Riccardo Giacconi PORTFOLIO

Riccardo Giacconi
PORTFOLIO
Selected exhibitions.
2014
Republika Postav (Republic of figures)
curated by Tereza Stejskalová
tranzitdisplay, Praha, Czech Republic.
Scherzo (solo show)
curated by Alberto Ayala
Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia.
Lo qué no está (solo show)
lugar a dudas, Cali, Colombia.
Iconica (Arte urbana al foro italico)
curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Maria Alicata
Lungotevere, Roma, Italy.
2013
Echo Back
curated by Stefano Coletto
Jarach Gallery, Venezia, Italy.
One Thousand Four Hundred and Sixty
curated by Vincenzo de Bellis, Bruna Roccasalva and
Anna Daneri
Peep-Hole, Milano, Italy.
Rumores Ultramarinos
curated by Marisa Rappard
Galerie Ton de Boer, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Studio Shows
curated by Maria Alicata
MACRO - Museo d’arte contemporanea di Roma, Italy.
Love Meal
curated by Francesco Bonami and
Achim Borchardt-Hume
Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK.
The 338 Hour Cineclub
curated by Rosalie Doubal, Alec Steadman and
Emeline Vincent
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy.
Do you know because I tell you so or do you know, do
you know?
curated by Valerio del Baglivo
Viafarini, Milano, Italy.
2012
NI DIEU NI MAÎTRE
curated by Andrea Bruciati
Galleria Massimodeluca, Mestre, Italy.
Storytellers
curated by Caterina Benvegnù
Superfluo Project, Padova, Italy.
Venti per una
curated by Martina Corgnati
IGAV - Istituto Garuzzo per le Arti Visive,
Saluzzo, Italy.
2011
Open Studio
curated by Milovan Farronato
VIR - Viafarini-in-residence, Milano, Italy.
100 Years (version #4, Boston 2012)
curated by Klaus Biesenbach and RoseLee Goldberg
special program curated by The Mobius Artists Group
Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, USA.
To hug a snake
curated by Emilie Renard
Résonance - La Biennale de Lyon, France.
ARGONAUTI
curated by Andrea Bruciati
ArtVerona art fair, Verona, Italy.
If you want this story to continue...
curated by Andrea Bruciati
Prague Biennale 5, Prague, Czech Republic.
Let’s play
curated by Alessandra Borgogelli,
Paolo Granata, Silvia Grandi, Fabiola Naldi
Palazzo Pretorio, Cittadella, Italy.
Ariane De Rothschild Prize
curated by Marcello Smarrelli and Laura Barreca
Palazzo Reale, Milano, Italy.
2video
online video screening curated by undo.net.
Exposition de Noël
curated by Le Magasin
Ancien musée de peinture, Grenoble, France.
2009
I numeri primi
curated by Andrea Bruciati
ArtVerona art fair, Verona, Italy.
Curator’s Table #1
curated by Ilaria Gianni
Reload, Roma, Italy.
93.ma Collettiva Giovani Artisti
Fondazione Bevilacqua-La Masa, Venezia, Italy.
Exhibition on “spazio chiuso”
curated by Stefano Coletto
Uscita Pistoia, Pistoia, Italy.
2010
Videoart Yearbook 2009
video screening curated by Renato Barilli,
Alessandra Borgogelli, Paolo Granata, Silvia Grandi,
Fabiola Naldi, Paola Sega
Chiostro di Santa Cristina, Bologna, Italy.
Desplazamientos temporales
curated by Laura Diez Garcia and Patricia Vega Artime
La Alhóndiga, Bilbao, Spain.
Playlist - Ho popolato di nomi il silenzio
video screening curated by Barbara Meneghel
neon>campobase, Bologna, Italy.
You-We + Ablo
curated by Francesco Bonami
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo,
Rotonda di Via Besana, Milano, Italy.
Furniture Music
curated by Blauer Hase
Cannaregio 96/F, Fondamenta Priuli dei Cavalletti,
Venezia, Italy.
videoREPORT ITALIA 2008_09
curated by Andrea Bruciati
Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea,
Monfalcone, Italy.
Documents
curated by Peter Friedl
Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte, Banna (TO), Italy.
2008
92.ma Collettiva Giovani Artisti
Fondazione Bevilacqua-La Masa, Venezia, Italy.
