Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson (Chicago, 1947) is one of the world's most famous performance artists. About herself she says " I am singer of ballads:
I love singing in different voices best of all" , and she uses her creative talent with incredible versatility in a wide range of fields: as a composer, photographer, singer, performer, teacher, narrator, essayist, art critic and comedienne.
From the 1970s onwards Anderson became one of the leading exponents of the New York avant-garde through the creation of works combining contemporary music, narrative and poetic texts, experimental forms of visual and acoustic communication, and the elaboration of electronic and video images.
In Italy Anderson created, at the Fondazione Prada, a multi-media installation entitled Dal Vivo, devoted to meditation on time. It was derived from the observation of the daily life of a prisoner, Santino Stefanini, who has been an inmate of San Vittore Prison, Milan, for over twenty years.

The project got underway thanks to the collaboration of the prison administration, which for some years now has endeavoured to foster links between the prison and the outside world. Dal Vivo has its roots in Anderson's experimentation, in the early 1970s, with sound and vision, which was concerned with the relationship between language and society. In this project the artist addresses many related aspects: the alteration of our perception of time and the body produced by the televised image, the concrete form of justice and the functions of the controlling institutions, whether they be the prison or of a cultural nature.

The installation is the first one of its kind to be realized in Italy: it is based on the refined use of technology that allows, through a complex system of fibre-optic cables, the transmission high-quality video signals in order to create a three-dimensional image of Stefanini at the Fondazione Prada. In this way the artist gives the prisoner an opportunity to experience a virtual release, culminating in the marvel of an apparition that goes beyond both material and imaginary barriers.