Rome – A taxi ride in an Arab country. A European artist who works with photography, Internet and other tools of the so-called New Media Art. The result: artwork composed by 10 images, made to be viewed on the Web, at address http://www.the5fifthday.com/. It is The Fifth Day, work developed by Carlo Zanni, with pictures taken from within a taxi, in Alexandria, Egypt, to be exhibited in Macro Future, in Rome, in September, during the International Photography Festival.
Zanni started developing the work in mid-2008 and completed it in December of the same year. The idea arose after a period in Egypt, where the artist undertook a residency in the ACAF (Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum), in 2007. Zanni’s images, as all others, tell a story, but they are not static. Details in the pictures change and move according to social, political and economic figures of the Arab country. "They are figures that reflect the socio-political situation of Egypt, which is an important mediator for the Middle East, with a poetic result, touching," said the artist.
The data selected by Zanni include, for instance, the ratio of women occupying seats in the Arab country’s parliament, child mortality, perceived corruption, illiteracy rates etc. The work was shown to the public for the first time last year in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, as part of an initiative for promoting contemporary art that brought curators and artists together during an entire year of work. In October, it was exhibited in New York, at the Chelsea Museum.
Pollack
The inspiration for the work came from a 1975 Sidney Pollack film, Three Days of the Condor. According to Zanni, it was one of the first widely distributed feature films in the spy genre that dealt with the interest of the United States’ interest in controlling the Middle East through its intelligence services. The objective was ensuring the oil supply. "It is a prophetic piece of work," says the artist, who also got the plot for his film from the book by James Grady in which it was based.
"The story in the book took place over the course of six days, so my idea was to bring some of the themes shown in the film up to date, and develop a complementary work, covering the three days that were not featured in feature film," explains the artist, who created a trilogy, of which The Fifth Day is the first film. In order to make the work more cinema-like, Zanni invited Kazimir Boyle to write the music that plays as the images are viewed on the site. "He is a very talented young man who works for both Hollywood and smaller projects," he claims.
The second part of Zanni’s work is The Sixth Day, which was finished last year. "It is a flag-shaped sculpture that flutters in a wind that is not present in the room, but rather comes from within the flag pole," he explains, and adds: "the speed and direction in which the flag goes are linked to data culled in real-time from the internet, showing the demand for petroleum in 30 different cities of the world, made available by the Joint Oil Data Initiative."
Young talent
Zanni’s trilogy is his first work focusing on the Middle East. "I believe that exchanging experiences and getting to know new places is crucial," says the artist, who has exhibited in Los Angeles and New York, in the United States, in London, in Rome etc. The foundation for his work is always time, and in order to shape up his ideas, he uses resources such as photography, performance, painting and the internet.
*Translated by Mark Ament and Gabriel Pomerancblum
