A special program by Elisabetta Di Sopra
With the 2021 edition of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival, The Suspended Glance, the Italian video art program by Elisabetta Di Sopra is updated up to the present day and concludes the in-depth study dedicated to the works formally connected to animation and present in the Yearbook archive, Yearbook of Italian Video Art in the period between 2006 and 2021. A set of techniques fueled by the continuous evolution of digital technology that offers new possibilities, allowing new suggestions in a stylistic personalization.
She continues her collaboration with Silvia Grandi, professor of contemporary art history at the University of Bologna and curator of Yearbook together with Renato Barilli, Guido Bartorelli, Alessandra Borgogelli, Pasquale Fameli and Fabiola Naldi.
ANDRECO, “Digital Cloudbrake”, 2016, 3’07”
Video installation by Andreco in collaboration with Proforma and Boyled.Realized at Loft Kinodromo during the Bologna Art week 2016.
Andrea Conte, aka Andreco, is a visual artist and at the same time an environmental engineer who works between art, science and social and environmental issues. He has collaborated with several international festivals, museums and galleries, has won several awards and in 2019 he was Selected as Artist for the Gran Tour d’Italie of the MIBAC Ministry of Cultural Heritage.
APOTROPIA, The Kiss, 2017, 1’11”
A contact between two bodies. An intense sharing of information. A chemical cocktail in the brain. The Kiss is an audiovisual work that explores a simple gesture acted out between two lovers. An intense coming together of two bodies in the digital space. The work was created using motion capture, particle systems and real time randomization techniques.
Apotropia is a duo of artists, Antonella Mignone and Cristiano Panepuccia. They work through video, dance, performance, sound and installation and explore the philosophical, anthropological and scientific elements of human culture. The works by Apotropia have been exhibited internationally.
BARBARA BRUGOLA, A Bunch of Finger Tips, 2009, 2’
Little Amanita wanders in the woods to collect human phalanges rather than mushrooms. After being attacked by a frightening creature, she will return the fingers to their rightful owners. It sounds like a bad dream, but waking up is not better.
Barbara Brugola mainly uses video and drawing. She has exhibited in solo exhibitions on an international level and her videos have been selected in numerous festivals, including the Visionaria in Siena where she won the Critics’ Prize in 2003.
ANITA CALÀ, ABC, 2012, 3’
The first three letters of the alphabet come to life in a primitive and essential sign that simulates talking heads. The three figures frantically alternate in a sort of sound competition, in which in the end one of them will be at the worst.
Anita Calà worked for more than fifteen years as a costume designer for cinema, television and theatre before deciding to focus exclusively on production as an artist, expressing herself with various means, with particular attention to video and photography. She has recently obtained important international recognition.
AUDREY COÏANIZ, Orage, 2015, 5’30”
Trespasses, contaminations and mergers among images manipulated with digital painting – assembled according to a flow of movements that reaches an undoubted margin of novelty and an undeniable destabilization of reality – allow us to define the images to which Audrey Coïaniz gives life in the video and photographs of the Orage project as real “hybrid”s.
Audrey Coïaniz develops a research on the concepts between body, space and movement, creating digital video-animation works, live performances and installations. In some live shows she works on material manipulation and manual interventions, creating abstract and dreamlike landscapes. She connects manual and digital techniques to create animated stories. Her favorite technique is digital painting used on video.
SILVIA DE GENNARO, Travel Notebooks: Dubai, 2019, 3’13”
Cells of skyscrapers divide into other cells of skyscrapers and, stretching along the seashore like glittering cliffs of concrete and glass, compete for those that touch more stars. A perfumed woman, dressed in gold and gems, leaves the house at sunset; her voice, the sweet song of the Muezzin mixed with the sound of hammers at work.
Silvia De Gennaro is a founding partner of the Assaus studio-laboratory. For twenty years she has been involved in digital art, video art and animation. Her work has received international recognition in the world of visual art, cinematography and in the field of experimental short film. Currently her work is divided between the creation of videos on mythological characters and a project on cities and the perception of the traveler, entitled “Travel Notebooks”.