Re:public
curated by Amerigo Nutolo
Tese dell’Arsenale, Venezia, Italy.
IUAV al MAXXI
curated by Cornelia Lauf and Angela Vettese
MAXXI, Roma, Italy.
B, B, B, C, F, G, G, K, R, S, V ?
curated by Stefano Coletto and Marco Ferraris
Careof, Milano, Italy.
2007
Hic Sunt Leones
curated by Blauer Hase
Palazzo Ca’ Corniani degli Algarotti, Venezia, Italy.
In the dark
performance
Museo d’arte Medievale e Moderna, Arezzo, Italy.
6o secondi
curated by Dovrat Ana Meron
Scala Mata Art Gallery, Venezia, Italy.
Lost in production
curated by Marco Baravalle
S.A.L.E., Venezia, Italy.
Blindscapes
curated by Tomas Guido Illgen
Francoise Calcagno Art Studio +
Scala Mata Gallery, Venezia, Italy.
Blindscapes
curated by Tomas Guido Illgen
Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano, Italy.
Blindscapes
curated by Tomas Guido Illgen
Centro Cìvico Zona Nord, Barcelona, Spain.
2005
Mappening
curated by Armin Linke and Hans Ulrich Obrist
Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia, Italy.
Festivals, screenings.
2014
2011
Live Works - Performance Act Award Vol. 2,
part of “Skillbuilding”, 34° performing art festival
Drodesera, curated by Barbara Boninsegna, Denis Isaia,
Simone Frangi, Daniel Blanga-Gubbay. Dro, Italy.
Torino Film Festival, Torino, Italy.
Euganea Film Festival, Padova, Italy.
Screening at Centre d’Histoire de la Résistance et de
la Déportation (Resistance and Deportation History
Centre), Lyon, France.
2013
Rome Film Festival, Roma, Italy.
Screening at Futura, Praha, Czech Republic, curated by
Valerio del Baglivo.
Screening at Bulegoa z/b, Bilbao, Spain, curated by Laura
Diez Garcia.
FID Marseille International Film Festival, Marseille,
France.
Festival Le Jour le Plus Court
Le Magasin, Grenoble, France.
2010
Loop Festival, Barcelona, Spain.
Kaunas in Art Festival, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Screening at MACRO - Museo d’arte contemporanea di
Roma, Italy, as part of The Impossible Hour, screening series
curated by Giovanni Giaretta.
Lago Film Festival, Revine Lago, Italy.
Screening at Das Spectrum, Utrecht, the Netherlands,
curated by Eliane Esther Bots.
2009
2012
Screening at Museo La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia
Festival international Signes de Nuit, Paris, France.
Mestre Film Festival, Venezia Mestre, Italy.
Workshops / Residencies.
2013
Artist residency at La Box, Bourges, France.
Artist residency at MACRO, Museo d’arte
contemporanea di Roma, Roma, Italy.
2012
Artist residency at Lugar a Dudas, Cali, Colombia.
Red de Residencias Artísticas LOCAL, artist residency
at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia.
2011
Seminaire Moly-Sabata 2011, workshop curated by
TkH - Walking Theory (Ana Vujanovic and Marta
Popivoda) in collaboration with Magasin, Grenoble and
ENSBA, Lyon
Fondation Albert Gleizes, Sablon, France.
Lagostudio Art-Workshop, art workshop curated by
Fondazione March, Padova, Italy.
3-week workshop at Fondazione Spinola Banna per
l’Arte, visiting professor Peter Friedl, Banna (TO), Italy.
2011-2012
Post-diplôme, one-year research program
EESI - École européenne supérieure de l’image,
Poitiers, France.
2008 - 2009
1-year residency at Fondazione Bevilacqua-La Masa,
Venezia, Italy (with Blauer Hase).
2011
VIR Viafarini-in-residence, artist residency
Viafarini, Milano, Italy.
2008
The unredeemed pledge, artist residency
at Conway & Young, Bristol, UK.
2010-2011
Post-diplôme art, one-year residency
ENSBA - École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts,
Lyon, France.
2007
Crossing Places, art workshop held in Thessaloniki,
Barcelona, Milan, Venice, produced by European
Union (Culture 2000), Arci Italia, Hangar.
Awards.
2014
Winner
Live Works - Performance Act Award Vol. 2
Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy.
