Luigi Ricci
1967
Transparencies
Luigi Ricci proposes an itinerary that derives values and new meanings from everyday Media confusion.
A collection of 40 works on paper or canvas (from 30x40 cm to 70x100 cm).
This audiovisual presentation, with an introduction by Luigi Crocenzi, was shown at the Conference Gens d’Images, Journées Internationales de Pourquerolles 1967, and gave rise to lively debate.
Scholars of psychology and advertising techniques have written and talked about these works both in Universities and Technical Colleges.
From transparency to simultaneous multivision.
In the second half of the ‘60s the range of consumption products increases enormously. The pages of women’s magazines are the predominant target of the advertising campaign. TV is still in black and white and the advertising is limited and rigidly controlled. Even covertly allusive messages are prohibited. On the contrary the ads in the magazines offer more direct and explicit messages. The wide range of products for household use and personal hygiene, of household appliances, cosmetic products and undergarments fills the entire magazine with the powerful suggestion of colour and the continuous presence of a smiling, heavily made-up feminine face which confirms the validity of the message. Once you see through the so-called glossy world, though, it reveals all the insubstantiality of the Media assertions. Conflicting meanings, contradictions and reversal of messages challenge the whole production and promotional system.
The simultaneous multivision, which is the practice of the artistic avant-garde of the early 20th century, finds again its expressive value. From the confusion of the messages there arises a clear criticism of this new development model of the Italian society.