Red Track
December 10 - 17, 2016 | video installation + photography | Palazzo Mora, Venezia
Event: Venice International Performance Art Week III
Curated by Andrea Pagnes, Verena Stenke
A project by VestAndPage
In collaboration with WeExhibit
Andrea Morucchio’s Red Track was presented at Palazzo Mora in 2016 as part of the third edition of the prestigious Venice International Performance Art Week, curated by VestAndPage and dedicated to the theme Fragile Body – Material Body. This participation marked Morucchio’s second appearance in the project, following his inclusion in the inaugural 2012 edition at Palazzo Bembo with Rivoluzioni.
Red Track consists of a video installation and photographic documentation derived from a performative action originally realized by the artist in Puglia in 2003. The vertical-format video is projected within a narrow room at Palazzo Mora, whose floor was covered in a fine red powder — a visual and tactile echo of the red soil that defines both the landscape of the Itria Valley and the symbolic terrain of the work itself.
The video shows an African man walking under the scorching sun along a narrow path, dragging behind him a long jute sack filled with red earth. The weight and friction of the sack leave a continuous trail — the “red track” — marking the ground in his wake. It is the red line that reconnects him to his native land like holy scripture with no words, as he moves forward, leaving behind all the exasperation and pain which his story recounts. The scene evokes the hardship, endurance, and displacement experienced by those forced to leave their homeland, transforming a simple gesture into a profound metaphor for the human condition.
Through this essential yet powerful action, Morucchio reflects on the dramatic realities of migration in Southern Europe. The camera’s steady, compassionate gaze captures the man’s physical effort and silent dignity, focusing on the individual rather than the spectacle. Red Track thus becomes both testimony and symbol — a poetic meditation on suffering, resilience, and the indelible traces of human passage.
VIPAW III Fragile Body – Material Body. Artists: Marcel·lí Antúnez Roca, Marilyn Arsem, Giovanni Fontana, Franko B, Antonio Manuel, ORLAN, Stelarc, Marina Abramović, Dimitris Alithinos, John Baldessari, Lisa Bufano, John Cage & Klaus vom Bruch, Sophie Calle, Cassils, Panos Charalambou, Thanassis Chondros/Alexandra Katsiani, Coco Fusco & Guillermo Gómez-Peña / Paula Heredia, Ria Hartley, Mona Hatoum, Irwin, Maria Karavela, Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki, Arrigo Lora Totino, Tran Luong, Ato Malinda, Paul McCarthy, Ana Mendieta, Linda Montano, Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik, Andrea Morucchio, Otto Mühl & Hermann Nitsch, Bruce Nauman, OHO Group, Yoko Ono, Leda Papaconstantìnou, Mike Parr, Douglas Quin + Lorne Covington, Pipilotti Rist, Lerato Shadi, Demetrio Stratos, Matej Stupica & Lenka Đorojević, Theodoros,sculptor, VestAndPage, Bill Viola, Andy Warhol & Jørgen Leth, Lawrence Weiner, Jud Yalkut, Mary Zygouri
Venice Performance Art Week III