a balance between his own intuitive-emotional nature and society’s role in influencing and corrupting the individual essence.

This state of continuous tension lies at the heart of Filippo Berta’s analysis, for via the micro-narratives of performances staged by common people, he investigates that particular human condition which through restrictions, mechanisms, and the dynamics of society reveals an irreconcilable dualism, reflected here in the search for a borderline.

The protagonists of Homo Homini Lupus (Man is a Wolf for Men, 2011) are wolves who, on a desolate stretch of land, fight over a flag, as if it were a highly-prized prey. The flag, historically a symbol of territorial and national identification, represents the thirst for power and superiority over others. The wolf, a pack animal, characterised by extremely hierarchical social structures in which every animal has its own specific role, vigorously defends its own authority both inside and outside the group through a violent survival instinct. In the photograph Homo Homini Lupus the two wolves are pulling on the Italian flag, yet neither really manages to have the upper hand, and the struggle – following the logic of submission of the opponent – goes on and on deliriously.

In Déjà vu (2008), six couples of identical twins form two mirroring teams on a theatre stage, pitted against one another in a tug-o’-war. The single ropes, each bearing a red mark halfway along, never create a single straight line: the two teams, identical on the outside, differ in terms of tenacity and strength; thus the balance is broken continually, underlining a form of dualism in which no one is ever really capable of dominating the other. Thus the human being is (de)formed by society as it penetrates individual consciences and conditions mental behaviour, guiding the individual towards standardised roles and towards an intrinsic sense of competitiveness. Highlighting the tension and the existential abyss incurred by this dualism, through the work of Filippo Berta we thus draw closer to the search of the causes and conditions of these mutations, yet also closer to the identification of a more profoundly human nature.

Claudia Löffelholz

See more at (English):

http://moussemagazine.it/filippo-berta-and-guerra-de-la-paz-at-augeo-art-space-rimini/

http://www.larete-artprojects.net/?shows_and_projects:Rimini:Guerra_de_la_Paz_I_Berta 

See more at (Italiano):

http://www.augeo.it/artisti/filippo-berta/