DISCO GYM
TEAM: Maria Passarelli,Carlo Alberto Cusinati – Italy, Italy-Austria – Politecnico di Milano
Disco-gym – fitness is a party
“Disco-gym” presents fitness as a party by celebrating issues such as body and hedonism through a ritual trance.
It attracts tribes revolving around discotheque and gym, reinterpreting some clichés such as narcissism and exhibitionism.
The Human Billboard is a temporary incubator that activates the party through a hybrid schedule of events. It’s a cage filled up with human bodies shaking at the rhythm of the music and wishing to reinvent their identities through a radical self-expression. The interior provides an immersive atmosphere for the hyperstimulation of the body, thanks to the artificial control of air, light and sound. It also works as a plug-in for devices that define spaces for training such as a VIP room where a DJ-shaman performs, a collective UV tanning shower facility, an elastic forest for climbers and a secret dark room. It also acts as a contemporary triumphal arch, a landmark visible from a distance that punctuates the rhythm of the party.
The access to the Human Billboard becomes a fundamental moment for the party since it represents the ritual of initiation. The selection process is run by Caronte, a judge who stands on the top of the “mobile pulpit” interacting with the people running on the “personal trainers”, devices arranged in a circle that preselect the initiates. Once selected, the initiates perform their walk of fame to enter the Human Billboard thanks to “Narcissus”.