Angelica MESITI

アンジェリカ・メシティ

Mother Tongue

2017, Two-channel HD video installation, Color, Surround Sound,
17min 54sec, Collection of the artist

Photo: Bonnie Elliot.
© Angelica Mesiti. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery.

Mother Tongue 1 Mother Tongue 2 Mother Tongue 3 Mother Tongue 4

Biography

Angelica Mesiti has long been fascinated by performance: as a mode of storytelling and a means to express social ideas in physical form. In recent years she has been making videos that reveal how culture is manifested through non-linguistic forms of communication, and especially through vocabularies of sound and gesture. While borrowing archetypes and stylistic cues from cinema, and using the visual language of film to present detailed studies of human subjects in heightened states of reverie or reflection, Mesiti’s works eschew linearity. Instead, she uses a rich, aesthetic treatment to uncover the transformative potential of all human beings, valuing the qualities of ambiguity and indeterminacy in their own right.Mesiti’s works are held in notable permanent, public collections． She was selected as the artist of Australian Pavilion of Venice Biennale, 2019.

Footnote

Sounds and voices echo across various places such as assembly houses, apartments, living rooms, and so on. They are derived from distinctly different cultural backgrounds like traditional folk songs sung by children and the songs and drums of immigrants' homelands. This footage, entirely shot in Aarhus, the second biggest city in Denmark, shows the diversity of the culture and physicality of the residents of the city. Any one of the voices does not take a dominant position in the city, and they all echo with one another.
What is common among the musical experiences derived from different languages and rhythms is that the songs and gestures have been repeated over and over again in each community, connecting people. Instead of the significance of each song or the playing techniques, the work focuses on scenes where people exchange sounds and voices with others who share the same social context. The video work captures how each personal inner spirit subtly resonates with one another regardless of the differences of personal habits and bodies.

Installation View

Photo: KIGURE Shinya

Angelica MESITI, Mother Tongue, 2017
Two-channel high definition colour video installation and surround sound, 17 minutes 54 seconds

Angelica MESITI
Angelica Mesiti has long been fascinated by performance: as a mode of storytelling and a means to express social ideas in physical form. In recent years she has been making videos that reveal how culture is manifested through non-linguistic forms of communication, and especially through vocabularies of sound and gesture. While borrowing archetypes and stylistic cues from cinema, and using the visual language of film to present detailed studies of human subjects in heightened states of reverie or reflection, Mesiti’s works eschew linearity. Instead, she uses a rich, aesthetic treatment to uncover the transformative potential of all human beings, valuing the qualities of ambiguity and indeterminacy in their own right.Mesiti’s works are held in notable permanent, public collections． She was selected as the artist of Australian Pavilion of Venice Biennale, 2019.