WITH ANTTI UIMONEN
January 2022, The Netherlands
The durational performance project was developed in collaboration with the performer Antti Uimonen, and it is called “You can’t break the Resistance”.
The performance revolves around the struggle of alienation and exploitation of employees in big corporations and companies.
The performance pieces (shirt and waistcoat) that Antti is wearing during the performance are developed starting from an article retrieved from “Decoder Rivista Internazionale Underground”. The article is written in the form of “collective authorship” by the members of the “editorial board” of Decoder and it is centered on the hyper-commodification of goods and on the bad conditions of workers and employees in factories and corporations (alienation, no minimum salary, affective labor, no division between work and free time, etc.).
The above-mentioned text is mixed and matched with other images, letterings, and symbols extracted from other zines of the XEROXED archive (see garment fanzinography). The decision to develop a shirt and a waistcoat came from the idea of making two realities collide: the immaculate “corporation dress code” and the Resistance (to it). The waistcoat is realized with paper and a fabric lining. When the waistcoat rips, the prints on the fabric lining become visible.
During the performance, which lasted about one hour, Antti would squeeze, twist, break and rip the garments. The performer is also covered in clay underneath the garments and on his face. The clay is used to make the movement of his body more difficult to accomplish, as to represent the act of freeing oneself from the chains of bad working conditions. This is also the reason why the waistcoat is made of stiff paper that would be partially ripped by the end of the performance.
Printing technique
Silkscreen printing on paper, fabric, body.
Shirt and paper waistcoat fanzinography
Camouflage Concrete Recordings flyer. Autoprodotto.
Catastrophe 01. (2004). Supplemento a Torazine. Roma. Venerea Edizioni. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/catastrophe-01/mode/2up.
Catastrophe 02. (2005). Supplemento a Torazine. Roma. Venerea Edizioni. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/catastrophe-02/mode/2up.
Crescita politica anno 1 n. 2. Zina Autoprodotta.
Decoder: Rivista internazionale underground. Raccolta da 1 a 4. (1992). Milano. Shake Edizioni. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/decoder-1-4/mode/2up.
Torazine 000. (2000). Roma. Venerea Edizioni. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/torazine0000/page/n1/mode/2up.
Torazine 3000. (1999). Roma. Venerea Edizioni. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/torazine3000/mode/2up.
All the above- mentioned sources were re-elaborated, re-appropriated, and re-used.