A special program by Elisabetta Di Sopra
On occasion of the 13th edition of the Short Film Festival, the program “The Suspended Glance”, a showcase dedicated to Italian Videoart, continues to draw from the Videoart Yearbook Archive, bringing to light video-performative works realised between 2005 and 2011. The body becomes a metaphor for our inner world and our endless search for meaning.
The basic problem is identity, as Dafne Boggeri says, where the only possible form of identity is the acknowledgment of its irreversible loss. If Fliri considers art as an attempt at subverting clichés through acute irony, Giannotti regards it as an experiment to shift paradigms and deconstruct iconographic images; according to Picco, art is visionary, the response to the loneliness of contemporary man. Concerning the loss of one’s cultural identity, Ciancimino responds with a meeting “in the kitchen” where the mother explains to her children how to prepare a typical Sicilian recipe. However, it is Niccoli’s disorientation which denounces the lack of anchor points that characterise our era. Silvia Camporesi strongly believes in the possibility of salvation through the beauty of martial arts that make us move our own limits. In Fai la cosa giusta, the calligraphic body of a moto-geisha-samurai interpreted by Giovanna Ricotta, a performance translates the impalpable moment of artistic inspiration until the final and decisive action. Caterina Pecchioli seeks the short circuit in the spectator. How? By manipulating the safe directions of a flight attendant and combining them with gestures from other contexts. A hint of a smile by Calà first turns into an increasingly hysterical laugh, then into a silent scream of despair. It passes through an inconsolable sadness and then takes on a sinister expression until it ends in a mask of indifference. But what should I do then? Asks Natalia Saurin. Dance, keep dancing while there is music. You must dance. Dance without ever stopping.
Elisabetta Di Sopra
Selected works:
DAFNE BOGGERI, Ash, 2005, 1’19”
MICHAEL FLIRI, I’m in Hell and I’m alone, 2006, 1’38”
ALDO GIANNOTTI & MARKUS HOFER, Coffee Bolognese, 2007, 4’18”
GABRIELE PICCO Spaghetti Orchestra on the 23rd floor, 2008, 2’45”
CHRISTIAN NICCOLI, Planschen, 2008, 5’
NATALIA SAURIN, Dance Dance Dance, 2009, 4’20”
CATERINA PECCHIOLI, Safety Instructions, 2009, 2’44”
SILVIA CAMPORESI, Secondo vento, 2010, 4’
GIOVANNA RICOTTA, Fai la cosa giusta, 2010, 9’45”
GABRIELLA CIANCIMINO, Ritratto in nero di seppia, 2010, 6’15”
ANITA CALÀ, Anita C., 2011, 4’
A special thanks goes to Prof. Silvia Grandi, professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Art and Visual Studies at the Department of Arts, University of Bologna and co-founder of the Videoart Yearbook.
