@ Vesu.Vius
Peter d’Agostino © 1999/2023
Video Installation Preview: 8min Edition: 5+2 AP
Exploring paradoxes of natural, cultural and virtual identities, @Vesu.Vius moves back and forth in time by juxtaposing iconic images of my walks on Mount Vesuvius, through Pompeii, and places where I grew up in the Italian American community of The Bronx, New York.
Volcanic eruptions such as Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD serve as powerful metaphors for the upheavals of human displacement and disembodiment. Gay Talese describes those who live in the shadow of the volcano "are ever aware that they might at any moment be flung into obscurity by a calamitous convolution."
"The contrast between the clips of Bronx street life and the ruined avenues of Pompeii is a quiet study of transience and the preservation of cultural memory." - Holland Cotter, NYTimes 5.7.99
Exhibitions 1999: The initial Installation was composed of a two-channel video and website accessing Mt Vesuvius live cams. Peter d’Agostino: Interactivity and Intervention, 1978-99 Lehman College Art Gallery, New York Artmedia VII Chiesa di Sant’Appollonia, Salerno, Italy