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THE DIGITAL DELI SCIO', 2017

Single channel HD video, color, sound, 9 min. 2 sec.



The Digital Deli Sciò (a playful Italian misspelling of “show”) parodies Italian commercial television of the 1980s and ’90s. Scozzaro’s upbringing during this period was shaped by heavily Americanized television, and his ambivalent fascination with this colorful and seductive aesthetic is delivered with humor through the creation of an elusive TV host alter-ego. The video is performed live, partially scripted, partially improvised, and heavily post-produced. Its monologue is a collage of appropriated quotes from gallery press releases and art jargon, while the soundtrack samples and deconstructs pop hits of the era.
Referencing Pino Daniele’s album Sciò and drawing on the musician’s linguistic mix of Neapolitan dialect and English—which mirrors his idiosyncratic Mediterranean sound blending Black music and traditional Italian melody—Scozzaro uses language and performance to explore cultural displacement and the interplay between Italian and American ethos.



ITALIAN TENDENZA, 1995-2020

Three-channel video (HD, SD from archival VHS-C tape), color, sound, 9 min 45 sec.



Italian Tendenza is a three-channel video installation exploring cultural displacement through the aesthetics of 1980s–90s Italian commercial TV and contemporary social media tropes. Structured as a TV show, the work features Scozzaro performing alter-ego characters: a charming host introduces a neurotic, short-tempered Dante Alighieri across a 25-year span.
On the left channel, the contemporary Dante delivers an irreverent, satirical reading of the Divine Comedy, cursing at the audience and reflecting on vulgarity and excess in media culture. The right channel presents an archival recording of Scozzaro performing the same material in 1995 at age sixteen, revealing a layered and evolving engagement with his own cultural identity. The central channel animates Italian and English subtitles, often complicating comprehension rather than clarifying it.



DIGITAL DELI SCIò - ITALIAN TENDENZA, 2020

Performance, live broadcast; SD video streamed over the internet, color, sound, 45 min.



Italian Tendenza is a one-man-band performance live-streamed from Scozzaro’s studio via Microscope Gallery’s website during the COVID-19 lockdown. The piece explores televisual rhetorics and cultural stereotypes to examine ideas of displacement. Referencing 1980s–90s Italian commercial TV, formative to the artist’s upbringing, and blending it with the DIY aesthetic of American public access TV, Scozzaro performs two alter-ego characters: an elusive, charming TV host and a contemporary, funky, short-tempered Dante Alighieri.
The host mispronounces Italian with an exaggerated American accent, reflecting on stereotypes, vulgarity, and irony in media culture, filtered through aspirations toward the American dream. Meanwhile, Dante delivers a flamboyant, satirical monologue inspired by the Divine Comedy, cursing at the audience while commenting on excess and absurdity in media culture.



ITALIAN TENDENZA, 2021

Three-channel video (HD, SD from archival VHS-C tape), color, sound, 9 min 45 sec;
Rosco Chroma Key Blue video paint, eco-solvent print on PVC carpet, dimensions variable.



This iteration of Italian Tendenza in Did you have a nice day? draws on The Big Flat Now, using self-referential strategies to explore media saturation, consumer culture, and the circulation of images.