TANTO PEGGIO, TANTO MEGLIO
Technique:2019/20 Installation in public space of the city of Matera (Italy) and its surroundings
With “Tanto peggio, tanto meglio” Hauser realized on invitation of the the Musma Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in collaboration with the Matera-Basilicata 2019 Foundation an installation in the public space of the city Matera in occasion of the year of the European Capital of Culture during a one month long residency in Matera.
Seven curtains are installed in different, unpopular places that reach from the historic city center to the extreme outskirts 10km from the town. Referring to the very special history of the community of Matera, which was named by italian politics because of its strong poverty “The shame of Italy” in the 1950’es and in 2019 it’s almost gentrified in its heart piece the historical city center the “Sassi”, the artist chooses radical places, marking points of the cities first industries, a private house of a farmer in the outskirts of the town a collapsing house in the middle of a field without any street to reach the artwork.
Hauser also chooses conscious the moment of installing the “theatrical” curtains: It all opens one month before the end of the year of the title “European Capital of Culture” of Matera and the installation will last one month after the end of this special period. The curtains remain during the winter time, like silent testemonials or signs in public space, created in continuous meetings and discussions with the community of Matera. The curtains where produced in collaboration with the master tailor Sy Savane Ibrahim from the Ivory Coast and the social institution Il Sicomoro.
(Photo Installationviews Pierangelo Laterza )
