Activity Involving Skill in Covering Things by Hand (fragment 00:47)
2020

HD video
dimensions variable
11:11 min, loop, no sound

This video shows the hands of a craftsman from the Felice Calchi Studio in Rome, making a mould of a left arm and hand. He is creating a mould of the part of Mary’s arm of Michelangelo’s Pietà that was destroyed during Laszlo Toth's attack in 1972. For this mould, the craftsman makes use of a copy of the Pietà from the 19th century.

The montage of this film footage is not a documentary reconstruction but a more poetic exploration in which hands pet, cover and shroud another hand.

Installation view of the work Activity Involving Skill.
The two video works, Activity Involving Skill in Covering Things by Hand (right) and Activity Involving Skill in Making Things by Hand (left), are shown together on two monitors against the wall.