2013
Finalist
Talent Prize 2013
Casa dell’Architettura, Roma, Italy.
2012
Winner
NCTM e l’Arte: Artist-in-residence Fellowship
NCTM, in collaboration with Viafarini
Milano, Italy.
2011
Finalist
Ariane De Rothschild Prize 2011
Ariane de Rothschild Foundation
Palazzo Reale, Milano, Italy.
2011
Winner
Dissertation Fellowship
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human
Development
New York University, New York, USA.
2009
Winner
Bevilacqua La Masa Award
93.ma Collettiva Giovani Artisti
Fondazione Bevilacqua-La Masa, Venezia, Italy.
Winner
Best Italian Artist (Video Art category)
Renaissance Arts Prize 2009
Italian Cultural Institute, London, UK.
Various.
Talks and lectures:
Articles and interviews (selected):
2013
Variations on Simone Pianetti’s murders
in collaboration with Andrea Morbio
MACRO - Museo d’arte contemporanea, Roma, Italy.
Choreography of the document
Jerome Bel interviewed by Riccardo Giacconi
Arte e Critica magazine, January 2013.
2012
Theory and practice of catastrophes
in collaboration with Jurga Zabukaite
Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France.
Lecture, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá,
Colombia.
2011
Paesaggio (talk about the publishing project,
with Blauer Hase collective - 20 May 2011)
festival of Contemporary art of Faenza, Italy.
2010
Lecture, IUAV University of Venice
(with Blauer Hase collective)
Exhibition Display workshop held by Cornelia Lauf.
Landscapes, rodeos and furniture music
(talk about three publications, with Blauer Hase collective)
festival of Contemporary art, Faenza, Italy.
2009
Book presentation,
Publish And Be Damned publishing fair
(with Blauer Hase collective)
Oxford House, London, UK.
Excellence and performance
RoseLee Goldberg interviewed by Riccardo Giacconi
Arte e Critica magazine, September 2011.
Riccardo Giacconi. A partire dal bandito Simone Pianetti...
by Daniela Bigi
Arte e Critica magazine, March 2011.
Post-critical Design
Ronald Jones interviewed by Riccardo Giacconi
Arte e Critica magazine, March 2011.
Lettura di sbieco (Slantwise Reading)
Riccardo Giacconi interviewed by Barbara Meneghel
Flash Art Italia magazine 286, August-September 2010.
Darle la vuelta
David Bestué and Marc Vives interviewed by
Riccardo Giacconi
Arte e Critica magazine, November 2010.
Biennale Felix
Felix Vogel interviewed by Riccardo Giacconi
Exibart magazine, March 2009.
Role-Play
Saskia Holmkvist interviewed by Riccardo Giacconi
Flash Art online, January 2009.
Experience Curating
Nav Haq interviewed by Riccardo Giacconi
Arte e Critica magazine, December 2008.
CV.
Education
Professional activities
2007 - 2010:
Master’s degree in Visual arts,
IUAV University of Venezia, Italy.
Score 110/110 cum laude. Graduation thesis supervisors:
Angela Vettese, RoseLee Goldberg.
2008:
research assistant to Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine
Gallery, London.
2010:
Exchange program at Steinhardt School of
Culture, Education, and Human Development,
New York University, New York, USA.
2007- todate:
member of art collective “Blauer Hase”
(www.blauerhase.com).
2007- todate:
writer collaborator for “Arte & Critica” magazine.
2008:
Erasmus exchange program at University of West England,
Bristol, UK.
2007-2009:
writer collaborator for “Flash Art Online” and “Exibart”
magazines.
2004-2007:
Undergraduate degree in Visual Arts and Theatre,
IUAV University of Venezia, Italy.
Score 110/110 cum laude.
Graduation thesis supervisor: Daniele Del Giudice.
2005 – 2007:
music composer and sound designer for theatre
company “Nodo Teatro”, Venice, Italy.
2006:
New York Film Academy summer Film making program,
Universal Studios, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
2003:
Musical Theory degree at “Conservatorio G. Rossini”,
Pesaro, Italy.
1999-2004:
High School degree at “Liceo scientifico Leonardo
da Vinci” with the final score of 100/100,
Tolentino (MC), Italy.
Birth date: January 18, 1985
Birthplace: San Severino Marche (MC), Italy.