MARCO MORANDI, Feed me Rainbows, 2010, 2’30”
Visual polygonals by Marco Morandi set on some ethereal and atmospheric melodies by Ninca Leece.
Marco Morandi worked for a few years as a video operator and then specialized in 3D animation. For a period in Berlin, where he explored the field of video art, interactive installations and the production of music video clips, when he returned to Italy he also added small institutional documentaries to his production, integrating his directing with the artistic one. He has presented his works in various group exhibitions in Italy and abroad.
LAURINA PAPERINA, The Great Ratzinger, 2008, 3’
Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation took the world by surprise. There are many who are celebrating this announcement, especially the supporters of gay marriage, but there are many who may be mourning the loss of Ratzinger, including Italian artist Laurina Paperina, if only because the German bishop has provided her with so much material for her creations.
Laurina Paperina has presented her works internationally, including group exhibitions in private galleries, art foundations, museums and public spaces, and has participated in festivals and art fairs. Working predominantly with the imagery of contemporary heroes, she makes fun of art and life in her paintings, drawings, installations and humorous animations, ridiculing the personal importance of the artistic enterprise, as well as politics, religion and pop culture.
RITA CASDIA, It’s You, 2017, 2’45”
A plasticine video that investigates the ambiguous relationship that connects human beings. How is it possible to recognize the diversity of a character if everyone is similar to the character himself?
Through video animation, drawing and sculpture Rita Casdia investigates the emotional worlds halfway between dream and reality, populated by small plastic dolls that live or “relive” places where the artist had the opportunity to stay during, but not limited to, the international residences in Canada, Spain and France. The artist herself defines her work as a concrete analysis of the cruelty of the intimate.
DONATO SANSONE, Topo glassato al cioccolato, 2011, 2’30”
It is a dreamlike, dark and surreal vision in which the elements themselves swirl, chasing each other in an infinite scene.
Donato Sansone has to his credit a remarkable production of short films, thanks to which he has obtained important awards in the major international festivals in the sector, including the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. One of his latest works, ghostCRASH, has reached over 150 million views online. Sansone has also made numerous music videos for authors such as Afterhours, Subsonica, Verdena and Francesco De Gregori.
SAUL SAGUATTI, Instant Film – Effetto Moiré, 2019-2021, 2’30”
Short film based on live animation experiences, on optical illusions called the Moire effect. The goal is to bring the manual skills back to the visual performance, using the electronic component as a support base and diffusion of the video signal.
Saul Saguatti became interested in art, comics, video and animation while he was working on the fusion of different disciplines, first experimenting with more traditional techniques, then moving on to more advanced forms of hybridization between analog and digital media. He has taken part in numerous international festivals and also works for the major Italian TVs. He is the founder of Basmati Film, a cultural association devoted to multimedia research focused on animation, images and experimental videos.
CUOGHI CORSELLO, Mazz old bast #2, 2007, 1’50”
Maialpapero is one of the many protagonists populating the works by Cuoghi Corsello, a character of fragile and sure stupidity who on video reflects an aptitude for the onanistic repetition of sound and movement as its consequence.
Cuoghi Corsello starts from graffiti, a form of visual re-appropriation of the city. His work is characterized by a spiritual artistic practice and an almost magical use of the flow of time.
LUCA MATTI, Men, 2011, 2’30”
Sequence of human faces, the result of a total inter-penetration with the city.
Luca Matti is a painter and sculptor with a great passion for animation. His work places man at the center in his relationship with the city. Extreme geometries and great tensions in movement recur, with strong chromatic contrasts.
CHRISTIAN NICCOLI, You by Me, 2018-19, 5’
“Du bei mir – Teil II” (You by Me – Part II) is the second of a series of works on faith, which describe the different aspects of the intimate and trusting relationship that a person can develop with a spiritual entity.
Christian Niccoli’s works have been presented internationally in museums and cultural institutions and his films have been screened at various festivals. His works can be found in various public collections, including the Farnesina Collection – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rome (IT), Museum of Contemporary Art, Szczecin (PL) and Museion-Museum für Modere und Zeitgenössische Kunst, Bolzano (IT ).
