A polisensorial interactive experience

To be wrapped up in a film, to fall into it with the help of poly-sensorial, tactile, and olfactory stimuli, as well as those of sound and sight: this is the effect of the installation Take It or Leave It by Aliki Polydor, a designer and an artist with a complex cultural background – basically Iranian and Russian but with French, English, and North American influences. The installation was inaugurated on Friday November 3rd, with a presentation by Marco Ongaro, and will be open to the public from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. until Sunday in the Church of San Pietro in Archivolto, next door to the Cathedral, Piazza Duomo in Verona.
Aliki, who has lived in Verona for some time now, had already made her mark with gripping environments full of colour, lights, and odours in which we could enjoy particularly inventive and intense experiences. Her language has even become more complex and sophisticated, more abstract, full of temporal shifts and able to capture profoundly whoever is willing to experience what the artist offers.Take It or Leave©2006 -2016 by Aliki Polydor alludes to the dichotomy between immediacy, which is continually forced on us by a society used to having everything automated or remote-controlled, and the ever rarer ability to say no. Rejection/Renunciation has a meaning that is both positive and negative Aliki explains:

Today, we always want to be satisfied straight away, immediately: something that is at times impossible. Our senses are violated, they suffer and are in pieces; we no longer know how to distinguish, discern, discriminate and give ourselves the time to choose, accept, or even to say no. The force of renunciation vanishes and, as a result, we are weakened.

And this is why Aliki asks us to take a minute on her LED-illuminated platform and undergo, individually, immersed in the flow of John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music, an experience that starts from our bare feet to arrive at our nose, our eyes, (the sequence of images derive from a short film by Ruben Garbellini), our ears – not forgetting the fundamental tactile experience with the caressing lacerated soft resin hanging in front of the platform- and finally, our heart.

Camilla Bertoni
translated by Michael Haggerty