Finalist project by Claudia Taratufolo, RUFA student.
“Remedy for the Cure” stems from the exploration of an everyday gesture, often considered trivial, that the artist recovers as a symbolic gateway to an archaic and shared dimension: yawning.
In the Lucanian tradition, this gesture was evoked by the healers in the rituals of fascination, transmitted to firstborns as ancient healing gestures. Yawning thus became an act of purification, a threshold between malaise and cure, capable of releasing dark energies and restoring a balance between body and spirit.
In this project, Claudia Taratufolo recovers that ancestral memory, transforming it into a sensory language that speaks to the present.
Yawning is also one of the earliest communication tools of human beings: in pre-linguistic eras it served to convey empathy, alertness, a sense of belonging. A contagious reflex that contributed to group survival and still reveals its ability to create invisible connections between individuals.
The installation becomes an immersive environment in which the audience is invited to get involved in this simple yet powerful act.
Four speakers, aligned in the center of the space, loop a series of female yawns. The superimposition of the sounds generates a ritual rhythm that grafts itself into the environment and resonates in the body of those who cross the room.
Remedy for the Cure is an invitation to rediscover yawning as a gesture that heals, a bridge between the intimacy of the individual and the collective origin of the human. A minimal action that becomes a communal experience, capable of bringing us back to a shared breath.
The project, along with all the finalist works from the “Normal is Extraordinary” international contest , will be on display at the MAXXI Corner from Dec. 5 to 8 (free admission).
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