Synopsis
At the beginning of this century art displaced the human figure from the painting, marginalizing such genres as the portrait, that had been inherited and transformed by photography and film.
Waht is the space of the human figure in the electronic landscape? An art which places itself in opposition to the representation of the world as it is. (postmodernism, citationism) must place the human figure in a meaningful context. It is useful for us to examine the place of the subject in video art. What characterizes his relationship to the environment, to himself and to others? In the late 20th century electronic media have substituted the notion of space as container of objects with that of space as a continually changing process, extending itself far beyond any visible limits. One of the essential themes of video art is that of boundles space, a fluid space in constant movement.
The subject's role is both that of the clairvoyant. It is that of the wanderer, aimlessly retracting paths and repeating gestures, and at the same time of one who stops to watch a fragmentary, shadow-filled world or who, more often, turns to gaze at the mental landscape wthin himself. The essays analyses a meaningful group of videotapes throught which is possible to design a way occupied by the human figure in the electronic landscape.