Parhessia

‘Parhessia’, part of the Gorchakov’s Wish series of works, is a performative re-enactment of the third-to-last scene from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Nostalghia (1983). In this scene, the ‘madman’ Domenico lights himself on fire after delivering a harrowing speech from the top of a statue of Marcus Aurelius on a horse situated in the Campidoglio on Rome’s Capitoline Hill. For this re-enactment we used Google translate to translate a single line of Domenico’s speech. We then transcribed this text onto a sandwich board using gaffer tape. The performance entailed wearing the sandwich board while walking around the Campidoglio. While our intention was to do so for the same duration as the scene from the film; however, the performance lasted approximately two minutes before being put to a stop.

The name of the performance is taken from Michel Foucault’s book entitled Fearless Speech (2001) and refers to the willingness to speak out publically, even to one’s own detriment.