MASBEDO
The Lack
23–25 January 2015
Talk with MASBEDO: 23 January, 6pm
with Gianfranco Maraniello, Beatrice Bulgari and Alessandro Rabottini
MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna
Conference Hall
Via Don Minzoni 14
Bologna
Promoted by Istituzione Bologna Musei and MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, with the support of: In Between Art Film.
The Lack is the first feature-length film by the Italian art duo MASBEDO, produced by In Between Art Film in association with VivoFilm. Following the excellent reception of its debut at the Giornate degli Autori section of the 71st Venice Film Biennial, it has since appeared in a series of the most renowned international film festivals for auteur cinema, including the RIFF-Reykjavik Film Festival (New Visions category) and the CPH: DOX Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (New:Vision Award category). Additionally, it was chosen to represent Italy in prestigious European film festivals such as the 2014 Appointment with Italian Cinema in Istanbul; the 2014 Italian Film Festival in Barcelona; the Mittelecinemafests in Bratislava and Budapest; and the Cinema Made in Italy, forthcoming in London (March 2015). With the showing of The Lack at MAMbo, it ventures outside the cinema circuit into a different and more intimate dimension: that of a contemporary art museum gallery, closing the circle of a journey undertaken by the two video artists to experience the world of cinema through their own language. The film, which proposes four variations on the theme of “lack,” features six female characters played by Lea Mornar (Eve), Xin Wang (Xiu), Giorgia Sinicorni (Anja), Ginevra Bulgari (Nour), Emanuela Villagrossi (Greta) and Cinzia Brugnola (Sarah). Each of these women is immersed in a her own silent and primitive nature, no one else appears, no one interrupts their solitude. Eve faces the pain of abandonment. The obsession of love opens the way for a rebellion where the violent gesture finds its capacity for rebirth in a sublime nature, gorgeous and maternal. In the second story, the dreamlike yet real journey of Xiu culminates in the moment when she brings, with effort and courage, a spotlight to the deserted island which once witnessed a famous cinematic disappearance. The third story takes place in a lunar landscape immersed in apocalyptic scenarios inhabited by geothermal plants and archaic atmospheres. Two women face the difficult and necessary sentiment of detachment, taking the step from a known state to an unexplored dimension, leaving open a spiral of rebirth and hope. Lastly, Sarah retraces her interior journey through her visions. In a psychoanalytic session, she tries to recompose the pieces of her shattered existence and to fill the void it left. The Lack accentuates the visionary attitude of the directors, who insert powerful elements tied to their original poetics of video art. Another distinctive feature of the film are the words, which are few, carefully chosen and rigorously in the native language of the actresses.
The 6pm viewing on Friday 23 January will be preceded by an open public talk with Nicolò Massazza and Iacopo Bedogni (MASBEDO), Gianfranco Maraniello (Director of MAMbo), Beatrice Bulgari (producer) and Alessandro Rabottini (critic and curator).
Viewing times at ART CITY Bologna
Free admission
Friday 23 January: noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm
Saturday 24 January: noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 8pm
Sunday 25 January: noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm
