The renewal of a genre happens through its reinterpretation and the use of new linguistic and technological solutions, including new themes borrowed heavily from current events. In this specific case, it presents itself as a mundane and trivial pretext, such as the theft of a drink that leads to the protagonist complaining. A melodrama of some sort entitled Where is my drink? which includes songs whose words and music were entirely generated by various computer algorithms, thus using artificial intelligence. 

Composer Chiara Carretti's work falls somewhere between a 'pocket edition' and a video clip, something she achieved by using an iconographic set of pop flavours with a Kitsch aftertaste: from the hearts, either monochrome or simply outlined, waiting to be coloured, to childish landscapes featuring a big, radiant sun; from the eclectic lettering to the curious singing puppets, tagged with the usual heart and animated by anonymous hands, reminiscent of the old Muppet show. All of it is based on blatant, playful decorativism, serving only as the background for the soundtrack, which is also artificial, composed of a mixture of concrete sounds that were processed using granular synthesis and synthesised vocals. The work, conceived for the home screen, is mostly digital and seems to take inspiration from Madame Butterfly for the protagonist's outfit and the rural and seaside scenes, although the mask of a male character leaves the gender open to interpretation, as it was consciously conceived as being gender-free. A sophisticated, perhaps unintentional reference; a visual echo that soon gets contaminated and erased by the western urban environment, by that street corner where the misappropriation took place. A surreal drama which should be taken seriously but with a smile until, after numerous complaints and questions, the identity of the thief is revealed: none other than Louis Althusser. The reference to the philosopher, a leading exponent of structuralist Marxism, opens the door to an interpretation of the work in which a mundane drama is caused by a left-wing intellectual. This gesture breaks the vicious cycle of hedonistic consumerism by revealing the fragile identity of the ephemeral user, a worthy representative of capitalist society. 

Daniele Astrologo for Biennale Monza 2021 - translation C. Williams