The Seven Works of Mercy

The Seven Works of Mercy is a video installation inspired by Caravaggio’s altarpiece with the same title dated 1607 and located in Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. In the painting, Caravaggio merges characters drawn from both legends, mythology and the Old Testament to interpret “the seven works of mercy”: To feed the hungry, to give water to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to cure the sick, to shelter the homeless, to visit the imprisoned, to bury the dead.

The work consists of two parts:
– a documentation of a performance shot in the Basilica San Pietro in Tuscania (18 min. loop)
-a 7-channel video installation (18 min. loop)
The performance comprises seven stretched canvases that are placed throughout the church on which a group of performers interpret the various acts.
The performers move within the spatial frame of the canvases inside and outside cut out shapes.
The seven-screen video installation on the other hand, as illustrated here show close-ups of the performance.

“After a long fascination with Caravaggio’s painting, I started working on The Seven Works of Mercy four years ago. During this time, the images changed with the global chaos the world suddenly started to go through; the idea seemed to become clear and those symbolic images and gestures held an even deeper significance. How can the acts of charity be interpreted through a universal perspective? Has the meaning of the actions changed since they were written in the Bible or since Caravaggio interpreted them in his altarpiece? How do we describe the discomfort that arises between the need to perform an act and at the same time experience a sense of meaninglessness? We ask questions but get no answers. We perform actions and hope for change.”

As in Caravaggio’s painting, the same issues are raised here within our contemporary context. The loop, the repetitious movement can be viewed as an act of endless interpretations.
The sound in The Seven works of Mercy is based on Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei, where parts of the sacred original piece recall the religious origins of the work but are interrupted by modified notes and voices that reconnect with the present.