The desert works well on the screen. It is the screen. Low horizon, high verticals. We are talking about the classic westerns. The classic element has always been the space, the emptiness. The lines are already drawn for us.
Don De Lillo,The names, 1982
The desert is intensely alive. […] Alive with the primal forces of rock, weather, wind, light, and time in which biology is only an uninvited guest fending for itself.
Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, 2005
Why we came riscopre il deserto come spazio reinventato dall’immaginario cinematografico. Questo film-cosmogonia esplora il rapporto con la natura, con ciò che eccede l’umano: i grandi cieli, le distese d’acqua e di terra in cui è forse possibile tracciare un segno, osservati in quattro vedute, una per ogni punto cardinale. I personaggi cercano di modificare il paesaggio, disegnano traiettorie, scavano nella sabbia, ma vedono i loro sforzi annullati dalla forza impersonale che si estende intorno a loro.
Why we came rediscovers the desert as space reinvented by the cinematographic imagination. This film-cosmogony explores the relationship with nature, with that which goes beyond the human: the great skies, the natural expanses in which it is perhaps possible to trace a sign, observed in four views, one for each cardinal point. The characters try to modify the landscape, draw paths, dig in the sand, see their efforts cancelled out by the impersonal force that extends around them.
concept ZimmerFrei
production Monitor video&contemporary art and MAN Museum of Modern Art of the Province of Nuoro
(Site specific project, curated by Maria Rosa Sossai)
direction Anna de Manincor
editing Anna de manincor
sound Massimo Carozzi
music
Angela Baraldi: voice
Alessandro Berti: voice
Vittoria Burattini: drums, voice
Massimo Carozzi: analog synthesizers, voice
Manuele Giannini: electric guitar
Stefano Pilia: double bass, electric guitar, effects
courtesy Monitor Video&Contemporary art
format DVD PAL
audio stereo
duration 17 min 30 sec
year 2006
solo exhibitions:
October 2nd –December 3rd 2006
perché siamo venuti
Monitor video&contemporary art, Roma, Italy
March 16th 2007
Site Specific # 1- ZimmerFrei
MAN Museum, Nuoro (I)
curated by Maria Rosa Sossai
screenings:
November 23 2007
Art Facts
Museo della Musica, Bologna
October 19 2008
Hotelbitch
Nadine, Bruxelles
December 10-14 2008
ITALIAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
Nuovo Cinema Aquila – Roma
curated by Piero Pala
7 febbraio 2009
PASSAGES. arte architettura design
a cura di Marco Petroni
Cantieri Teatrali Koreja, Lecce
11 Ottobre 2009
“Crossing Landscapes – the environment in international video art”
curated by Maria Livia Brunelli and Silvia Cirelli
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino,
fair:
January 25-29 2007
ArteFiera 2007
Hall 22, stand Monitor
Bologna, Italy