Lo sguardo sospeso
“Suspended Glances” because, through its anti-narrativity approach, Video Art has the power to summarize meaningful and emotional moments. Despite the different approach in expressing themselves, this is what the artists of this special section have been able to convey.
Elisabetta Di Sopra
CAN YOU HEAR ME ? by Sabrina Mazzuoli
2011, 1’17”
This work is part of a larger project called “The Soloist”, presented in 2011 at the Cultural Cantieri of the former slaughterhouse in Prato and selected by the “Young Station” festival at La Gualchiera theater in Montemurlo. By means of danced and declaimed actions and of video screenings, the project hints at the positive and negative aspects of loneliness, and underlines the vulnerability of each individual, which may be either hidden or evident.
SCHIAVITU’ CIVILIZZATA by Michele Innocente
2009, 2’09”
This video, with a great lyrical and compositive intensity, aims to denounce the unbearable working conditions of factory workers. The lyrical climax of the whole work is represented by the gaunt and almost skeletal hands, trying to find handholds over an invisible wall of darkness and oblivion.
ETEROTOPIA by Devis Venturelli
2012, 3’57”
The video was shot in the Hadrian district in Rome, a sort of “no man’s land”. The shooting was made from the back seat of a car, on which pieces of cellophane were attached; in its fluidity it became the medium of contrast to the rigidity of urban buildings. Cellophane thus represents a metaphor of a mental, illusory and imponderable superstructure which acts to redefine our relationship with the urban environment.
STILL ALIVE #2 by Cristina Pavesi
2012, 2’56”
In this video, the image composition is clearly inspired by Caravaggio and by Flemish artists: a bouquet of illuminated dried roses stands out against a black background. The novelty, however, consists in the presence of an unreal wind, of unlikely vibrations, of a fourth dimension — time —, which defeats the fixity of still life, as intended in the classical version, through an afflatus bearer of vitality.
PIG #1 by Francesca Fini
2013, 9’17”
A man and a woman are in the middle of the scene; they are slapping each other with hands full of colored paint, behind them a black canvas which collects the squirts of color, in a room covered in plastic sheets and newspapers. . The performance has a variable duration: it can last for minutes, but also for hours and only with brief interruptions. The meaning of this is the irrational and methodical violence, almost like a ritual, similar to all the forms of domestic violence, which is immortalized by the mark it leaves on the public, dressed in white protective clothes , just likelike an observer in a laboratory. At the end of the performance the man and the woman take off their clothes stained with color and nail them to the canvas with a staple gun. Serial violence turns into serialized performance. Serial routine becomes arts routine and every time the performance “shakes”, it produces a new canvas with new sketches and new clothing, chronologically stored and numbered.
ICE WORLD by Mauro Rescigno
2012, 02’03”
This work represents a dreamlike and quiet world, in which abstract and icy shapes continuously follow one other. The artist uses 3D animation to express a human sense of unease and inner crisis.
CONCERTO PER SOLISTI by Filippo Berta
2012, 1’43”
A group of men is sitting in a canteen and is drinking some broth. Each of them emphasizes every sip, sucking the spoon excessively, so as to emit an annoying noise. Each person displays his presence emphasizing the act of eating through this gurgling noise, but finds himself inexorably absorbed by a collective chaotic noise. Everyone tries to distinguish this collective uniformity (the same dish, the same table, the same chair … ), but it is a futile attempt, and the result is a farce competition in which everyone tries to cover up the noise emitted by the others.
SECRETS by Alessia Travaglini
2006, 6’15”
This work is inspired by a film by Lars Von Trier, The Five Obstructions. The aim is to use the symbols, the social aspects and the surreal idea of Un Chien Andalou, and to offer a new vision of contemporary modern society, of sex, religion and social classes. Secrets is part of a project entitled “3V” which is composed by A splinter in the eye (photographic video), The choice (animation) and Secrets (video).
SELFPORTRAIT by Isobel Blank
2009, 2’54”
To this artist a self-portrait is an effective means to achieve a new regenerative self-definition, the filter which can make the inextricable link between the real and the person almost surreal. The visual pathway proceeds through similarities, mutations and visual metaphors in which nature almost feeds on the changes it produces. Through ‘imitation’ a human being can find his own particular identity.
