Fabrice Bernasconi Borzì’s playful meditation on transience at BOCS Catania

At BOCS in Catania, the Italian-Swiss artist Fabrice Bernasconi Borzì (born 1989 in Geneva) presents “oh, i am just visiting,” a solo exhibition inspired by a David Bowie quote. The show revolves around a large-scale fender borrowed from the nearby port, fabricated from the same material as children’s inflatables. Installed leaning against a wall, the sculpture slowly deflates over the course of the exhibition, visually enacting its own impermanence. A video documents the artist pumping air into the fender for ninety minutes with a foot pump, the rhythmic sound underscoring his Sisyphean effort. Bernasconi Borzì describes his practice as a search for “idiocy” as a counterbalance to his own seriousness, stating: “I am too serious and often cannot enjoy things. That’s why I seek idiocy with my art, because it’s the only way I have not to be always serious.” The exhibition opened in 2022.