SICARIUS by Ada Visser

SICARIUS by Ada Visser is the third of the three winning projects from the OUT OF FOCUS call, to be hosted at the showcasing venue in the Mario Gromo Library/Mediatheque, from 4 May to 29June 2018, as part of Fo.To. Fotografi a Torino.
 

OUT OF FOCUS, the call promoted by the National Museum of Cinema and reserved for young photographers whose age ranges between 18 and 31 years, was born with the intention of welcoming and disseminating youthful photographic production in multiple aspects such as its artistic expression, as a visual document, and a narrative project. The new generations’ interest for the art of photography merges with the museum mission for the enhancement of the theme of photography and of the role of young people as active producers of culture.

SICARIUS 

We are in a squalid flat in the outskirts of the city, we see a young man, around 30 years old, coming through the door. He sits down on the bed looking melancholic, surrounded by bags. He takes out some clothes, make up, and several accessories from the plastic bags. Once he is dressed and made up, he takes a rope, drags a chair to the middle of the room and stands on it.
The next morning he is still alive, and he is immobilised in a room he has never seen before. He tries to get up, still feeling dizzy he turns and sees a dark silhouette drawing close to him and a female voice asking him if he remembers anything. The patient is still groggy, he becomes agitated and asks where he is and why he is tied up.
The woman shakes her head and explains that the patient tried to commit suicide on the 1st July 2007,  and since then his memory has been stuck to that day.
It was morning.
Some teachers had organised a small party with snacks, cakes, drinks and water games; they called a clown for a short show to entertain the kids. The hired clown was him - the woman says – and annoyed by the arrogance of a couple of unsatisfied parents, he took the gun from the glove compartment in his car and started shooting randomly at the people  at the party, both adults and children. After the shooting, he ran home in despair. A few hours later, he went to the laundrette as if nothing had happened, washed his clothes, and when he returned home he tried to commit suicide. The police found his body hanging from that rope just in time and brought him to the psychiatric hospital where he was diagnosed as mentally ill. He shot 33 children and 16 adults without reason.
“Welcome to the psychiatric clinic Alexandre Obregia. Patients are scared of you and your nightime screaming. They even gave you a nickname: Sicarius, the most poisonous spider in the world.”

ADA VISSER

Ada Visser was born in Rovigo on the 23rd January 1992. After obtaining her high school diploma, she attended the Fine Arts Academy in Brescia, where she completedthe photography course and graduated in 2016. She carries out her artistic activity and takes part in several photography exhibitions, both solo and collective, whilst working with graphics, videos, theatre and music. In 2017 she won the National Cinema Museum’s FUORIFUOCO competition.