APPLAUSI was a video installation that used a museum piece (ancient theatre seats) from the collection of the National Theatre and Dance Museum (where I worked). It aimed at establishing a dialogue between contemporary art and the memory of theatre. In order to achieve this, I established a new process of meaning putting the ancient row of wooden seats from the museum’s collection (which had been in use for decades at Sá da Bandeira Theatre in Porto, seating the audience) combined with several monitors, all showing the same video images.

The title of this piece came from a verbal order, which could be heard in the video in the monitors. It’s an order in Italian to start applauding (“Applausi!”). This order is given by the famous film director Federico Fellini at a rehearsal of actors playing audiences in the Ginger & Fred film, which portrays a certain nostalgic feeling about a lost world of theatre, dance, and cinema musicals.

This performative action of clapping is what is seen in the video. But the context is now different – it’s an exhibition context – resulting in a mix of connivance and provocation aimed at those visiting the National Theatre and Dance Museum. Every time a visitor passes the museum door, on his way in or out, the museum assistant triggers the video to start or end the clapping. "Applausi" serves a subtle purpose of enhacing the relationship between museum visitors and museum assistants.

This installation seeks to question the – interdependent – roles of visitors and staff in a museum. Theaters and museums would not exist without an audience. To be aware of the audience gaze power to activate the museum device when one enters can make all the difference between being an active or a passive consumer of culture.

Federico Fellini in his film turns the actors into audiences. In this video installation it’s the theatre museum’s audience that are turned into actors. Actors who are audience to an audience who are actors and who, by means of this artistic work, receive an applause when they enter and leave the museum, just like on stage.