Sub-Limo / Sub-Limen
Galvanized iron bucket, red dress, liquid mud, loudspeakers, deafening sound with church songs, 2018.
Text by Bruno Benuzzi
Exhibition: Before and After Nature
GAM (Galleria d'Arte Maggiore), Bologna
5 photographs of the performance displayed
Honorable mention at the Zucchelli Prize
June 2018
(...) Vale Palmi presents a work composed of five photographs reproducing the main stages of a performance entitled Sub-Limo/Sub-Limen. Incline as it is at Becketti's "theatre of the absurd", Vale takes literally the etymological meaning of the sublime word to the point, it takes courage to sink one's head into a bucket full of liquid mud; and it will be silence, the aphasia of an anchorite. The act of lifting one's head to catch one's breath will, on the contrary, be accompanied by a deafening and distorted liturgical melody, almost noise, which underlines the brutal smile, the absurdity of the world. (...)
Text by Bruno Benuzzi
Show: Human + or -: memory overloaded
Lukewarm red Cultural Association, Modena
Live performance
2018
(...) Here she is dipping her head in a bucket full of mud so as not to feel the brutal smile, the absurdity of the world. After all, reflects Diane Ackerman, "the word absurdity comes from the Latin surdus, deaf or dumb" so for Vale - prone to the "theater of the absurd - Sublime, etymologically speaking, nothing else means that Sub-lime, that is, the step is short, put your head in, under the mud; and it will be silence, the aphasia of an anchorite. The act of raising one's head to catch one's breath will be accompanied by a deafening and distorted liturgical melody. And so on in alternating phases, as long as forces permit. (...)
Text by Gaia Fattorini
Exhibition: Vale Palmi - Contra Me Giusto
Labs Gallery Bologna
A series of 10 photographs is exhibited
February 2 - March 23, 2019
(...) In the series Sub/Limo - Sub/Limen (textually under the Mud and under the door jamb), the artist's body, dressed in red and barefoot, comes back to the artist. Two movements distinguish the action: one descending and one ascending, towards God. Movements that allow Vale Palmi to live two extreme, sublime situations, the first given by the deafening and unbearable symphony of church songs reproduced during the action, the other given by the choice to find himself voluntarily with his head immersed in a bucket full of mud and unable to breathe. In a continuous and frantic up and down between these two uncomfortable positions, the performance ends only when the artist's malaise reaches the breaking point and becomes physically unbearable. (...)
