Last weekend saw the opening of Elettroshock, a retrospective look at Italian video since 1973, at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). The event spans two weekends and features 90 video works, at a total of 15 hours, by 80 authors. The show in Beijing is the brainchild of media critic, Bruno Di Marino, Journalist Lara Nicoli and the driving forces of the cultural exchange powerhouse, OffiCina ltd, Rosariao Scarpato and Monica Piccioni.
The Beijing show is a condensed version of the original 2001 show held in Rome, and aims to provide an historical overview of Italian video using art, music, theatre, dance, documentary and performance. Di Marino - the author of the only book length study of Italian experimental film - was keen to highlight the importance of the Beijing event when BJW caught up with the critic and Nicoli at OffiCina's 798 Factory HQ.
"In Italy, video in general isn't well-known and doesn't have an historical point of view, so this event provides that. We researched and rediscovered all the videos missing form the memory of video, and encountered many problems with restoration because all the videotape and equipment has disappeared, especially from the seventies when video was open reel and easy to damage."
Originally seen as a "weapon of counter-information" in the 1970s, Di Marino still feels it to be so, as the art form is still relatively underground. "Video still is an instrument of counter information, because it belongs to the people and not the government." But the critic was keen to stress this was not their aim in Beijing. "It is about the art, the history, which is why all art forms are included as subject matter. Take Feminielli for example, it is a sociological video, but was also filmed over 12 years using super-8, 16mm and videotape."
Nicoli feels the works by women, about women, are of most importance to her. "Of course I like works that talk about women, the documentary Strippers talks about their problems, so this is interesting for me as a woman." On the show as a whole, Rosario Scarpato is characteristically upbeat, "We hope to reach a larger audience for this kind of Italian art, and hopefully this is the first of a series of projects we (OffiCina, Di Marino and Nicoli) hope to develop together, not just here in Beijing but in other cities." Monica Piccioni felt it ran deeper saying, "It's about cultural exchange, because the level of (Sino-Italian) exchange is still underdeveloped." To which Nicoli added, "This is the year of Italian culture in China and we want to be part of that."
Simon Farnham
Elettroshock continues this weekend at the Central Academy for Fine Arts, 8 Huajiadi Nanjie, Chaoyang. For more information and tickets contact OffiCina on 6436 - 1191 or info@officinaltd.com
(China Daily 03/31/2006 page12)
