Federica Schiavo Gallery

OPENING, TUESDAY 14 JANUARY 2014 H 6:00 PM

SCREENING, TUESDAY - SATURDAY H 6:00 PM OR BY APPOINTMENT

Federica Schiavo Gallery is thrilled to present the screening of Mastequoia op. 09-13. Rotterdam, Tokyo, Fès, a film by Gabriele Silli, Giacomo Sponzilli and Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli, winner of the third edition of Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival Prize, Florence, where the video had its première. The screening will be accompanied by a selection of original silk-screen printings, originated from the film scenes.

Mastequoia op. 09–13 is a feature film in three chapters, three landscape portraits of Rotterdam, Tokyo e Fès. The film is the result of a selection and editing process made during the 2013 starting from a 54 hours of footage collected by the authors during the years 2009-2013 on VHS magnetic tapes.

The constitution of this repertory was the founding act of the specific cinematography which occurs and substantiates the 64 minutes final composition. The approach is rooted in an original determination that interprets and enhances cinematically materials minutes, poor by nature, tracked in the real and within reach of an eye.

Long-term residencies in the three cities, instrument of a slow permeation in the environments, have given rise to a progressive integration and identification of a daily life of the authors and the city. The shooting technique, strategically informal, collected the moving images around elements of writing that kept the script loose and open to intermission. The documented events and actions are more aroused rather than directed and any contingencies, vicissitudes, impromptu performances, are seamlessly recorded.

Such manifold repertory of captured images and sounds was finally gathered to be later arranged in the form of a single synthetic cinematographic characterized by the magnetic tapes photography, the uninhibited manipulation of the camera and the editing constructed by a heterogeneous composition of different scenes arranged into a dense mosaic of images. Its narrative elements and scattered fragments are now listed and now abandoned, juxtaposing pure landscape scenarios to abstract moments enacting a hybridization of filmic language.

A neat progression of separate scenes of autonomous identity and tone, ranging across the fluidity of dramaturgical approaches, is articulated by title cards reporting the narration facts of each chapter: "The Fall of Rotterdam", "The Divine Groom" and "The Foundation of Fez".

On the occasion of the screening it will be presented a group of silk-screen works, elaborated starting from images taken from the film material. A set of selected frames, translated into threshold monochrome silk-screen on frame, has been superimposed and manipulated on paper to compose the original synthetic image that accompanies and introduces the film in its communication. This composition, edited in ten copies and a further set of pieces that accompanies the study, form an organic body of works, created in November 2013, the last act of a long-lasting relationship with the subjects and materials of the film.

Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli, born in1982, lives and works in Rome. His practice is mainly project-oriented, developing from theoretical elements and researches, resulting in performances, installations and films.
Giacomo Sponzilli, born in 1982, lives and works in Tokyo. He's Phd candidate in Architecture at Kengo Kuma Laboratory, University of Tokyo
Gabriele Silli, born in 1982, lives and works in Rome. Visual artist graduated in Philosophy, his practice has pictorial roots and moves even through sculpture and performance.
The name Mastequoia, since 2004, appoints works produced by the three authors together.

Editing: Valeria Biclungo
Mix audio: Emiliano Di Meo

Produced by: Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival
Post-Production: Blue Film
Distribution: Federica Schiavo Gallery