Inori

INORI is a video installation presented at the Museum of Oriental Art of Venice during the 17th edition of the Giornata del Contemporaneo organized by AMACI in 2021. The work reflects on instability and displacement as emotional, social, and perceptual conditions of contemporary life. Projected onto a linen garment inspired by the Japanese mizugoromo dress, the installation combines images of cherry blossoms, koi fish, ocean waves, urban landscapes, migrants crossing the sea, and scenes of conflict. Through this continuous visual flow, Inori juxtaposes serenity and violence, beauty and fragility, creating a sense of disorientation that mirrors the uncertainty of the present. The empty garment functions as a displaced human presence: a body implied but never shown. Inspired by costumes used in traditional nō theatre, it becomes a symbolic surface carrying memories, identities, and transformations. The work explores how images migrate across cultures, histories, and media systems, dissolving stable boundaries between East and West, past and present, sacred ritual and digital image culture. Sound plays a central role in the immersive experience. Inspired by the Japanese temporal principle of jo-ha-kyū, the soundtrack combines koto and taiko within a cyclical structure that moves from stillness to acceleration and back again, reinforcing the sensation of repetition and perpetual transition. Rather than documenting instability from a distance, Inori inhabits it. The work investigates how technological mediation and the endless circulation of images affect perception, memory, and emotional orientation. Traumatic events and contemplative moments coexist within the same visual stream, reflecting the fragmented condition of contemporary experience. Damiano Fasso’s multidisciplinary practice combines painting, photography, installation, and video art, often drawing inspiration from East Asian visual culture to address themes of migration, ecological fragility, social tension, and the instability of identity. In Inori, displacement becomes both subject and method: a way of understanding how images continuously shift, transform, and renegotiate meaning within an unstable world.