Works.
chi ha lottato con l’angelo
resta fosforescente
video installation with sound, 18’, 2013.
No path deceives,
no presage lies.
Who has struggled with the angel
remains phosphorescent.
In 1990 poet Maria Luisa Spaziani (Turin, 1922 - Rome, 2014) published one of her more experimental works, the poem
in heroic verse Giovanna d’Arco (Joan of Arc). One of the distinctive elements of the book is the invention of a language:
Joan speaks with an angel, who addresses her in a non-existent language.
The angel who embodies such voice is, for Spaziani, poetry itself, that is, that force that constantly presses the boundaries of
language and the speakable, deforming such boundaries, revealing glimmers of unexplored areas of pure voice.
la paradoja de
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen
video, 43’, 2012.
“I was at a party in the garden of my house on
the Andes. My friends were all around me, eating
meat and playing cards sitting at wooden tables.
The sun was shining high in the sky.
Suddenly, everyone turned, pointing at me, and
burst out laughing. I was standing before them,
and could not understand what they were referring to. Then a blast of shame rose to my head
when, looking at myself, I realized that I was
on fire.”
In quantum physics, if two particles
interact in a certain way and then become separated, regardless how distant
they are from each other they will share
a state called ‘quantum
entanglement’. That is, they will keep
sharing information despite their
separation. This theory used to upset
Einstein. In his theory of relativity,
no transmission of information could
occur faster than the speed of light,
therefore he couldn’t understand how
the two particles could be simultaneously connected.
This documentary intertwines four
interviews collected in Cali, Colombia.
A tailor, a puppeteer, a parapsychologist
and a physicist narrate certain episodes
occurred in the city: the disappearance
of a cow; the death on stage of a puppet
character; a paradox in quantum mechanics; and the fall of a bus into a river
due to a lion on the road.
A latent ‘entanglement’ between elements of the stories emerges, outlining
a hypothesis of action at a distance.
indagación sobre la
forma de los milagros
radio-documentary, 61’, 2012
In 1972 the Teatro del Parque Nacional in Bogotà,
Colombia, until then used for puppet shows for
children, was occupied and turned into a sort of
communist/anarchist Commune. Many Colombian
puppeteers took their first steps in that context, and
within that political climate.
This radio-documentary collects their voices, as a
puppet show in the dark. In particular, it focuses on
a traditional puppet character, el espiritado, supposedly inspired by a real event: a man shot a policeman
dead, and then always asserted not to remember having done it – thus becoming an icon for the anarchist
movement.
Along the development of the vocal texture, latent
connections between sleepwalking, anarchy, miracles
and puppeteering, take shape.
Produced in collaboration with Fonoteca Nacional de
Colombia.
in thin air
(Centre d’Histoire de la
Résistance et de la Déportation)
sound installation, 2011.
Sound installation composed of background sounds
recorded in the empty exhibition space of the empty
exhibition space of the Centre d’Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation (“Resistance and Deportation History Centre”) in Lyon, which is housed in
the very building previously used as the headquarters
of the Gestapo.
The sounds are reproduced with a variable intensity:
in a sinusoidal trend, they range from hardly perceivable to very loud. This range (from maximum to
minumum to maximum again) takes 12 minutes to
be completed, and it repeats itself in loop. In this
way, the perception of the space is completely different, depending on the point of the sound range when
the viewer enters the exhibition space.
The installation was presented in Lyon at Les
Subsistances, as part of the Résonance program
during the Lyon Biennial 2011.
l’éternité
par les astres
video, 12’, 2011.
Two French partisans from the Second World War
read excerpts from French political activist Louise
Auguste Blanqui (1805–1881)’s astronomy book
L’éternité par les astres (1872).
The video comprises recordings of the background
sound emitted by the empty exhibition space of the
Centre d’Histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation (“Resistance and Deportation History Centre”)
in Lyon, which is housed in the very building previously used as the headquarters of the Gestapo.
The first screening of the video took place in September 2011 at the Centre d’Histoire de la Résistance et
de la Déportation in Lyon, as part of the Résonance
program during the Lyon Biennial 2011.
portrait de Dominique Fidanza
dans sa maison en Suisse
video, 14’, 2011.
