Show me the way

Authors’ Comment

GUIDE ME
Performative installation

“Guide Me” is a video-performative installation about how, in recent years, the psychological concept of narcissistic personality disorder has been popularized and used in the public space. The work, made by the director and screenwriter of theatre and film Gabriel Sandu at /SAC @ Malmaison, starts from a documentary in the area of pop psychology and, in the construction of the video installation, draws clear differences between the approaches of psychology and sociology on the phenomenon. He then turns to a fictional area: a famous YouTube psychologist (Richard Grannon) is invited to an event of a "performing" but narcissistic family, and his presence produces catastrophic effects. Without a moralizing, deliberate "light-hearted" tone, the project sheds light on a dark theme that affects many people, and traces the evolution of perception and cultural wear of the term "narcissist."

The installation proposes a labyrinth in semi-darkness, with multiple outputs; video, performers and texts guide, the audience chooses. During performance shows (1, 2 and 22 November), among real testimonies about experiences with partners, bosses or narcissistic parents, a therapist (Andreea Gazdaru) stars as a living but intangible exhibit, to whom visitors can ask a single question – about what they have seen or about any other subject – and she can choose whether she answers or not.

“Guide Me” marks the completion of a research, analysis and creation process started in 2022 by Gabriel Sandu and presented then, also at /SAC, under the name of EGO TRIP.