London Art Fair, Photo50: Feminine Masculine. On the Struggle and Fascination of Dealing with the Other Sex

curated by Federica Chiocchetti

Mannequins & Mankind is a video based on the deconstruction and reorganisation a found photo album.

Dated 1972, the album contains clippings and commentary by a fan named Betty on the Italian pop star Massimo Ranieri. 

The video re-posits this collection of artefacts, an accumulation of affectation or votive “holy cards”, not as debased pastiche but rather as meaningful gesture that partakes in a conversation with the subject himself.

As the dedication that closes the video suggests, there is an allusion to a shared event, transforming the collection into a tangible form of exchange. For Betty, there is a stated awareness that the album is not about Massimo, but rather for Massimo, and a visual language with its own grammar begins to emerge.

While highlighting the behaviour of Betty, and the often blurry line between fanaticism and obsession, the video also invites the viewers to reflect on the role that media plays in the creation of a circular system of expectation and gratification in which both the public and the celebrities are equally involved: who is watching whom?