Encounters: cinema and contemporary art Ugo Nespolo

Video works

Bergamo, Saturday, March 26, 3:00 pm - #cinema Capitol (via Torquato Tasso, 41) Screening and meeting with the artist. Followed by a talk with #brunodimarino.

On the occasion of its 40^th edition - to be held from March 26 to April 3 - #bergamo #film Meeting renews the collaboration with #theblankcontemporaryart through the section called ENCOUNTERS: #cinema AND #contemporaryart, which this year features as protagonist Ugo Nespolo, one of the most significant interpreters of contemporary languages and styles. Over the course of his career, #ugonespolo has dabbled with different forms of audiovisual imaginary, creating short films from the beginning of the neo-avant-garde season of the 1960s.

On Saturday, March 26 at 3.00 pm at the Capitol Cinema, the artist will retrace over forty years of research and experimentation through a selection of video works that have marked his career. Complemented by a talk with art critic and scholar Bruno Di Marino, the event will be translated into LIS - Italian Sign Language. Free admission.

Selected videos
La Galante avventura, 1966-67, 16 mm, colour, 8’44’’

Le gote in fiamme, 1967, 16 mm, colour, 2’14’’

Buongiorno Michelangelo, 1968-69, 16 mm, b/w, 10’35’’

Le porte girevoli, 1982, 16mm, colour, 5’13’’

Campari 150, 2010, video, colour, 3’24

Shades on the Couch, 2015, colour, 4'15"

Ugo Nespolo (Mosso – BI, 1941)

He graduated from the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin and, subsequently, in Modern Literature. In 1967 he became a pioneer of Italian Experimental #cinema following his meeting with Jonas Mekas, P. Adams Sitney, Andy Warhol, Yōko Ono, in the wake of New American #cinema. Together with Mario Schifano, Nespolo devoted himself to avant-garde #cinema and, between 1967 and 1968, made numerous films starring his friends and colleagues Enrico Baj, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Lucio Fontana. His films have been screened and discussed in museums and festivals such as the Center Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London, the Venice Biennale.

The notion of art and life (which is also the title of a book published by the artist in 1998) is the basis of Nespolo's expressiveness and is a legacy of the Futurist Movement: "Manifesto for the Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe" (1915). The manifesto was also the source of his interest in design, applied art and creative experimentation in various fields such as advertising graphics, illustration, clothing, sets and costumes for operas. His research also includes multiple forms of material. He works on various supports and with different techniques: wood, metal, glass, ceramic, fabric, alabaster.

Bruno Di Marino (Salerno, 1966)

A scholar and art critic, his field of research is the moving image, specializing mainly in audiovisual experimentation, new media and the relationship between #cinema and other artistic fields (visual arts, design, architecture, photography, music).

He founded the audiovisual archive of the Laboratory Museum of #contemporaryart of the "La Sapienza" University of Rome, which he curated until 2001.

For several years he was an editorial consultant for Rarovideo, for which he curated a few dozen publications on DVD; for the same distribution company, he also curates the "Interferenze" series, with DVDs dedicated to films by Rybczynski, Warhol, Jarman, Gioli, Viola, Svankmajer, Nespolo and many others.

He is a contributor to the "Segnocinema" magazine and the newspaper "Il Manifesto", for whose cultural supplement "Alias" he writes the "Tube Attack" column.

BERGAMO #film MEETING

Now at its 40th edition, #bergamo #film Meeting is an international #film festival and a privileged place for researching and comparing trends in contemporary #cinema with the styles, genres and authors of the past. Every year, the festival offers over 150 films, including tributes, retrospectives and restorations of great classics, which act as a counterpoint to the features of up-and-coming filmmakers, documentaries, and the latest trends in animation #cinema. Thanks to the many collaborations, the festival also indulges in forays into other forms of artistic expression, from music to literature, comics and visual arts. Supported and promoted by the European Union through the MEDIA sub-program of Creative Europe, #bergamo #film Meeting is one of the most anticipated cultural events in the city and one of the most important #film festivals in the international circuit: an opportunity for interactions and knowledge, analysis and research.

The Blank Contemporary Art

The Blank is a collective founded in #bergamo in 2010, with the mission of spreading and broadening the passion and curiosity towards #contemporaryart. Winner of the Italian Council - the main project of the Italian Ministry of Culture - in 2018 and 2020, The Blank was awarded in 2016 by the MAXXI National Museum of the XXI Century Arts in Rome with the i7 - Spazi Indipendenti award as Best Independent Italian Institution. The Blank is a meeting place for different cultural realities, a network that coordinates and promotes initiatives of local, national and international significance, finalizing its activities to promote #contemporaryart and culture. The Blank network is made up of public and private institutions, including GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, BACO – Base #arte Contemporanea, Museo Bernareggi, ArtUP – Banca Popolare di #bergamo, Fondazione Banca Popolare di #bergamo, #bergamo #film Meeting, Ospedale Papa Giovanni XIII and many galleries, collectors, artists who have chosen to share a networking experience.

The numerous projects that The Blank has developed in these seven years of activity, collaborating the most diverse cultural institutions on the territory, include The Blank ArtDate, The Blank Residency, The Blank Kitchen, TB Transit Message, The Blank Hospitality, The Blank Educational and The Blank Conversation.

The collaboration between The Blank and #bergamo #film Meeting began in 2013 with the format The Blank Kitchen - A dinner with the artist (which, over the years, offered a variety of culinary meetings with artists Regina Pessoa, Valentin Hotea, Giacomo Abbruzzese) and with the screening of several short #film selections. In 2016 #bergamo #film Meeting, in collaboration with The Blank, inaugurated the section named ENCOUNTERS: #cinema AND CONTEMPORARY ART, dedicated to the relationship between the two languages, with Deimantas Narkevičius and Keren Cytter as guests. In 2017, the section was dedicated to Franco Vaccari; in 2018, to Jonas Mekas; in 2019, to Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg. In 2021, three talks were presented, with Luca Bigazzi, Gian Maria Tosatti and Debora Donadio as protagonists.