The society of the 21st century is a society of performance, where humans, transformed into autistic self-exploiting machines, move relentlessly without ever advancing.
In this performance, a person climbs an escalator for an hour, going down, and staying in the same spot. Occasionally, they move out of the frame to evoke the illusion of freedom in a system that forces adaptation, to underline the absurdity of conforming to a system that demands continuous movement but offers no direction.
The work Immobile Ascent is a portrait of sterile hyperactivity: a labor that doesn’t build, a progress that doesn’t liberate but consumes. The being becomes apathetic.
This performance is a moving photograph in which the body, stuck in a repetitive gesture, becomes a symbol of stillness that challenges time, showing the absurdity of directionless progress.
This performance was developed based on the book The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han.
Riccardo Androni (Bergamo, 1996) explores the fragility of human nature through photography, video, and performance, mediums he uses to investigate the intrinsic meaning of reality. Sensitive to themes of death and impermanence and fascinated by the unknown, his often metaphorical works delve into the depths of the psyche to uncover the vulnerability that defines us as human beings. After studying photography at LABA in Florence, he completed a year of specialization in MOVIES - Moving Images Arts at IUAV in Venice. He later spent a year as an artist-in-residence at FABRICA, a research center in Treviso, and six months as a photographer for the Benetton Group.
Currently based in Lausanne, he is studying photography at ECAL.
His works have been featured in events like the Biennale of Young Italian Photographers and showcased at Portfolio Italia and Palazzetto Tito in Venice. Notable exhibitions include DEBRIS, curated by Peter Welz, HERE BECOMES ELSEWHERE, curated by Carlos Casas, and VENEZIA FABRICA FUTURA at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto. He won 2nd prize at the XXII FotoConfronti and was featured in Corriere della Sera. Recently, he exhibited at DER VIERTE RAUM at Frappant Galerie, sold works at Offprint
London at the Tate Museum, and participated in WE DO THE REST in collaboration with the Biennale dell’Immagine, Les Rencontres d’Arles, and Swiss Photomonth. His latest exhibition, CO-EXISTENCE, curated by Milo Keller, was showcased during Paris Photo.