Country: Italy
Year: 1996
Duration: 98'
Eight short films about eight contemporary Arte Povera artists: La montagna di sale (1996, 35 mm, 4') and Le Heaume enchanté (1998, 35mm, 12') on M. Paladino, Offertorio (1997, 35mm, 13') on J. Kounellis, I colori della citt` celeste (35mm, 1998, 6') on M. Merz, Le stelle del Canyon (1999, 35 mm, 6') on G. Zorio, Tribute 21 (1999, Betacam, 15') on Rauschenberg, Gilbert & George (1998, Betcam, 17') on Gilbert & George. and Girotondo di capriccio (1999, Betacam, 25') on L. Ontani.
"The common denominator that links all the works that I have filmed is the fact that I was describing the thoughts of the artists and not interpreting them, that I was using images and music to communicate the feelings and emotions that the works themselves were sending to me, and that I consequently made the videos become independent from the artists' works. I have tried to tell stories through the artists' works themselves. The only exception to this happens in I colori della citt` celeste, where I intruded when I added external elements, such as the elephants, crocodiles, zebras and lamas. Here I was trying to emphasize the primordial concept of the work itself. Le Heaume enchanté comes out of the suggestion of the «memory of the warrior» that the gigantic helmet belonged to. The helmet then becomes the place for an inner journey through stasis, preparation for war, reflection, war itself, and finally through a death that sets the warrior free. In Offertorio I wanted to employ the movements of the camera in order to reproduce the religiously archaic gesture of the offering as an ex-voto. In the video Le stelle del Canyon, I inserted the pigs as an exterior element that linked the earthly world with the divine world. In La montagna di sale I privileged a documentary type of cutting. However, in the other three videos my work was addressed more to the artists in their wholeness and complexity rather than to any single artistic installation" (Pappi Corsicato).
Biography
film director
Pappi Corsicato
(Naples, Italy, 1960) studied dance and choreography at the Alvin Alley Dance School in New York, and acting at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. He then worked as Pedro Almodóvar’s assistant in the movie Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), and made his directorial debut with Libera (1993), a series of three shorts presented at the Berlinale and winner of the Silver Ribbon for Best First Feature. He directed Black Holes with Iaia Forte and participated at the Venice Film Festival in 1995, followed by Chimera in 2001. Il seme della discordia (2008) and Another Woman’s Face (2012) were both in the competition section in Venice. He has also made music videos, directed for theater, and made documentaries on contemporary art, besides Armando Testa - Povero ma moderno (2012), which won the Pasinetti Award in Venice. In 2015 he presented at the Torino Film Festival the short Pompei Eternal Emotion, and in 2021 the other promotional shorts Return to Paestum and Carditello’s Stories. In 2020 he created and directed the TV series Vivi e lascia vivere.
FILMOGRAFIA
Libera (1993), I buchi neri (1995), I vesuviani (ep. La stirpe di Iana, cm, 1997), I colori della città celeste (cm, 1999), Chimera (2001), Diario di viaggio con fantasmi (doc., 2006), Il seme della discordia (2008), Ettore Spalletti (cm, doc., 2008), Questione di gusti (cm, tv, 2009), Armando Testa - Povero ma moderno (doc., 2009), Capo dio monte (cm, doc., 2010), Il volto di un’altra (2012), Pompei Eternal Emotion (cm, 2015), Vivi e lascia vivere (tv, 2020), Return to Paestum (doc, cm, 2021), Carditello’s Stories (doc, cm, 2021), Perfetta illusione (2022).
Cast
& Credits
Director: Pappi Corsicato.
Director of photography: Pappi Corsicato, Cesare Accetta, Alessandro Abate.
Editor: Giogiò Franchini, Iacopo Quadri.
Director of photography: Pappi Corsicato, Cesare Accetta, Alessandro Abate.
Editor: Giogiò Franchini, Iacopo Quadri.