Franco Vaccari and animal automatism

Abstract

If we think of Franco Vaccari's works of the Sixties and Seventies, the most famous is certainly the work exhibited at the 1972 Venice Biennale where the artist exhibits the famous photomatic booth part of the work Esposizione in tempo reale n.4. Lascia su queste pareti una traccia fotografica del tuo passaggio. Much has been written about that work and its subsequent research related to photography, but an element that would seem secondary but which instead is a topic to be explored. I am referring to a recurring element in Vaccari's work: the animal. In fact, between the end of the Sixties and the beginning of the Seventies Franco Vaccari presents three works where the relationship with the animal is clearly expressed, the first is the work Il canto dei grilli, 1967, the second is La città vista a livello di cane, 1967-1968, and the third is the video Cani Lenti, 1971. These three works show a different type of approach to being animal, mediated and direct. Today, in the light of the debate on Antispeciesism, Animal Studies, and the critical positions related to the concept of Anthropocentrism, we can read Franco Vaccari's works as pioneering, able to anticipate some research and issues that are currently at the center of various reflections.