Dominique Fidanza, also known under
the pseudonym Domy Fidanza, is a
Belgian-Italian singer, born August 7,
1979 in Brussels. She won the Italian version of the TV talent-show Popstars and
was therefore part of the pop girl group
emerged from the show, Lollipop.
Subsequently, in 2006 she was a finalist
of the sixth season of the French TV show
Star Academy, where she finished second.
Wikipedia.fr
scherzo
(Notre-Dame de Fourvière)
audio, 10’, 2011.
13th century theologian Pierre de Poitiers invented a theory
meant to ensure the validity, the effectuality of the sacramental liturgy without any reference to the agent. The problem
was, if the priest who administrates the baptism is a murderer
or an apostate, is the baptism valid? After an extensive discussion the church decided that, independently of the moral
character of the priest, the baptism is in any case valid.
As a matter of fact the only case in which the baptism is not
valid is if the priest is joking. That would be the only cause
that can nullify a baptism, a sacrament.
In the church of Notre Dame de Fourvière in Lyon, I recorded a conversation I had with a priest in a confessional.
Starting off with a series of fictional information I gave,
the dialogue tackled Pierre de Poitiers’ theory, questioning
the joke as a human device that deactivates the dichotomy
between truth and fiction. As in a joke, an uncomfortable
laugh ends the conversation.
In Italian, the saying “scherzo da prete” (priest’s joke) indicates a nasty trick, a joke so bad that doesn’t seem to be
a joke any longer. More than sound or conversation, the
medium of this work appears to be the joke itself.
il vendicatore
puppet show in two acts, 70 mins, 2012
in collaboration with Andrea Morbio
puppet show performed by Giacomo Onofrio.
Re-enactment of an ancient puppet show about Italian mass
murderer Simone Pianetti, in the village where he executed
his massacre, 98 years later.
On the single morning of 13 July 1914, Simone Pianetti
(aged 56) used his rifle to shoot and kill seven people who
ruined his life and his reputation in Camerata Cornello, a village in northern Italy. Among them were figures of power in
the village, such as the town clerk, the parson and the doctor.
Soon after the massacre, Pianetti fled to the mountains. Due
to the beginning of World War I, he was never arrested and
his body was never found.
After nearly 100 years, in the area his figure is still controversial and for many his story embodies a positive example of
revolt against authorities, while he personifies an antiestablishment political symbol ‒ notably for anarchist circles
in Italy and in the United States.
Shortly after the 1914 events, local puppeteers started to
perform adaptations of Pianetti’s story, which have been
transmitted and performed until the 1990s.
Giacomo Onofrio represents the third generation of a puppeteer family, from the North-West of Italy. Il vendicatore
(“the avenger”) was written by his grandfather right after the
news about Pianetti’s massacre had been spread.
The puppet play hadn’t been regularly performed since the
60s, since Onofrio doesn’t perform puppet shows for adults
anymore, due to the lack of an adult audience.
The puppet show Il vendicatore was performed by Onofrio in
the square of Camerata Cornello in September 2012, ninetyeight years after Pianetti’s massacre was executed in the same
place.
monti e mari
hardcover book, 18 pages, 30 x 42 cm, 2011
in collaboration with Andrea Morbio.
At the end of their performance, those wandering artists
we call cantastorie (singer-songwriters from Northern Italy
between 1850 and 1950) would sell printed flimsy flyers
containing the lyrics of the song they had just performed.
As well as words, there were often one or more illustrations
which summed up the main theme of the song: they were
either vignettes printed on the top of the flyer or single pictures placed to the side of the lyrics.
Together with anthropologist Andrea Morbio, I created a
series of fogli volanti focusing on a single subject which was
popular among singer-songwriters in the early 20th century, namely the story of Simone Pianetti, the avenger from
Bergamo. In 1914, in a fit of lucid rage, Pianetti killed seven
people whom he believed had unjustly treated him thus ruining his life. Soon after the massacre, he fled to the mountains. Due to the beginning of World War I, he was never
arrested and his body was never found.
After examining two samples of flyer issued at that time and
concerning this notorious affair, we created this new series
which covers the documentary aspects only marginally, in
the form of footnotes, captions, editor’s additions and similar
continuous variations on layout and genre. At the center of
each flyer, there is a love song, Monti e Mari (“mountains and
oceans”), which has no historical or philological connection
to the Pianetti affair: it works as a fulcrum, as the overtly
conventional core around which objects, quotations, and
images are arranged. In a play of dissonant harmonies, a gory
crime story is set in what might look like a love song.
