Che Vuoi

Che Vuoi
video, 5 min­utes
2010

“Che vuoi” means ​“What do you want?” It is a Lacan­ian con­cept that relates to the ​“enig­ma of the impen­e­tra­ble desire of the Oth­er.” Desire is nev­er the subject’s own, but stems from the other’s desire. It is ​“what do oth­ers want from me?”, ​“what do they see in me?” But even the oth­er also doesn’t know what s/he real­ly wants, the uncon­scious is dri­ven by what this oth­er thinks an oth­er wants, and this con­tin­ues ad infini­tum. Desire is like a con­ta­gion that is passed on from one gen­er­a­tion to the next. The ​“Oth­er” can also be a ​“tran­scen­den­tal” Oth­er, an unknow­able force that seems to run the uni­verse. What does this big Oth­er want?

This work was com­mis­sioned by Jesse Birch for the exhi­bi­tion ​“We Want Some­thing From You,” Galerie Sans Nom, Monc­ton, NB

Music by Graham Meisner. Text extracted from Samuel Beckett’s The Unnameable