Competing Projects 2025
Masbedo. Protocol no. 90/6Roberto Vito D'Amico, Alberto Malossi
“MASBEDO. Protocol no. 90/6” illustrates the creative process, backstage, cinematic and literary references, and the context-specific nature of Masbedo’s video installation “Protocol no. 90/6” (2018), which was commissioned by Manifesta 12 in Palermo, and presented at the city’s State Archives. “Protocol no. 90/6” is a tribute to the vicissitudes of the film director Vittorio De Seta. The video installation, originally conceived for the Sala delle Capriate inside the State Archives of Palermo, consists of an imposing, suspended curtain of cables and LED lights where we see a Sicilian puppet moving there according to the invisible strings pulled by master puppeteer Mimmo Cuticchio. During his career, De Seta was suspected of concealing a hidden agenda favouring “communist” subversive groups and was thus subjected to the surveillance of the local authorities.