The graphic design of the series is the result of a study of the
fonts, illustrations and themes found in Italian printed materials dating from the first three decades of the 20th century.
We took into consideration flyers as well as posters, book
covers, and pamphlets.
un ligero equipaje
para tan largo viaje
performance, 2010
in collaboration with Andrea Morbio and Nerea Elizalde.
Un ligero equipaje para tan largo viaje featured in the one-day event Dezplazamientos Temporales that took place
11 December 2010 at La Alhondiga, a public cultural center in Bilbao, Spain. A 12-year old girl, standing at the entrance of the space, shouted a looping series of sentences.
The performance aimed at functioning as a non-recorded reportage. The text was a montage (as it happens in video or
sound reportages) composed of fragments of interviews with citizens of Camerata Cornello, in the northern Italian area
of Bergamo. Such interviews were collected during a field research conducted in summer 2010 about the local episode
of assassin Simone Pianetti (1858 - ?) and its relevance in present times. In the performed text, all details about names,
dates and locations were omitted.
Simone Pianetti was an Italian mass murderer. On the single morning of 13 July 1914, Pianetti (aged 56) used his rifle
to shoot and kill seven people who ruined his life and his reputation in the village of Camerata Cornello, northern
Italy. Among them were figures of power in the village, such as the town clerk, the parson and the doctor. Soon after
the massacre, Pianetti left the village and fled to the mountains. He was never arrested and his body was never found.
After nearly 100 years, in the area his figure is still controversial and for many his story embodies a positive example of
revolt against authorities, while he personifies an anti-establishment political symbol – notably for anarchist circles in
Italy and in the United States.
l’altra faccia
della spirale
video, 18’49’’, 2010.
Six Italian partisans from the Second World War read excerpts from Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation Series”, a trilogy of
science fiction books.
Italian translations of Asimov’s “Foundation Series” came
out in 1963 and 1964. In the same years, Italian literature
entered an important phase for the Resistance Novel, a genre
whose narrative takes place in the partisan groups during
Second World War’s Italian Resistance. Notably, Italo
Calvino defined Beppe Fenoglio’s book Una quesione privata
as “the novel of Italian Resistance”. Una questione privata
came out in 1963, exactly the same year when Italian translations of Asimov’s Foundation Series started to come out.
In each of the external locations portrayed in the film, an
episode connected to central Italy’s Resistance took place.
The soundtrack of the film comprises extracts from 1966 film
Fantastic Voyage, of which Isaac Asimov was subsequently
asked to write a literary version.
l’altra faccia
della spirale
4 plates (ink on paper), 24,5 x 34,5 cm each, 2010.
Italian translations of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation Series”
came out in 1963 and 1964. In the same years, Italian
literature entered an important phase for the Resistance
Novel, a genre whose narrative takes place in the partisan
groups during Second World War’s Italian Resistance.
Notably, Italo Calvino defined Beppe Fenoglio’s book Una
quesione privata as “the novel of Italian Resistance”.
Una questione privata came out in 1963, exactly the same
year when Italian translations of Asimov’s Foundation Series
started to come out.
I asked four Italian partisans from the Second World War to
choose a sentence each from Asimov’s “Foundation Series”,
and to write them on a sheet of paper.
notes pour illustrations pour
Bel-Ami de Guy de Maupassant
ink on paper, 10 plates 24 x 32 cm each, 2010
in collaboration with Danila Domizi.
In 1872 Jean Hippolyte Michon
publishes his book Les mystères de
l’écriture, in which he invents the term
“graphologie”.
Thirteen years later, Guy de
Maupassant publishes his second novel,
Bel-Ami, which chronicles journalist
Georges Duroy’s rise to power. “C’est
toujours nous que nous montrons,”
said Maupassant, “dans le corps d’un
roi, d’un assassin, d’un ouvrier ou d’un
honnête homme”.
I asked a graphologist to select a series
of case studies from her practice, to be
used as illustrations for de
Maupassant’s book Bel-Ami, and to
choose a specific passage from the book
to be associated to each of them.
in thin air (duo)
two-channel sound installation, 2010.
