Maurizio Marco Tozzi
@ AND – Artists Network Database
http://and.nmartproject.net/?p=5008
is a curator of contemporary art. He has focused his research on the audiovisual language and the relationship between creativity and new technologies. He has a degree in Cinema and Image Electronics from the University of Pisa (Italy), and a Master in Net Art and Digital Cultures from the Fine Art Academy of Carrara (Italy). He is the founder and director of Over The Real – International Videoart Festival (GAMC Lorenzo Viani – Viareggio and Villa Bertelli Foundation – Forte dei Marmi), and he has curated many exhibitions in important galleries and museums. He regulary takes part in lectures and talks about contemporary art (La Sapienza University Roma, 900 Museum Florence). His last essays are: Gianni Melotti art/tapes/22 (Giunti, 2017) The Italian Video Art (Danilo Montanari, 2016), and Seamless Interaction with Works of Art published in Media Art Towards a New Definition of Arts in the Age of Technology (Gli Ori, 2015). Since 1993 he is a member of the Order of Journalists and worked for various publications.
Curatorial statement:
As a large ship drifted, planet Earth is going towards a destiny everyday more catastrophic. Even Italians artists participating in the project W:OW have come together to launch a strong warning, wishing to awaken through their works the awareness of an essential change. We need an unfailing work that starts from our consciences which Angelica Bergamini (Will you fight or will you dance) encourages us to do, because as Marcantonio Lunardi (The Cage) underscores, we live everyday between existing and non-existing, between living and non-living, between being seen and being invisible. So Michele Manzini (Moving Afrika) ask himself “what is reality?” and he finds it in the South African Townships with an act that might confirm the existence of impossibility. Lino Strangis (A strange earthquake of the mind) invites us to a dreamlike journey to face the intellectual challenges of this age while trying to re-establish its balance, accepting the necessity to reinvent the world. As Paolo Bandinu (No Country) illustrates, we must review the concept of the country, questioning the idea of the border with a new thought, pointing to the freedom of each individual human being. We hope that by watching these videos, people will reconsider their concepts while opening their consciences.
Curated contribution – WOW Italy
Angelica Bergamini (Italy) – Will you fight or will you dance, 2012, 6:48
Marcantonio Lunardi (Italy) – The Cage, 2016, 5:46
Valeria Lo Meo & Michele Manzini (Italy) – Moving Africa, 2016, 5:02
Lino Strangis (Italy) – A strange earthquake of the mind, 2016, 6:45
Paolo Bandinu (Italy) – No Country, 2015, 2:21
Angelica Bergamini (Italy) – Will you fight or will you dance, 2012, 6:48
Video by Angelica Bergamini, Animation: Stefania Szprengiel, Sound: Gillian Arthur;
…despite all the noises produced by the outside world – it’s still possible
to hear a voice whispering an alternative choice: will you fight or will you dance?
A choice which we face every day, both in our daily life as along the path of self discovery.
While walking aware of our breath, is the connection to our inhale and exhale that reminds us of our being here and now. With the possibility to choose.
Marcantonio Lunardi (Italy) – The Cage, 2016, 5:46
Direction Marcantio Lunardi, photography Ilaria Sabbatini, Sound Tania Giannouli;
Food, water, book, language, beauty, earth, sea, love, warmth, man, woman, desire. What is our cage dividing us from? Is it blocking us? Or is it protecting us? The barbed wire is a simple structure, a cylinder-shaped object deformed by a light twisting, which stretches, in the room, from one point to another.
Every 10 centimetres there is a small lock: its delicate shape breaks the linearity of the barbed wire like a lock gracefully curled. But, far from being delicate, those thorns twirl around life preventing its movements, inducing wounds, suffering and pain.
The barbed wire, thus, marks the border between existing a non-existing, between living and non-living, between being seen and being invisible.
Lunardi has patiently built his cage: it is an iconic, cold and surreal object. He has welded the wire fence to the main structure, he has assembled the frames and the hooks. Wire after wire, pipe after pipe, bolt after bolt he has shaped the catharsis of his nightmares and he transformed his inner obsession in a tangible object. The cage he is alluding to is that in which we live in and which has become more and more tight-fitting. It is a sort of coffin in which life continuously moves from one corner to another, completely alone, perpetually searching for an horizon which is continuously blocked.
One can look outside the cage whenever one wants to, but the perception is always distorted, altered and blocked. Thus, a book becomes a visual vibration confused by the iron locks, the works of art are cut in pieces by the metallic wire. One cannot find a single corner allowing a complete vision. Brushing against the leaves of a tree moved by the breeze or enjoying the touch of a beloved one become impossible enterprises.
Valeria Lo Meo & Michele Manzini (Italy) – Moving Africa, 2016, 5:02
Written and Directed by Valeria Lo Meo and Michele Manzini,
Director of Photography Luciano Perbellini, Editing Valeria Lo Meo, Produced by Bottega di Fotografia pty (LTD) Cape Town;
The word reality is always used in an intimidating way.
We must constantly be worried about “reality”, we must obey “reality” as a kind of constant enslavement without exceptions. We live crushed by the dominating opinion that there exist elements of reality that are binding and conditioning, and that they are so to the point that we cannot imagine even just a small form of action group action that is untouched by this coercion. And so then, does an eventual answer to the question “what is reality?” always have to verify that we cannot speak of “reality” unless we take into account some form of imposition? Is then the image that “reality” gives us never found, discovered, or met, but is simply the reflection of an injunction? Is it then necessary to accept, as though it were one of reason’s laws, that reality demands, in all cases, submission rather than invention?
To work with the expressive form of a documentary means rethinking the idea of describing reality and redefining its structure and the limits, and it also means doing so in a place where the imagery and weight of that reality seems most strong and binding, as in the South African townships. This is an act that might confirm the existence of impossibility, because this is the basic gesture for
Lino Strangis (Italy) – A strange earthquake of the mind, 2016, 6:45
A strange earthquake of the mind is a journey into a dream on the eve of a change: when the earth
trembles, and with it the foundations of thought; the habits of individuals and peoples are
changing, the same people’s presumed ability to define falters things and it is necessary to accept
the responsibility to re-invent the world. A flight of the gaze into the depths of a mind open-theater
on a display of dream-like dimension of an imagined collective intelligence, in a time when a
generation processes the ability to face the challenges intellectuals of his age, and re-establish the
balance.
Paolo Bandinu (Italy) – No Country, 2015, 2:21
Video (Stop motion), mixed media on postcards and flyers by Paolo Bandinu;
The work is composed of a video and a series of postcards cheanged pictorially (25) framed.
Through the recovery of various post-card and flayers. I created a video-collage. The video tries to rebuild through visions from the world, a story, a trip, a path that leads us to a reflection upon the concept of the country. A country seen as planet earth, cities, universes – that calls into question the idea of borders. A thought pointing to the freedom of each individual human.
In a time when the defnition of citizenship is in crisis, we increasingly feel the need to redefne the boundary between public and private spaces, within a dialogue between institutions and citizens.
“From up here the Earth is beautiful , without borders or boundaries”
Yuri Gagarin