Stefano Cagol
Fight or Flight

17.12.2011 - 10.03.2012

The animals, when they feel threatened, don’t know whether to attack or fly away. From this reaction to fear - called in English Fight or Flight – the artworks and the show keep the title. The oxymoron becomes a slogan of survival in a banner facing a symbol that contains the memory of one of the most unexpected reactions of the last century to physical and mental borders, to a situation of threat: the massacre of Monaco. The spiral of black and white keys – archetypal symbol that evokes representations related to the first practices of psychoanalysis and hypnosis – are the symbol of the Summer Olympics of ’72 that were held in Germany
and have been interrupted by the terrible massacre of the Israeli representative acted by Black September, a Palestinian organization.
Other cross references and metaphorical remarks are shown in the videos that document the projects where the artist focused his attention on the idea of FLU (influence).
When there was fear of bird flu in Europe, a van marked with the name of the virus in both English and German—’BIRD FLU’ and ‘VOGELGRIPPE’—along the route across Europe from Trento to Berlin, stopped by influential places: the cathedral of the city of the Council of Trent, a fascist monument in Bolzano, the Nazi Zeppelin Tribune in Nuremberg.
This way of seeing it through fears, influences and power also took the shape of the installation FLU POWER FLU at the Beursschouwburg Kunstencentrum in Brussels.
A large neon sign slowly alternates combinations of the words FLU POWER FLU, FLU FLU and POWER. The slogans start with nonsense to trigger a reflection on the ideas of authority and influence/influenza. They do this by blinking from the façade of a Flemish cultural center. The site and the installation represent a landmark in front of the Stock Exchange building in the centre of the capital of the European Union, in the city of Nato.

Text by Stefano Cagol (November 2011).