AES+F presents a brand new multi-channel video installation Inverso Mundus as part an official collateral event at the 56th Venice Biennale. The work is a 7-screen installation that spans across two venues: Magazini del Sale, Magazzino #5 and Vitraria Glass +A Museum in Venice.
The work is derived from a series of 16th century engravings Inverso Mundus (The World Upside Down). The engravings depict a pig gutting the butcher, a child punishing his teacher, a man carrying a donkey on his back, men and women exchanging roles and costumes, and a beggar in rags majestically giving alms to a rich man. There are demons, chimeras, fish flying through the sky, and death itself, depicted variously with a scythe, or behind the mask of Doctor Plague.
AES+F interprets the engravings in a large scale multi-channel video installation as absurd scenes from the historical carnival that appear as episodes of contemporary life. Characters are acting out scenes of absurd social utopias, changing their masks, morphing from beggars to rich men, from policemen to thieves. Metrosexual cleaners shower the city with debris. Female inquisitors torture men on IKEA-style devices. Children and seniors are locked in a kickboxing match. Inverso Mundus is a world where chimeras are pets and the Apocalypse is entertainment.
Inverso Mundus is on display at Magazzini del Sale at Magazzino #5, Dorsoduro 262 (Fondamenta delle Zattere Ai Saloni) and Vitraria Glass +A Museum at Palazzo Nani Mocenigo, Dorsoduro 960 (Fondamenta Nani) from 7 May until 22 November 2015.
