The time we weren't there
2020
3-channel video
In this three-channel video installation, we observe empty town squares of Rome each in a state of lockdown. The typical scenes of daily life are erased while only the architectural structures of civilization remain. Within the lonely solitude of these squares, ghostly traces of movement dance across the screen, the choreography directing our gaze to witness the altered rhythms of a city.
For The Time We Weren’t There, Roberto Fusco has used footage from live cameras installed over these town squares. These cameras are a resourceful tool in providing a way to connect to a unique place from afar, yet it is also strange and uncomfortable to think that these cameras exist, having been put in place to observe people when they don’t know they are being observed.
For the artist, the cameras enabled him to be part of and remotely identify with the situation and public restraint in his country during COVID-19. The Time We Weren’t There references how we have all been affected collectively by recent events. The memories and narratives that have emerged will leave their traces in our communities, but in terms of the future, our paths are still unknown.
text by: Anne Klontz
