“Mariotti’s Ritual Artefacts and the Origins of Media Art: In search of the Lost Multisensorial Characteristics of New media” presented by Mariátegui
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Archiving Digital Heritage Panel
Presentation Title:
- Mariotti’s Ritual Artefacts and the Origins of Media Art: In search of the Lost Multisensorial Characteristics of New media
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Keywords: Multisensorial, Documenta, Sao Paulo Biennale, Mutisensorial, Mariotti, Media Art
This paper will give an overview of the seminal works of Francesco Mariotti, an artist of Swiss origin (Bern, 1943) who has lived between Peru and Switzerland since 1952 and can be regarded as one of the pioneers of media art both in Latin America and Europe; more importantly, his work linked both continents in distinctive dialogues relating social processes, natural phenomena and technology. In 1968, during the 4th Documenta in Kassel he produced one of the first interactive installations in media art history: “Project Geldmacher – Mariotti”. A year later, in 1969, during the X Sao Paulo Biennial, he presented “The Circular Movement of Light”, a multisensorial (light, smell, sound) installation. Through extensive research of the archives of both Documenta and Sao Paulo Biennial, this paper focuses on these two seminal works with emphasis on their main characteristics and explores how these projects are an early example of works on participatory and social processes, natural and multisensorial phenomena, arguing that through the use of technology, these should be regarded as significant works of the history of media art in Latin America.
