MINDSET (2014-2015)​

“What is happening at the absolute frontier between the past and the future? Could we experience infinity or complete nothingness?
​As human beings, do we have instruments sensitive enough to experience and understand it?”

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Excerpt from the exhibition Step Inside The Process, presented at Rack Gallery, Montreal 2014

Olicorno’s series of performances “MINDSET” come as a confluence between his thirst for advancement in performance art and his philosophical questioning that evolves to a deepening interest in quantum physics. The project combines his experimental research in sensory deprivation, his desire to perform in front of an audience and his desire to present his artistic approach aesthetically and conceptually.  

During a performance, the initial efforts are focused on reaching a deep meditative state, while his five senses are saturated: his eyes are blindfolded; his ears protected by a helmet with headphones producing a consistent and neutral sound; his hands occupied by a repetitive gesture; his smell saturated by lavender extracts. 

The performance is structured in 3 points. Meditation is “Point 1”: a natural and healthy solution to allow the artist to reach an absolute state of mind. 

“Point 2” features a toolbox that is in front of the artist and contains objects at his disposal to help him break away from the temporal reality. Here, performance is not only a form of entertainment for the audience but a tangible research tool for the artist. It must therefore be interpreted rather than simulated. The audience is invited to approach and explore the contents of the box. 

“Point 3” is symbolically represented by an object that is at the bottom of the “Point 2”, in a secret compartment. The artist submits an ultimate question to the audience: What is left when natural and artificial methods do not allow us to reach a state of fullness and absolute in the now?