Within Walls (2024)
Vacant building
Brussels, Belgium
Oct.14, 2024
The work consists of a selection of memories by Beppe Battaglia, a member of the political group XXII Ottobre, which I recorded between 2024 and 2025. These memories primarily focus on the struggles against prisons led by prisoners and by Battaglia himself during the 1970s in Italy.
The recordings are played-back through loudspeakers placed in various rooms of an abandoned building. Each placement has been carefully chosen based on specific associations with evocative details from the memories, functioning on two levels: symbolic and illustrative. For instance, the story of the beating at the Pianosa prison is played in a room where the loudspeaker is lying on the floor, while the story of the destruction of the dividing walls between cells, which occurred during the "Settimana Rossa" revolt at the Asinara prison, is installed in a space where the door frames have been removed.
The installation situates the memories within the space, giving them a physical spatiality. Additionally, by placing the work in a stripped-down building—essentially a "concrete skeleton"—the piece aims to evoke the condition—still relevant today—of sensory deprivation, isolation, and existential annihilation that characterize prison as a repressive institution.
Credits
Work by Davide Tidoni
Location: Davide Tidoni
Audio Recording, Editing: Davide Tidoni
Photos: Steven Jouwersma w. Davide Tidoni
Thanks to: Adaline Anobile and G.U.T.S. Collective
Within Walls (2024)
Vacant building
Brussels, Belgium
Oct.14, 2024
The work consists of a selection of memories by Beppe Battaglia, a member of the political group XXII Ottobre, which I recorded between 2024 and 2025. These memories primarily focus on the struggles against prisons led by prisoners and by Battaglia himself during the 1970s in Italy.
The recordings are played-back through loudspeakers placed in various rooms of an abandoned building. Each placement has been carefully chosen based on specific associations with evocative details from the memories, functioning on two levels: symbolic and illustrative. For instance, the story of the beating at the Pianosa prison is played in a room where the loudspeaker is lying on the floor, while the story of the destruction of the dividing walls between cells, which occurred during the "Settimana Rossa" revolt at the Asinara prison, is installed in a space where the door frames have been removed.
The installation situates the memories within the space, giving them a physical spatiality. Additionally, by placing the work in a stripped-down building—essentially a "concrete skeleton"—the piece aims to evoke the condition—still relevant today—of sensory deprivation, isolation, and existential annihilation that characterize prison as a repressive institution.
Credits
Work by Davide Tidoni
Location: Davide Tidoni
Audio Recording, Editing: Davide Tidoni
Photos: Steven Jouwersma w. Davide Tidoni
Thanks to: Adaline Anobile and G.U.T.S. Collective
