 |
 |
|
| 23 January 2009 – 29 March 2009 |
| Home l Programme l Education l Italian |
 |
| Four Virgins and a Bed, 2007 video, DVD, 6’30’’ min. Courtesy the artist Photo: Valentina Muscedra |
| An old tradition in Sicily demands that a bride's girlfriends prepare the bed for the wedding night a few days ahead of the wedding itself. In Maria Domenica Rapicavoli's video, four girls -- unmarried, to comply with the tradition -- prepare the bed with meticulous care and attention, smoothing out all unwarranted folds and strewing rice and sweetmeats under the pillows as a good luck token for the new couple. All of this occurs under the watchful gaze of the bride's mother. The artist's intent is to reflect on the concept of identity in relation to social stereotypes. Yet the earnest with which she probes cultural conventions ends up taking on a comic twist, and she waxes ironical on the endless details involved in this kind of ritual and on the fact that the girls' virginity is merely presumed. |
 |
| Four Virgins and a Bed, 2007 video, DVD, 6’30’’ min. Courtesy the artist |
| top |