POINTER
Bow shooting is the name of a participatory art specific project site conceived for an open space in the historical heart of Rome, where a shooting game has been arranged.
People passing by are invited to take part in this game as archers using a bow shooting light instead of traditional arrows. In such a symbolic dartboard, the score is expressed in lux: an illuminance unit of measure, as the game target is actually light.
The game does not imply competition or archers tournaments. It rather focuses on the relationship between the shooter and the target to be aimed at, that is light.
Artist: Donatella Pinocci
Location: thursday , 25nd October 2018, from 6.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.
The dartboard: the installation involves the use of a two-dimensional panel, about 1,60 x 2.30 to be set on a vertical plane defining the game area and the target to aim at. The Installation is made up of a thin geometrical dartboard drawing superimposed onto a sky image used as the background. Thin lines create concentric circles where the score is expressed in lux: the unit of measure of the luminous flux.
The archier’s space. The horizontal plane reproduces the vertical one, though smaller than the latter: it consists of a round-shaped green grass carpet containing a circular toy track. People are expected to step onto the carpet, assume their foot stance, hold the bow and aim at the target they chose.
The bow is made up of steel strings, plexiglas and a white shaft.
The arrow is a laser shooter releasing a symbolic arrow: a white or blue laser ray.
The target is chosen by the archer himself/herself. It’s him/her who decides what to shoot as the game is based on the free-will principle which let the shooter aim at whatever he/she likes: the ground, the sky, himself/herself or other people, that is to say matter or energy.
Description: illuminance is expressed in lumen which becomes an unconventional unit of measure for a shooting game.
The project proposes a consideration on man’s efforts to find an anthropological repositioning not only in physical, geographical terms but also in the new scientific research environments, where man looks at himself as a pioneer between matter and energy.
Just like any other game, the shooting game too hides a symbolic interpretation as it can be seen as a sort of journey of initiation, a spiritual training leading to detachment from one’s self which starts the very moment you shoot. It is about appearing to disappear.
Moreover, measuring one’s choices in “light” involves a symbolic re-reading of cause and effect relationships and free will as well, stretching beyond the borders of the material to get to the immaterial.
It is a partly performing work meant as an invitation to face human evolution.
The artist will make videos and take pictures of what will happen during the performance.
