Minute Maintenance

Five equipped overalls, mixed materials and techniques, different dimensions. Five Monotype, direct print on canvas paper, ink, trichloroethylene transfer, 262 x 195 cm. Installation view Palazzo Abatellis Regional Gallery of Sicily, Palermo. Photo by Mariano Dallago, Fausto Brigantino. Courtesy: the artist; Associazione Acrobazie; ruber.contemporanea
In collaboration with: Galleria Regionale della Sicilia di Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo; UIEPE, Ufficio Interdistrettuale per l’esecuzione penale esterna di Palermo; Teatro Massimo e sartoria del Teatro Massimo, Palermo; Ferrino & C. S.p.A, Torino; Museo Internazionale delle Marionette Antonio Pasqualino, Palermo; the project also involved several artisan businesses in Palermo, including the Social tailoring of Palermo, the puppeteers Salvatore Bumbello and Pietro Sasso, Artsiom Parchynski, for the construction of the self-supporting structure of the overalls

Study drawings

View of the work in front of Triumph of Death, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia di Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Monotype #1, Home Everywhere. Direct print on canvas paper, ink, trichloroethylene transfer, 262 x 195 cm

The Monotype #1, Home Everywhere is a direct print obtained from the imprint of a overall on paper. Each monotype functions as a legend accompanying the corresponding fabric overall and is composed of phrases and quotations that emerged from dialogues with participants in workshops conducted with people in the care of the UIEPE in Palermo. The five monotypes thus reflect the voices that emerged during the workshop, making visible the processes and experiences that shaped the overalls.

Overall #1, Home Everywhere. Equipped overalls, mixed materials and techniques, 172 x 320 x 220 cm

Overall #1, Home Everywhere, can be worn or mounted on a freestanding structure. Wherever we go, wherever we decide to stop, even for a short time, we find ourselves in the situation of having to inhabit it, and inhabiting is not always easy. Dwelling is a good mixture of the faculties of welcoming and being welcomed by the people and things we encounter. Overall #1, Home Everywhere, helps in the craft of life by protecting the wearer from the cold and the night. Still, it can readily become a space to welcome others, to build relationships, to design a home where a home does not seem to be because the craft of life cannot be done without others. The gardener’s gloves are painted with floral motifs that cite the fresco Triumph of Death. The suit pants have been modified to become a tent, equipped with pegs and ballast. The cape, made from a camping tent, is padded and quilted with a pattern that recalls the veins of a leaf and culminates in a train with two tails that mention a mermaid puppet, part of the collection of the Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum in Palermo.

Overall #1, Home Everywhere. Details

Study drawings

View of the work in front of Triumph of Death, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia di Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Monotype #2, Landscape Voice. Direct print on canvas paper, ink, trichloroethylene transfer, 262 x 195 cm

The Monotype #2, Landscape Voice is a direct print obtained from the imprint of a overall on paper. Each monotype functions as a legend accompanying the corresponding fabric overall and is composed of phrases and quotations that emerged from dialogues with participants in workshops conducted with people in the care of the UIEPE in Palermo. The five monotypes thus reflect the voices that emerged during the workshop, making visible the processes and experiences that shaped the overalls.

Overall #2, Landscape Voice. Equipped overalls, mixed materials and techniques, 200 x 140 x 90 cm

Overall #2, Voice of Landscape, can be worn or mounted on a freestanding structure. To live means to change, to establish a relationship of harmony and dynamism with the world around us; in this sense, metamorphosis is one of the figures that most powerfully represents freedom. Overall #2, Voice of Landscape, aids in the craft of living by collecting many ways of experiencing and being a part of the environment around us. The suit traces a continuity between the wearer and the landscape because transforming always also means a bit of mixing with what we have around us. The protective cowl of welder’s leather is painted with arboreal motifs that cite the fresco of Triumph of Death, the right glove is a mitten, sewn on the silhouette of Isola delle Femmine Island, and the left glove is a glove puppet in the shape of a fish. The sea as a symbolic place of freedom finds space in the right front pocket, which contains two transparent pouches held by fishing net. The silhouette of Mt. Pellegrino as a childhood memory is transformed into long bangs on the back of the suit, and a piece of land to be cultivated as a resource of salvation finds a place in the back pockets of the suit, which contains two strawberry plants, citing the saving plants painted in the fresco Triumph of Death.

