Salvatore Vitale & MBAL

Artist & director Salvatore Vitale reached the studio to create an interactive and online experience related to his latest movie Decompressed Prism. Among other assignments, the studio was asked to develop a new narrative for the film's web implementation, to define interactive experiences and design graphical interfaces that would match his prior production and strengthen the reflection and reach of his existing work.

Hosted by ORBIT_E - the digital exhibition space that the MBAL (Musée des Beaux-Arts Le Locle, CH) launched in 2022 - we created, all together, an original and interactive work that echoes the initial physical installation presented in the Palazzo Santa Margherita in Milan. The experience takes the form of a non-linear narrative situated at the crossroads of philosophy and technology, in which we have endeavoured to fragment and then reassemble the initial storyline into several chapters. Conceived as an experience for the visitor, the work evolves in a playful space and touches on subjects of reflection important to the artist, such as conscientization, empathy, social realism, space and body. Divided into four parts, each offering in a distinct digital space, a specific theme and an interactive experience of its own, the experience combines fictional and documentary elements, video archives, text, sound designs and real data.

The whole experience is based on the design of a virtual space that challenges the visitor, allowing freedom, but at the same time mimicking the mechanisms proper of digital tracking and monitoring. Access to content is granted only by accepting to share personal information (e.g. location). The user interface shows and records every single action taken while navigating. Users can download the details of each session.

"Decompressed Prism reveals the paradoxes behind the systemic logic of ubiquitous surveillance through automated security tools. Exploring different uses of control technologies in Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Italy, the artist questions how these technologies shape our relationship to the world and to ourselves as human beings. Indeed, Salvatore Vitale explores the notion of the body evolving between digitalisation and reality, and the transformation of the latter into a product controlled by technology. Drawing on contemporary philosophical and sociological texts, the artist imagines a different reality in which the visitor is invited to question the possibility of counter-narratives. The work also demonstrates the disturbing normalisation of security and rhizomatic surveillance, which should rather give rise to a sense of concern about its impact on human behaviour." Curation & texts by Nathalie Herschdorfer & Séverine Cattin.