Screening Room: Michael Fliri
The fourth chapter of Screening Rooms presents Italian artist Michael Fliri (1978) with his video I Pray I’m a False Prophet. Produced with the support of the Dena Foundation, this work was commissioned by Contour 7, the Moving Image Biennale of Mechelen (Belgium), to which Fliri participated in 2015. Closely related to the video, a series of sculptures made in 2014 and a silkscreen created in 2015 are also presented in this Screening Room.
This work’s title stems from a quote by Thomas More. In this video Fliri investigates the concepts of transformation and metamorphosis, both central themes of his practice, reaching a high level of evocative tension. The artist connects his interest in music – which was composed by Maarten Seghers for this work – and masks, expanding the symbolic meaning of the mask. At the end of the video we experience an epiphany and are made aware of a new presence that was previously latent in the mold. This work examines the space between the face’s profile and the worn mask. This “in between” space is filled with material and unveils its double meaning: what it hides and what it stands to represent.
The series of sculptures titled Where do I end and the world begins was created in 2014 and is closely related to the video I Pray I’m a False Prophet. Fliri made these sculptures during a residency in Friedrichshafen (Germany) and they were all exhibited in his solo show at Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen (2014). The artist worked with masks from different parts of the world that belong to the Mask Museum in Diedorf. In this series Fliri focused on the positive and the negative, fundamental concepts of sculpture. What we see on the back of each work is the negative of a mask immersed in the material. Instead, the face on the front part of each sculpture is the positive of the back which belonged to a second and different mask.
Ceramic casting compound, spray paint, wood, metal
23,5 × 14,5 × 11 cm
Ed. of 3 + 1 AP
ceramic casting compound, spray paint, wood, metal
31 × 23 × 15 cm
Ed. of 3 + 1 AP
For me transformation means new possibilities, new opportunities. Everything is in motion, not definite.
– Michael Fliri
ceramic casting compound, spray paint, wood, metal
27 × 20 × 16 cm
Ed. of 3 + 1 AP
Back
Front
ceramic casting compound, spray paint, wood, metal
27 × 17 × 14 cm
Ed. of 3 + 1 AP
Back
The visual outcome of both the video and the sculptures is also translated in the silkscreen edition Untitled (2015). The mask in this work is the same one as the video I Pray I’m a False Prophet.