Love will tear us apart, 2022, video, trailer duration: 00:01:39,
In the video work, Formica is in his studio dancing to different songs from Youtube, wearing different costumes. The legionnaire party costume specifically laughs at the Ancient Roman fetish associated with Italian origin by Italian Fascists, at the same time playfully diverting the role of the soldier from killer to dancer. The second costume, a black tracksuit, brings the dance to the contemporary time of diffused sportswear as streetwear among (often heteronormative) males of middle and lower classes. The tracksuit becomes a uniform for this young kind of soldiers/dancers. The third costume, a cheap long country dress with tiny flowers pattern, is a transition towards the old female figure in Formica's family, the countryside Nonna, worn in an attempt to transform himself playing with gender, appearance and identity. The dances expressively follow and are improvised directly on the songs, that vary from faster to slower rhythms, characterized by love, romance, rock and ecstasy.
The video has been shown at Quartair, The Hague, NL in 2022; at Ellen De Bruijne PROJECTS, Amsterdam, NL in 2024 for Formica's solo presentation Lonely Legionnaires; at June Art Fair, Basel, CH in 2025 with Ellen De Bruijne PROJECTS and is currently part of Formica's solo exhibition at Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, DE, titled VERSO, Daniele Formica in conversation with Joseph Beuys, running until September 2026.
