AlbumArte
AlbumArte

Elena Bellantoni. Maremoto | Thursday, May 18 at 7pm

AlbumArte presents

as part of AlbumArte | VideoArtForum 2017 

Elena Bellantoni | Maremoto (video, 2016, 8’) 

Following: In Altro Mare
Elena Bellantoni in dialogue with Cecilia Canziani and Silvano Manganaro; video screening of Hala yella addio/adios (2013, 9.55’) 

Thursday, May 18 2017 at 7.00 pm
AlbumArte | Via Flaminia 122, Rome 

AlbumArte introduces another appointment of AlbumArte | VideoArtFourm, a series of screenings and talks about Video Art which presents premiére of videos and films, followed by a discussion with artists and curators. 

On Thursday, May 18, AlbumArte presents Maremoto, the latest poetical video by Elena Bellantoni, an artist who lives and works between Berlin and Rome, whose artistic research is principally focused on two main topics: identity and relationship with others.

The screening will be followed by a debate with the art critics Cecilia Canziani and Silvano Manganaro. 

Maremoto (tsunami) is a performative work shot on the Sicilian coast. At dawn a woman trying to ride the waves while riding a bicycle, an impossible attempt to cross the Mediterranean using an improbable and unreliable vehicle. The woman swept away by the force of dives until she disappears, from the same point shows up a black man that traces back the path to arrive finally at the beach and continue his journey by bicycle. A circular work in which the element of water, the sea, of crossing tells the story of a boy Ibrhaima arrived in Lampedusa from Senegal, his voice accompany the video in Pulaar language, his own dialect. The two characters are dressed the same as if they were a single person, the one needs the other: the experience of migration belongs to both. The desire for this meeting takes place on the sea border, the journey becomes an attempt to mend two banks, two horizons, different cultures. The path to the other becomes fluid, the sea has not barriers, in fact, the Mediterranean has always represented a water road used by people who arrived and departed. The actions are made up of two unique sequence shot to give shape to the real effort of crossing. There is no linguistic translation but through the images and the sound of the tongue the viewer can perceives the story of one of the many migrants landed on the Mediterranean coasts. 

On Friday, May 19, from 4:00 to 9:00 pm, there will be a looped screening of Maremoto.


Elena Bellantoni (1975) lives and works between Berlin and Italy. After graduating in Contemporary Art at La Sapienza University in Rome, she studied in Paris and London, where in 2007 she received an MA in Visual Art at WCA University of Arts London. Deepens the dance-theater and the performing arts, her research focuses on the concepts of identity and otherness through relational dynamics that use the language and the body. In 2007 she constitutes Platform Translation Group, in 2008 she co-founded 91mQ art project space Berlin, and in 2015 she creates Wunderbar cultral Project. Among the solo shows: 2016 Hale Yella goodbye/adios Viamoroni Spazioarte Bergamo; 2015 Lucciole Alviani Space, Pescara; 2014 Passo a Due, Careof DOCVA, Milan; Dunque siamo, Foundation Filiberto Menna to Archaeological Museum of Salerno. Among the group shows, 2016: Beyond Borders. Transnational Italy to British School at Rome; The picutre Club, American Academy in Rome, Al-Tiba9 Algiers Bardo National Museum, Algeria; 2015: Parole Passeggere, MAXXI leaves MAXXI, at Roma Ostiense Railwail Station, with the work of Francys Alys;  Masterpieces from the Farnesina Collection. An Italian art look from the fifties to the present day, Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Croatia. Among the residencies, 2016: Soma Residency Mexico City, Mexico; 2014: Careof Residency Program DOCVA Milan, Italy. 2017: Special Prime Ars Nova 100, Winner, Premio Art e Laguna, Beijing 2014: Finalist, Talent Prize, Repubblica.it prize. 2013 first prize FestArte / Factory for the contest I colori del Mondo, Museo Macro. 2012: NGBK prize – Neu Gesllschaft für Bildende Kunst -project In Other Words, realized at Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien and NGBK Berlin. 2010 participates at Italiens – junge Kunst project in der Botschaf, Italian Embassy, Berlin. In 2009 she won Movin’up G.A.I for a project in Santiago del Cile. In 2008 she won a residency with the artist Francis Aly at 98weeks project space in Beirut. In 2014 her works was purchased by Farnesina Collection, Minister of Foreign Affair, Rome. 

Cecilia Canziani was founding co-director of Nomas Foundation in Rome from 2009 to 2016. From 2011 to 2014, together with Simone Menegoi, she conceived and curated a highly acclaimed diffused project of public art commissions and collection for Italian fashion house, Ermenegildo Zegna. Since February 2016, she is a member of faculty at the Accademia di Belle Arti in L’Aquila, Italy, where she teaches ‘Fenomenologia delle Arti Contemporanee’ (Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts). Canziani regularly contributes to art magazines such as Cura and Flash Art, and to the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. She was Henry Moore Research Fellow 2014-2015, and holds an MA in Curating from Goldsmiths University and a PhD in Art History from the University of Naples Federico II. 

Silvano Manganaro is a professor of History of Art and Art Management at Accademia di Belle Arti in L’Aquila. He earned a Ph.D. at Sapienza University of Rome. He has been the editor of the art and contemporary culture magazine “DROMEmagazine”. Currently, he is regular contributor to “Il Giornale dell’Arte” and a member of the editorial board of the magazine “pianob”. General Secretary and Curator of VOLUME! Foundation, he has organized exhibitions and video art shows in galleries and unconventional art spaces, in collaboration with public and private institutions to realize training courses and seminars in teaching and History of Contemporary Art. 

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