Domestic closed circuits (of violence)

Abstract

The purpose of this contribution is to analyse the Mascarilla 19 project, which premiered at the Italian film and contemporary art festival ‘Lo schermo dell’arte’ in 2020. The project was commissioned and produced by In Between Art Film, Beatrice Bulgari’s production company, and curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, Alessandro Rabottini and Paola Ugolini. In Spain, ‘Mascarilla 19’ served as a codeword used by women victims of domestic violence in grocery shops or pharmacies to denounce abuse. This project consists of eight films that explore the ‘emergency within the emergency’ of domestic violence, increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. A key focus of Mascarilla 19 is the transformation of the domestic space into a closed circuit of surveillance, both as self-surveillance (accomplished through the re-mediation of faces and gestures in video conference platforms) and as constant exposure to the mediated and disciplining gaze of screens, that embody a new male media gaze. Accordingly, this article aims to examine the capacity of pandemic media to reshape affective networks and produce physical and psychological violence, especially in the framework of patriarchal relationships.