Digital Mourning, curated by Roberta Tenconi, is the first major solo exhibition devoted to

Neïl Beloufa in an Italian institution, and it stems from a reflection on the current times and

on the concept of life in our digital world. Right from the title, the exhibition alludes to one

of the most striking paradoxes of contemporary society, which is the existence in a

technological world and its parallel disappearance. The association of the two words—

“digital” and “mourning”—comes about in the encounter between an artificial world and the

absence of life, in a dimension in which life itself is simulated by means of models specially

created to understand its true essence. Playing on a combination and intermingling of genres, Digital Mourning is a complex new

multimedia installation conceived specifically for the space of the Shed at Pirelli

HangarBicocca, presenting, at the same time, a retrospective of Neïl Beloufa’s video

works. The exhibition consists of a wide selection of films and video works that retrace the

artist’s career from his debut (with Kempinski, 2007) through to his most recent

productions, few of which are projected inside multimedia installations originally designed

for them by the artist. Together, these form part of a computerised activation and re-editing

system that abolishes any hierarchy between the different types of information.

Resembling the scenario of an “amusement” park, the space embraces a large selection of

works, including the artist’s most relevant installations and walk-through sculptures.

However, mimicking the current state of affairs, it is forbidden to use the “attractions” and

the exhibition appears to come alive only through a series of narrative voices. In

presenting the works and explaining the viewers what to see in each area, the narrators

introduce and discuss different positions, from utopian aspirations to the opinions of the

youngest generation. While making a new total artwork out of former works, the exhibition

is as well adapting the way we consume culture these days, for example by playing with

the flux of information and the attention span standard viewers have or by providing links

to watch films directly at home.

Right from his first work, Kempinski (2007), Neïl Beloufa has called conventions into

question. Shot in Bamako, Mali, the video consists of a series of brief interviews in which

the artist subtly breaks the stylistic rules of the genre. While maintaining the spirit of

authenticity that is typical of documentaries, the dialogues between the participants

describe a world totally devoid of any of the stereotypical ideas about the African

continent. Instead, he creates fantastical, surreal scenarios simply by using the present

tense to talk about a hypothetical future. This allegory of the contemporary world and its

fragility can also be seen in the kinetic installation People’s Passion, transparency,

mobility, all surrounded by water (2018), which includes the homonymous video. The

work is based on a series of interviews by the artist with the inhabitants of a new

residential complex in North America, revealing all the artificiality inherent in the perception

of lifestyle and wellbeing of the Western world. Equally powerful is the idea of the highly

rhetorical reality presented in World Domination (2015), in which Neïl Beloufa uses nonprofessional

actors and role-playing to defend positions that are arbitrarily attributed.

Projected onto the irregular surface of a motorised wall that moves on a track, the video

shows five diplomatic tables and scenes where international issues such as obesity and

financial investments are discussed, often ending in clear contradictions and calls for war.

Lastly, the show presents a new expanded version of La morale de l’histoire (2019),

made especially for this occasion. The immersive installation is conceived as a

technological fairy-tale that tells the story of a camel and some fennecs who built a stone

wall in the desert to shelter from the sun at the expense of a colony of ants. The work,

which deliberately uses the narrative form of children’s stories to create a metaphor of the

capitalist economy, closes the exhibition and truly acts as a conclusion or summary for all

the other stories and works.

The various installations turn Digital Mourning into an immersive environment, in which

the impulses created by the images, sounds and lights are synchronised in a complex

sequence that guides the viewer’s movements. The switching on and off of one or more

works at the same time creates a one of a kind choreography, in which some works come

to life while others lie in frozen sleep. The rhythm of the narrative is set by the narrating

voices, the so-called “Hosts”, in which the audio channels are programmed to give the viewer

“orders.” This means that, as the artist puts it, the public is “in a free but

uncomfortable position that should lead to thinking about what is shown instead of

believing it”. In creating this control system, Neïl Beloufa brings into question permeable

concepts such as truth and fiction and shows how they interweave in the contemporary

world, explaining their mechanisms as clearly as if he was describing the devices and

wiring at the heart of his works.

What’s more, in the spring Neïl Beloufa will present his exhibition The Moral of the Story

in the city center. The project is promoted by Fondazione Henraux and will comprise four

previously unseen installations by the artist, on display in the amphitheater of the Apple

Store in Piazza Liberty. The works, produced by Henraux in marble, will be on show both

during the day and into the evening.