Diego Marcon

Critical text

The work of Diego Marcon (b. 1985, Busto Arsizio) explores the paradigms of alienation connected with the human condition through incisive analysis of the status of the image and the psychological archetypes of representation that belong to it. The atmosphere of his films, based on different genres, including horror, slapstick, musical comedy and cartoons, reveals an uncanny and claustrophobic universes stimulated by the paroxystic and isolated use of the codes and effects of cinema. The artist channels his attention towards the emphases and peripheral elements that contribute to the manipulation of the narrative structure of film, such as music, the use of prostheses, the black screen or the empty space, but also towards the depletion of the regimen of the image, through repetition (in loops), off-screen narration, dissolves. The installation and animated video Dick the Stick (2014), vaguely influenced by the book Espèces d'espaces (Species of Spaces, 1974) by Georges Perec, tell the story of a soldier alienated by the routine of military life. The drawing of the character, subjected to the boredom of everyday duties, vanishes into the void of the animated film, or loses its head in the whiteness of the walls of the exhibition space.

Text by Lilou Vidal