THE OTHER: A FAMILIAR STORY
2020
Two-channel video installation, sound, color, dur. 19’40”
The work consists of a two-channel video projection and various sculptural elements.
A new single channel version of the video was release in 2023 and it is currently on view on The High Line in New York, as part of the show Neither Here Nor There - See the trailer below.
“The Other: A Familiar Story, tells a dark tale of imposed matrimony. Her two-channel, projected film stitches together the protagonist’s fragmented memories of her journey, one of stark dislocation from Nicolosi in Catania, Italy, to Lawrence, Massachusetts. The experimental narrative follows a woman, forced to emigrate to the United States through marriage against her will, leaving her children and previous partner behind in the process. Rapicavoli cites Simone de Beauvoir’s writings on the construct of woman as other, a term that has come into wider circulation in recent years. To other, that is to say, the act of othering, has emerged in vernacular parlance to describe the treatment of marginalized individuals as alien. In Volume I of The Second Sex, de Beauvoir wrote,
“it is not the Other who, defining itself as Other, defines the One; the Other is posited as Other by the One positing itself as One. But in order for the Other not to turn into the One, the Other has to submit to this foreign point of view.” Sara Reisman. (excerpt from the essay To Cast Too Bold A Shadow. To read the full version click here )
The work was commissioned by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation for The 8th Floor where the work had its premier as part of the show To Cast Too Bold A Shadow in collaboration with Westfälischer Kunstverein where it was exhibited as large site specific installation in the show The Other : A Familiar Story in 2021. It was supported by Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism under the Italian Council program (2019).
Installation view at Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster. Photo by Thorsten Arendt
Installation view at The 8th Floor, New York. Photo by Julia Gillard
Installation view at The 8th Floor, New York, Photo by Julia Gillard