Pretend you exist
Instructions
Self-designing an object to self-feed a fake
This is one of the least playable games we know of, not so much because it is not playable but because those who play it aim to prevent it from happening. Pretend to exist is one of the most exciting games we know, a hymn to the joy of existing, not so much for its ability to surprise but for the existential simulation with which it highlights the interpretative limits of the cause-effect mechanism of each player.
At this point you will wonder how you can prevent a game from being played/practised: the answer lies in the ability of the player who will try in every way possible to postpone the end of the game, not winning and not losing.
Before getting into the heart of the game modes remember that Pretending to exist requires a major sacrifice to those who want to participate, because every awakening every player will have to give themselves to wonder, curiosity and amazement.
There may participate at least one person, and this will involve more or less consciously all those who share the same living space. If only one player participates, we will call it Paradox and Skin. This participant has a double role: in the evening he will have to secretly move an object of the house (for himself and the others) and in the morning he will be amazed noticing the change. In the case of games with more players, the one who will act in the evening will be called Technician and those who wake up intrigued and enchanted will be called Amateur.
The dynamics of the game are as follows: every night before going to sleep, whoever starts the game (Paradox and skin / Technician) will have to move an object from its usual place to an unexpected one. In the morning, if the players (Amateur) notice that something has changed, they will experience an unsettling, restless moment of extraordinary curiosity; if they don’t notice anything, the perceptive doubt will remain. On the other hand, who, since he activated it the night before with the movement of the object, is aware of the dynamics of the game, will have to simulate a conscious dismay, an unmotivated wonder.
As has been anticipated by the title, the purpose of the game is to pretend to exist to the point of leaving in memory the doubt of having existed or not existed at all, of having pretended or not pretended at all.
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Gianluca Codeghini (1968 Milan)
Graduated in Painting at the Accademia di Brera Milan.
He attended Electronic Music courses at the Civic School of Music in Milan.
Visual artist, musician and performer. He has been exhibiting in Italy and abroad, since the late eighties, in private galleries, museums, theatres, public and virtual spaces and foundations.
His first performance and sound experiences date back to the ’80s with projects to regenerate and archive noise, together with theatrical actions and improvisations that in the early ’90s became performances and installations.
“Listen intensely, to the point of leaving in the memory the doubt of having listened to something else or not listening at all”.
Since his first projects such as Conservare fuori dalla portata (92), La patologia del benessere (96) and as in the most recent Crudeltà inaudite (2007) Pezzetti e bocconi (2009) or A slow movement between my fingers (2012) Gianluca Codeghini triggers concepts and processes in which the relationship with and between the public becomes fundamental to produce short circuits, tensions and discrete provocations.
In 2012 he published “Noi.se” a catalogue book on his work edited by Elio Grazioli and with contributions by M. Belpoliti, P. Braione, D. Cascella, G. Codeghini, E. Grazioli, R. Panattoni / G. Solla and C. Subrizi. A&Mbookstore Edizioni.
Many are his collaborations in the artistic, musical, literary and scientific fields. Recent solo exhibitions at Galleria Six in Milan and RCM Galerie in Paris or collaborations with independent spaces such as Neon curated by Gino Gianuizzi, Bologna; Risse curated by Ermanno Cristini, Varese; Fondazione Baruchello curated by Carla Subrizi, Rome.