Overall #2, Voice of Landscape. Details

Study drawings

View of the work in front of Triumph of Death, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia di Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Monotype #3, Care for Earthlings. Direct print on canvas paper, ink, trichloroethylene transfer, 262 x 195 cm

The Monotype #3, Care for Earthlings is a direct print obtained from the imprint of a overall on paper. Each monotype functions as a legend accompanying the corresponding fabric overall and is composed of phrases and quotations that emerged from dialogues with participants in workshops conducted with people in the care of the UIEPE in Palermo. The five monotypes thus reflect the voices that emerged during the workshop, making visible the processes and experiences that shaped the overalls.

Overall #3, Care for Earthlings. Equipped overalls, mixed materials and techniques, 203 x 70 x 380 cm

Overall #3, Care for Earthlings, can be worn or mounted on a freestanding structure. Caring for oneself, a thing or another person is a way to heal. To give oneself means to open up, to stand with open pores of the skin, ready to receive the other in an act that is enriching for oneself. The image that embodies this attitude is that of the octopus, a curious being with an insatiable desire to explore.
Its skin that can change color is both a way to defend itself from predators and a way to communicate its emotions. The octopus uses its tentacles to learn about and taste the world around it; in Overall #3, Care for Earthlings, it is the tentacles themselves that are the conduit through which one can relate to one another. Each sleeve tentacle, made by workshop participants, has openings designed to be tactilely explored by the public by slipping their hands into them. A space to connect experiences, build subtle and unusual relationships, and create interactions between one’s own body and that of others. Each sleeve tentacle, has openings designed to be tactilely explored by the public by slipping their hands into them, a balaclava hood takes inspiration from the head of an octopus, on the sleeves are inserted protective leather welder’s sleeves, painted with strawberry leaves that cite the saving plant species from the fresco Triumph of Death. The sweatpants recall the suckers on an octopus’ tentacles, the falconer’s glove on the left hand echoes a detail from the fresco of Triumph of Death. The right glove, made of cut-resistant steel mesh, cites a participant’s activity as a cook.

Overall #3, Care for Earthlings. Details

Study drawings

View of the work in front of Triumph of Death, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia di Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Monotype #4, Theatre of the Unspoken. Direct print on canvas paper, ink, trichloroethylene transfer, 262 x 195 cm

The Monotype #4, Theatre of the Unspoken is a direct print obtained from the imprint of a overall on paper. Each monotype functions as a legend accompanying the corresponding fabric overall and is composed of phrases and quotations that emerged from dialogues with participants in workshops conducted with people in the care of the UIEPE in Palermo. The five monotypes thus reflect the voices that emerged during the workshop, making visible the processes and experiences that shaped the overalls.

Overall #4, Theatre of the Unspoken. Equipped overalls, mixed materials and techniques, five puppets, fabric, wood, 196 x 146 x 70 cm

Overall #4, Theater of the Unspoken, can be worn or mounted on a freestanding structure. Overall #4, offers practical tools to imagine and tell. The red curtain, a tribute to Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, transforms the overalls into a stage on which five puppets dressed in Minute Maintenance’s miniature overalls take the stage. Many of the participants are fathers and mothers; this suit is also designed as a narrative transmission tool for their children. The five puppets can play imaginary and imagined life scenes, giving voice to the unspoken, and allowing us to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, person, or animal. Storytelling was conceived during the entire process that gave birth to Minute Maintenance. Overall #4, Theater of the Unspoken, is the suit of possible futures.

Overall #4, Theater of the Unspoken. Details

Study drawings

View of the work in front of Triumph of Death, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia di Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Monotype #5, Writing Not to Disappear. Direct print on canvas paper, ink, trichloroethylene transfer, 262 x 195 cm

Monotype #5, Writing Not to Disappear, is a direct print obtained from the imprint of a overall on paper. Each monotype functions as a legend accompanying the corresponding fabric overall and is composed of phrases and quotations that emerged from dialogues with participants in workshops conducted with people in the care of the UIEPE in Palermo. The five monotypes thus reflect the voices that emerged during the workshop, making visible the processes and experiences that shaped the overalls.

Overall #5, Writing Not to Disappear. Equipped overalls, mixed materials and techniques, 182 x 78 x 92 cm

Overall #5, Writing Not to Disappear, can be worn or mounted on a freestanding structure. The fabric of the suit is marked with black tire treads to pay homage to the truck driver’s job performed by some workshop participants. The black tread marks were obtained by the artist through direct impressions of inked wheels on the suit fabric. The suit is equipped with a wristband, an armband, and a legging from which long carpenter’s pencils emerge: by wearing this equipment and approaching a wall, it is possible to draw lines and marks on the wall through the movement of the body. The heat protective gloves, also act as a calendar, bearing dates significant to the artist. A mechanical people counter quotes a phrase from F., one of the workshop participants, who in talking about the experience of imprisonment commented as follows: we are not talking about numbers, we are talking about people.