LOOP: Mascarilla 19 - Codes of Domestic Violence Curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, Alessandro Rabottini and Paola Ugolini
The four artists’ films that make up Mascarilla 19 – Codes of Domestic Violence offer different perspectives on a shared theme, the domestic violence, captured in its full scope and urgency. Each work expresses a unique sensibility, through languages and approaches that range from a documentary-style exposé, to the symbolic, psychological exploration of relationship dynamics.
Mascarilla 19 (Mask 19) is the name of a campaign launched by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in response to an appeal by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, regarding the frightening increase in abuse during the pandemic, when many women, due to the lockdown, found themselves trapped at home and unable to ask for help.
In a world that is digitally hyperconnected but physically separated, the victims of domestic violence found themselves in a state of double isolation, having no way to communicate with the outside world. This situation led to the idea of a secret SOS signal, a code word that victims of violence could use at pharmacies around Spain, alerting staff to set an emergency response process in motion.
With a project that directly alludes to this campaign, Fondazione In Between Art Film wanted to bring attention to a global emergency while also aiding artists, providing them with concrete support to produce new work at a time when all artistic undertakings had been put on hold.
Programme
Presentation by Alessandro Rabottini (Director, Fondazione In Between Art Film)
Screenings
Eva Giolo, Flowers blooming in our throats, 2020.
6mm scanned to digital file (8' 42'').
Eva Giolo (Brussels, 1991) is a visual artist who uses documentary strategies to explore personal and family histories, through an intense perspective that is keenly attuned to women’s experiences. Flowers blooming in our throats was filmed in 16mm just after the lockdown caused by COVID-19. It is an intimate, poetic portrait of the fragile balances that govern everyday life in a domestic setting.
Adrian Paci, Vedo rosso (I See Red), 2020.
Digital projection (11' 38'').
Since the late 1990s, Adrian Paci (Shkodër, Albania, 1939) now based in Milan, has been developing an artistic practice that includes video, film, painting, photography and installation. A central theme of his work is displacement, which Paci explores through depictions of global migration and poetic, metaphorical language that probes how images change and move between film and painting, the shifting nature of personal memory, and the relationships between history, reality and the moving image.
Elena Mazzi, Muse, 2020.
Digital projection (13' 30'').
The artistic vision of Elena Mazzi (Reggio Emilia, 1984) deals with the relationship of human beings to their environment. Taking a primarily anthropological approach, she explores and records the personal and collective identity of a given territory, highlighting different forms of interaction and transformation. In the video Muse, Elena Mazzi leads viewers into the nightmare of gender violence through the disorienting beauty of the Greek and Roman statues in the Antiquarium of Palazzo Grimani in Venice.
Basir Mahmood, Sunsets, every day, 2020.
Digital projection (15').
Basir Mahmood (Lahore, 1985), now based in Amsterdam and who originally trained as a sculptor, uses video and photography to reflect on the mechanisms involved in the construction of cinematic language and to explore the aesthetic and political aspects of everyday life. Sunsets, every day is the result of an investigation that the artist undertook of the process, both physical and cinematic, involved in creating images of domestic violence.
Q&A with Paola Ugolini and Leonardo Bigazzi, curators of the cycle
If you have any question, feel free to contact us on 93 481 33 68 or by email at macba [at] macba [dot] cat