The second evening of the Videoart programme, edited by Damiana Leoni e Ra Di Martino is dedicated to a review of video works from the Collection of MAXXI – National Museum of 2023st Century Arts. With this evening, the collaboration between Videocittà and MAXXI is strengthened and resumed, after the first two editions of the festival, which envisages another intervention at the museum's Videogallery in autumn XNUMX.

The evening's program includes the screening of seven video works by Italian and international artists, selected for the themes and contents addressed, which are fundamental for the festival in recent years. 

The splendid video “The Great Silence” by Then & Calzadilla, created in collaboration with the American writer Ted chiang which tells the story of Arecibo, the largest radio transmitting telescope in the world located in Puerto Rico. 

Cities, however, are present in the works of Clemens Von Wedemeier, Grazia Toderi and Yuri Ancarans, which tell us about Rome and beyond. 

Among these, Von Wedemeyer created "The Cast" in Cinecittà, a video installation that evokes an episode that occurred in Cinecittà in 1958, when thousands of extras attempted to force the gates of the Studios demanding a job. Grazia Toderi's work on cities arises from the assembly of various aerial shots of night views, the subject of "Red" is precisely Rome shot from above immersed in a reddish atmosphere teeming with lights, eternal and without borders.

Tomás Saraceno, Poetic Cosmos of the Breath, 2013

video, color, sound, 1'15”

The title of the work comes from the installation of the same name created by the artist on the occasion of the International Artist Airshow in London: a dome that inflates with the energy of the sun, depending on the climatic conditions, and which uses sacks for its functioning of sand, a thin sheet, as well as interaction with some participants. All apparently simple elements, but together they produce a surprising effect. The video is a recording of a temporary event for “Mobile M+: Inflation!”, inspired by the work of English architect Dominic Michaelis, inventor of a solar-powered hot air balloon.

Yuri Ancarani, San Siro, 2014

HD film, color, sound, 26'5”

Produced by Careof DOCVA and SKY, acquired thanks to the contribution of the Friends of MAXXI 

In the San Siro stadium, electricians, workers, police forces and stewards in fluorescent shirts become stunt doubles in a show. The protagonist of the film is football, told from a new perspective that highlights little-known aspects of the mechanisms inherent in the preparation of a football match, the activities of the professionals and the gestures made by the hidden "stars" of the sporting spectacle. 

Eva Marisaldi, The Crow, 1998

video animation, color, sound, 3'21”

The work is a video animation inspired by Il corvo parlante, a prize competition of the magazine La weekly enigmistica and was created with Enrico Maria Serotti, a musician who collaborates with the artist on a series of video and computer animation projects.

With views from above and bird's eye views, the visual perspective of a bird is conveyed as it flies over the urban geometries of a gray and metaphysical landscape, until the crow appears, in a direct play of references to that of the film Uccellacci e Uccellini (1966) by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Eva Marisaldi, Legenda, 2002

video animation, color, sound, 6'6”

The title Legenda refers to its meaning "things that must be read" but it is also the nom de guerre assumed by German terrorists (Baader-Meinhof) in the years of Lead. The video focuses on moments of communication and confrontation between men, represented here by stones who gather in Parliament, visit an exhibition, go to the cinema, watch television.

Gea Casolaro, Before the night lasts forever, 2015

video, color, sound, 7'37”

donation from the artist and ArtAboutOil

The work, born from a competition launched by four Lucanian associations to raise public awareness of the problem of pollution caused by oil extraction in Basilicata, involved many people from the area during its creation, becoming an expression of how individual commitment can be transformed into concrete collective action.

Quando & Calzadilla, The Great Silence, 2014

video, color, sound, 16'52”

Made in collaboration with science fiction writer Ted Chiang, the video is a reflection on the relationship of human beings with the surrounding world and with the universe. The main protagonists are one of the largest radio telescopes in the world, located in Puerto Rico, and a parrot belonging to the Amazona Vittata family, an endangered species native to the same places. The scientific equipment and the animal specimen with strong vocal learning abilities become symbols of man's inability and useless effort in communicating with other living and extraterrestrial species.

Clemens von Wedemeyer, Procession, 2013

HD video, color, sound, 15'19” 

The work is part of The Cast, a complex video installation created by the artist on the occasion of his exhibition at the MAXXI, which explores the theme of memory and the mechanisms of fiction inherent in cinema. The film Procession evokes an episode that occurred in Cinecittà in 1958 – during the filming of the film Ben-Hur – when thousands of extras attempted to force the gates of the Studios demanding a job. Staged by a modern-day crew, the film's cast is made up of actors and activists from the Teatro Valle Occupato in Rome, the theater transformed between 2011 and 2014 into a self-organised cultural centre.

Grazia Toderi, Red, 2007

video, color, sound, 18'16”

The protagonist of the work is the city of Rome shot from above immersed in a reddish atmosphere teeming with lights, eternal and without borders. The resulting geometric composition places an oval-shaped frame at the center, a declared homage both to Borromini's baroque architecture and to the works of the Fine di Dio series, created by Lucio Fontana in 1963, the year of the artist's birth. A process of abstraction that suggests a reflection on the relationship between the human, earthly condition and the infinite space of the Universe.

Video works by: Thomas Saraceno (ARG) – Poetic Cosmos of the Breath; Yuri Ancarani (ITA) – San Siro; Eva Marisaldi (ITA) – The Crow – Legend; Gea Casolaro (ITA) – Before the night lasts forever; Jennifer So (USA) & Guillermo Calzadilla (CUB) – The Great Silence; Clemens von Wedemeyer (DEU) – Procession; Grazia Toderi (ITA) – Red.