Artrooms Moravany

According to one of Karl Marx's most overused statements, every historical event is repeated twice: first as tragedy and later as farce. Artist Tomi Faison adapted this statement and, in the exhibition First As Tragedy, Then As LARP, with reference to the quote, projected footage she took of the attack on the Washington Capitol on 6 January 2021. The First As Gucci, Then As Gramsci installation further remixes the quote and historical events, combining farce, larp, and mystification in textile prints, video sequences, and wall drawings in keeping with the exhibition's theme. The installation is dominated by a site-specific mural depicting a viral meme in which the logo of Italian clothing company Gucci replaces the name of Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci. In the Velvet Rain video, the propagandistic footage of the Czechoslovakian Border Guard is complemented by music by Taylor Swift, who prefers revolutionary pain to submissive isolation in the lyrics of Midnight Rain. First as tragedy, then as a confictional larp.