Another project is a live London bobby, complete with helmet and uniform but possibly non-regulation socks, who sits on the floor practising yoga. The policeman demonstrates that the constabulary get stressed, too, and that sitting on the floor and crossing your legs helps cancel out the bad karma of all those nasty terrorist attacks. This intervention is by Geneva-based Gianni Motti. The policeman, it turns out, isn't quite the full shilling, just a sitting stand-in in a uniform. [the guardian]
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Another of my favourites is Gianni Motti's policemen (actually two performers) - maintaining inner peace though the practice of yoga. It's a humanist response to the proliferation of terrorism. [the guardian]
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Pre-emptive Act
‘The threat of terrorism, physical or psychological, has given rise to a collective stress in society. Even the police are affected and this particular stress is referred to as the “Police Paradox”.’
Working within the varied arenas of sport, finance, media, international politics, parapsychology, and now, an art fair, Gianni Motti sets out to put himself, as he defines it, ‘in the wrong place at the right time’. Previously, he has hijacked a busload of Japanese tourists and taken them to an art opening, organized a national telepathy event in Bogotá urging President Ernesto Samper to resign, and seated himself in the VIP box of the French Open tennis tournament with a bag over his head, in a curious evocation of the images from Abu Ghraib. Without ever sermonizing, Motti’s improbable actions contain lessons about the freedoms we take for granted.
Continuing his examination of institutions of authority and issues of security, both perceived and real, Motti engages the security presence at the fair, not in a demonstration of force, as one might expect, but in the act of maintaining inner peace though the practice of yoga. In our times of proliferating terrorism and great national and personal insecurity, Motti presents a humanist response to these circumstances with an image of calm.
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[the guardian, 11 10 07]
Le immagini quì sopra mostrano il lavoro presentato da Gianni Motti al Frieze Art Fair (Londra 11/14 ottobre 2007).
Si intitola "Pre-emptive Act". Un poliziotto è immobile nella posizione yoga "del loto".