This installation comprises the most low-pitched sound
emitted by the two most low-pitched wind instruments
of the classical orchestra: the contrabassoon and the
contrabass tuba. I asked two musicians to play the most
low-pitched sound their instruments could emit, aiming
at focusing on the limits of the orchestra, on the sounds
closest to inaudibility.
Each sound source reproduces a low-pitched, dull and
continuous sound, not immediately noticeable. These
characteristics are similar to the ones of background
noises produced in everyday life environments: fridges,
heating and ventilation systems, motors.
The sound in In thin air presents a variable intensity:
in a sinusoidal trend, it ranges from hardly perceivable
(omitted by conscious perception because considered a
background noise) to very loud (perceivable, readable).
This range (from maximum to minumum to maximum
again) takes 12 minutes to be completed, and it repeats
itself in loop. The perception of the space is completely
different, depending on the point of the sound range
when the viewer enters the space.
The work is both readable and non-readable, depending
on the moment when it is experienced. It plays with the
distinction between foreground and background: the
piece configures itself as language, sign, message but also
as ‘white noise’, ignorable and non-significant stimulus. The distinction is gradual: the work continuously
covers the intensity range and oscillates between its two
statuses: figure and ground.
quello che non c’è
5 video pieces, 6’30’’, 2009.
Language prearranges strategies to refer to itself.
It is capable of producing techniques in order to
isolate the space of an enunciation, and to make a
performance out of it – a performance that aims to
reach a specific effect.
In Quello che non c’è (“What is not there”), five Italian
jokes are deprived of their punch-lines.
In telling jokes, the so-called ‘punch line’ is sort of a
‘flick of the tail’ of language, which flashes and
illuminates the whole space of enunciation which
comes before it.
By removing this ‘flick of the tail’, the primary aim
of such enunciation is revoked. But the futility it acquires can open a space for sense, where the performative value of language becomes less easy to locate.
“The evidence: sense, games of sense, its abolition, its
reappearance, are never anything other than a matter
of place” (Roland Barthes).
the talking tree
video, 3’, 2009.
Abdullay Kadal Traore is a musician from Burkina Faso. He comes from a griot family - a griot is a repository of oral
tradition from West Africa. Despite the fact that the official language is French, in Burkina Faso there are around 66
spoken languages. In The Talking Tree, the soundtrack is a recording of Abdullay speaking in Sambla, the language of
his village. He explains how, in his people’s tradition, certain areas of language are only accessible during certain fixed
social occasions, and how only a griot has the power to access such areas. But also for the griots, the power to tell certain
stories or sing certain songs increases with the age. The stories told in such social events are strictly not translatable:
only Sambla people can access them through their language.
In The Talking Tree, the screen is always black. Subtitles, although they seem to be a faithful translation to what Abdullay is saying, are not connected to his voice. Instead, they tell a traditional Sambla story for children, the only one
Abdullay felt allowed to translate to me. The story is about a talking tree, which kills everyone who pronounces certain
forbidden words.
As soon as Buki pronounced these
words,
the tree hit him on his head.
in thin air
(church of Santa Caterina)
sound installation, 2009
“A now-famous anecdote tells of Cage visiting NASA’s
soundproof room at Harvard University. Expecting absolute
silence, he instead heard two sounds: one high and one low. The
first, he was told, was his nervous system, the second his circulatory system. Even silence could not be silent.”
The organ of the small church of Santa Caterina, in Banna,
was used as a machine instead of an instrument for sacred
music. I blocked the lowest and the highest keys of the organ
so that they would constantly produce a sound, being the
organ electrically driven.
The result was a continuous background noise within the
church, at first hardly assignable to the organ. The noise was
composed by a low rumble and a high-pitched hiss, which
were the two sound limits of the organ, the closest ones to
human inaudibility.
notes for a radio drama on
Ten Little Niggers
by Agatha Christie
audio loop, 3’30’’, 2009.
The audio loop consists of the recording of a traditional
American song called Ten Little Indians.
The recorded version was played using the organ of the
Catholic church of Santa Caterina, in Banna, near Torino.
The tune was played by the church organist at a significantly
lower speed, as if mimicking the sound of a funeral march.
