Monditalia in Film, Film in Monditalia
John Hill
13. June 2014
Photo: Screenshot
The Monditalia component of the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale directed by Rem Koolhaas consists of more than 70 films shown alongside the 41 research projects in the Arsenale. Albert Momo selected the clips and speaks about them in this video.
It is also worth drawing attention to a few of the architectural research projects in Monditalia that incorporate film in different ways. First, Andrés Jaque/Office for Political Innovation created a multimedia installation for "Sales Oddity. Milano2 And The Direct-To-Home TV Urbanisms," earning the Silver Lion for best research project. The piece consists of a film projected onto a three-dimensional fabric piece suspended in the space. In the below video Jaque discusses his award-winning installation.
Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine's project on "La Maddalena" consists of two films, one on Stefano Boeri's Ex-Arsenale built for the G8 Summit in 2009 but never used, and one on Mauro Morandi, the sole occupant of the nearby island of Budelli. In the below video the couple discusses making the two films.
XML's installation "Theaters of Democracy" looks at ancient arenas that took the form of the semi-circle, as well as the assembly halls of today's parliaments that adopt the same form. The historical and modern/contemporary are expressed respectively through drawings on the wall and peepholes with moving images of the assembly halls. XML's Max Cohen de Lara and David Mulder discuss their piece in this short film.
Lastly, Ignacio G. Galán's "Cinecittà Occupata" takes film production in Italy as its subject, locating the sites of imaginary worlds within the real city and exposing the making of many of the 70+ films in the Arsenale via a model onto which films are projected. Galán discusses his multimedia installation in the below clip, revealing that the famous Strada Novissima from the 1980 Biennale was constructed by Cinecittà workers, much like the sets they build in Rome.
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Monditalia in Film, Film in Monditalia
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