Lacapo Seri

Wednesday 24th October

Iacopo Seri is an Italian artist who completed his MA in Visual Arts at the University of Architecture in Venice. His work revolves heavily around "living myths". He seeks to transform commonplace actions into vechiles for the unconvential understanding of the mystery of humanity.

What can I say about this lecture? To start with, it was very… very weird. However, I do appreciate the communication skills Seri had with the audience. I didn’t hate the lecture, it was entertaining and I generally was interested in what he was trying to communicate. Although I do believe the sound making didn’t have to continue for the full hour and I would have liked if Lacopo Seri explained his work as well as the performance aspect of it. I want to know his why and what drives him and inspires him to do this kind of work. I was unable to stay for the question and answer session afterwards however I will discuss with some friends who have attended to see if they found out anything further. It is evident in Seri’s work his fascination with sound and communication; especially those that involve our body to create e.g. Clapping and humming.

To put it bluntly I seen this man justifying his insanity with the use of art. I cannot penalise this act though nor can I be a hypocrite, isn’t that what most artists do? We use art as a means to communicate with the world, show our understanding of the world that others may not understand.

I believe I found this lecture so interesting as I can relate it to where I want to take my work down the line. Lacopo Seri uses his ability to draw and perform to engage the audience and manipulate them in a sense. His work caused instant reactions and this is what I want my work to do. I want to create atmospheric pieces/experiences that make the audience feel something whether it be weary or if it engulfs them.

During this lecture, there was this question of self-doubt. At the beginning, I thought I personally was not processing what he was saying or doing but all the people around me seemed to, as they were interacting in the performance. I think his work held a strong message intentional or otherwise. Even though there was this language “barrier” he could still communicate clearly what he wanted the audience to do. 

The bit I found most relative to my practise was when he used drawing to manipulate the sounds the audience made. Even though this was just more or less the pitch it affects the overall atmosphere in the room.