This song was adapted in 1869 as Ten Little Niggers and
became a standard of the blackface minstrel shows. It was
sung by Christy’s Minstrels and became widely known in
Europe, where it was used by Agatha Christie in her novel
which was later retitled as And Then There Were None (1939),
about ten killings on a remote island. The version of the
song that was included in the American edition of And Then
There Were None (1964) replaced already sensitive “nigger”,
with “indian”. Because this song, and even the original term
Indians, are politically sensitive modern versions for children
often use “soldier boys” or “teddy bears” as the objects of the
rhyme.
la scena emisferica
video, 16’, 2009
in collaboration with Daniele Zoico.
In 1992, athlete Frankie Fredericks became Namibia’s first
Olympic medalist when he finished second in both the 100m
and 200m. For the 1996 Summer Olympics, Fredericks was
among the title favourites for both the 100 m and 200 m.
He reached both finals, and again finished second in both. In
the 100m, he was beaten by Donovan Bailey, who set a new
World Record, and in the 200m he was beaten by Michael
Johnson, who also set a new World Record. At the time, Fredericks’s second place run was the third fastest run in history,
beaten only by Johnson.
Suffering from injuries, Fredericks had to withdraw from
the 1999 and 2001 World Championships and the 2000
Summer Olympics. In the 200m final at the 2004 Summer
Olympics in Athens, he finished 4th. He was 36.
Although Fredericks is considered one of the top athletes of
the end of the 20th century, he never managed to be Olympic champion.
Using the language of TV documentaries, La scena emisferica
narrates the real story of Frankie Fredericks. This story is
interpolated by amateur images of a trip to Namibia made
by an Italian tourist. His account runs parallel to the story
of Fredericks, establishing a balance between two unsatisfied
endeavours.
they gave us the land
video, 15’, 2008.
They gave us the land takes place in Bristol, UK.
The people featuring in the video are Spanish-speaking immigrants, living in Bristol only for a short period of time, less
than one year.
The text they read is a short story by Juan Rulfo, a Mexican
writer. Originally written in Spanish, it is read by the Spanish-speaking immigrants in an English translation, without
trying to hide their accent. This makes it hard sometimes to
understand the words they are pronouncing.
The story, set in Mexico during the revolution, describes
the journey a group of men take across an immense, barren
plain. The plain has been given to them by the government
but is wholly bereft of any quality that would make it good
agricultural land.
The video features images shot in Bristol, as if trying to find
a location in which to set a hypothetical visual transposition
of the story.
hic sunt leones
installation with sound, 2007.
curated by Blauer Hase.
Blauer Hase is a collective composed of Riccardo Giacconi, Mario Ciaramitaro, Giulia Marzin, Daniele Zoico.
In their exhibition Hic Sunt Leones, they made twelve artistic interventions in a 16th century Venetian palace,
Ca’ Corniani degli Algarotti. The house, uninhabited for many years, exerted an evocative power and the works
resulted from the process of the exploration of the space. As the palace already possesses a strong visual identity,
these interventions focused on features and characteristics of the place itself, modifying or exalting its qualities.
In two of the interventions I made, I moved objects already present in the place, simply re-positioning them.
I looked for all the objects in the house that had the form of an animal, and I gathered them together in a little
room on the upper floor, just in front of the staircase. All the animals were looking at the door, at the viewer who
just ascended.
In the main room, a large parlour, I moved all the chairs, armchairs and sofas and positioned them one behind
the other, as like in a movie theater, to destroy their primary function of conversation devices. Instead, they were
facing a wall that was completely covered with the previous occupant’s paintings and photos.
For the same room, I created a sound installation (Allegro). It was made with a recording of Vivaldi’s Allegro (from
the Autumn concert of the Four Seasons) reproduced twenty times slower then the normal speed.
my grandmother reads the
Theses on the Concept of History
by Walter Benjamin
video, 35’, 2007.
The true picture of the past flits by.
The past can be seized only as an
image which flashes up at the instant
when it can be recognized and is
never seen again.
For every image of the past that is
not recognized by the present as
one of its own concerns threatens to
disappear irretrievably.
Walter Benjamin.
My grandmother reads the 21 Theses on
the Concept of History, a text in which
Walter Benjamin discusses issues as the
“moment of legibility”, the transmission
of history, revolution and redemption.
Each act of reading is itself an act of
responsibility.
My grandmother reads each thesis in a
place that is (or has been) important for
her life, or for her history.
Contacts
telephone
+39 338 8805967
e-mail
[email protected]