ALEX DA CORTE
Born in 1980
A conceptual artist who works across a wide range of media, spanning video, performance, installation, painting and sculpture, Alex Da Corte mines high- and low-brow cultural references—from Surrealism and commercial product brands, to Pop Art and the icons and symbols from American life—to probe issues that include the politics surrounding culture and identity, alienation, and the psychological aspects of human experience. His works often take the form of a Gesamtkunstwerk, as immersive environments with vibrant chromatic and sensorial features that transform the dimensions of space and are capable of completely enveloping the viewer in a universe that is both alienating and familiar. Objects, symbols and images part of the common imagination become vehicles of additional senses, the touchstones of a language that goes beyond the ordinary. The video Blue Moon (2017), originally produced for the digital art exhibition Midnight Moment at Times Square, New York, portrays a surreal karaoke of the famous ballad by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, with an actor, dressed in white with bold stage make up and holding a silver crescent moon, crooning along to the classic. The scene evokes an almost oneiric theatricality, with the lyrics of the song flowing at the bottom of each screen, inviting the audience to take part in a simultaneously intimate and collective experience. The broadcast of the video on the national television adds another layer to this choral performance, suspended between the public and domestic spheres.