ENG-ITA
Animal Cinema, 2017. HD video, 00:12:12, aspect ratio: 16:9, colors, sounds.
Animal Cinema is a film composed of fragments of videos of animals operating cameras. All cameras were stolen by animals who acted autonomously. These video materials, downloaded from YouTube between 2012 and 2017, have been reorganized in Animal Cinema as a constant unfolding of non-human modes of being. Animal Cinema continues my investigation of non-anthropocentric visual intensities: a new regime of images seems to be emerging in the tension between ideas of sensorial contact, encounter, and closeness, and the presence of the unthought, the unsummonable, the inexplicable and the undecidable. “Perhaps,” wrote Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in the early 1990s, ”art begins with the animal.”
(Selected) REVIEWS:
“An audiovisual work of rare effectiveness.” Simone Arcagni, Il Sole 24 Ore
“A radical and fascinating perceptual disorientation that revolutionizes any narrative, symbolic, and epistemological cinematic certainty.” Davide Turrini, Il Fatto Quotidiano
“An ungraspable film about ungraspability, an instinctive film about instinct, a non-human film about the human.” – Marco Romagna, Cinelapsus
“The world as seen from the world’s perspective.” – Felice Cimatti, philosopher
“A sublime experience in which the human subject is dragged out of himself and is pushed closer to a dazzling and blinding limit.” – Federica Timeto, Studi Culturali
“Bringing animality back to its essence.” – Clara Caroli, LaRepubblica
“Astonishing.” – Nicolò VIgna, Lo Specchio Scuro: Rivista di Cinema
“A mediatic metamorphosis.” – Valerio Veneruso, Artribune
“Extremely fascinating. An authentic trip inside the bowels of life’s explorative knowledge.” – Federica Fiumelli, Wall Street International Magazine
“Intimate cinematic framings at the limit of voyeurism.” – Emanuela Zanon, Juliet
“A new cinema in which man provides only the mediun.” – Andrea Tinterri, La Foresta. Itinerari nell’arte contemporanea
CREDITS:
| 00:00:00:00 – 00:01:47:03 |
Filmed by Cardisoma guanhumi (land crab) in Little Cayman (Cayman Islands)
Uploaded to YouTube by AJsoCAl on June 07, 2012
| 00:01:47:03 – 00:02:20:15 |
Filmed by Octopus vulgaris (common octopus) in Abu Dabab (Egypt)
Uploaded to YouTube by Roel Lauwers on December 08, 2012
| 00:02:20:15 – 00:03:30:21 |
Filmed by Amphioctopus marginatus (veined octopus) somewhere in Honduras
Uploaded to YouTube by Chris Cole on January 17, 2015
| 00:03:30:21 – 00:03:55:10 |
Filmed by Canis lupus familiaris (German shorthaired pointer) somewhere in Germany
Uploaded to YouTube by Ben Nestor on December 09, 2015
| 00:03:55:10 – 00:04:58:08 |
Filmed by Ursus arctos ssp. (grizzly bear) in Alaska (US)
Uploaded to YouTube by Brad Josephs on May 17, 2013
| 00:04:58:08 – 00:05:29:09 |
Filmed by Panthera leo senegalensis (West African lion) somewhere in Africa
Uploaded to YouTube by Earth Touch on November 26, 2014
| 00:05:29:09 – 00:07:05:23 |
Filmed by Panthera leo (African lion) in the Okavango Delta (Botswana)
Uploaded to YouTube by Karen Moran on August 28, 2014
| 00:07:05:23 – 00:08:15:10 |
Filmed by Sciurus carolinensis (eastern gray squirrel) in Westmount Park, Montreal (Canada)
Uploaded to YouTube by Viva Frei on August 07, 2016
| 00:08:15:10 – 00:09:01:11 |
Filmed by Cebus capucinus (white-headed capuchin monkey) in Manuel Antonio National Park (Costa Rica)
Uploaded to YouTube by Cole Weber on April 11, 2016
| 00:09:01:11 – 00:10:27:18 |
Filmed by Simia inuus (macaque) in Pulau Tiga, Sabah (Malaysia)
Uploaded to YouTube by Michal Kankowski on May 16, 2015
| 00:10:27:18 – 00:11:45:13 |
Filmed by Haliastur sphenurus (whistling kite) in Kimberly (Australia)
Uploaded to YouTube by ABC News (Australia) on December 01, 2013
With:
| GoPro HERO2 | GoPro HERO3 | GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition | GoPro HERO4 | Motion Sensor Camera |
SCREENSHOTS:
TRAILER:
SCREENINGS AND SELECTIONS:
- (2023) Museo Reina Sofia. The Camera of Nature: The Non-Human in Cinema, curated by James Lattimer, Madrid, Spain
- (2022) Jeu de Paume – PALM. Nouvelle Visions du Vivant: Animal Cinema, Paris, France (online)
- (2021) Spazi Fest, Spazi Fotografici | Centro di fotografia e arti visive, Sarzana, Italy
- (2020) Festival Passage, Histoires animales, Côte de Nacre, France
- (2020) (Online Film Screening) Gamma Festival – Gamma_ONSCREEN. Retrospective. Animal Cinema, curated by Natalia Fuchs, Saint Peterburg, Russia
- (2019) 29th Message to Man – IFF. The Screen Touches Back, curated by Alena Koroleva, Saint Petersburg, Russia
- (2019) (Finalist) Oaxaca Filmfest, Oaxaca, Mexico
- (2019) IV Festival Cine Animal, Bogotà, Colombia
- (2019) (Honorary Mention for Experimental Cinema) Il Varco – III Festival Internazionale del Cortometraggio, Pescara, Italy
- (2019) Richmond International Film and Music Festival, Richmond, Virginia, US
- (2019) (Winner Best Experimental Short) 3rd San Antonio Independent Film Festival, Ecuador
- (2019) 5th International Motion Festival, Nicosia, Cyprus
- (2018) Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York Theatre Royal, York, UK
- (2018) 16th London Short Film Festival, London, UK
- (2018) Frontdoc – International Documentary Film Festival, Aosta, Italy
- (2018) 12th Sydney Underground Film Festival, Factory Theatre, Sydney, Australia
- (2018) South Film and Arts Academy Festival, Rancagua, Chile
- (2018) 21st Antimatter [Media Art], Victoria, BC, Canada
- (2018) 33rd Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Cinema Paradiso, Florida, US
- (2018) 31st Images Festival, Toronto, Canada
- (2018) 21st Revelation – Perth International Film Festival, Perth, Australia
- (2018) 19th Lucania Film Festival, Matera, Italy
- (2018) MOSS INDEX 1, Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco, US
- (2018) (Honorary Mention Award) Experimental Forum Film Festival, Los Angeles, US
- (2018) (Winner of Third Prize) 17th International Kansk Video Festival, Kansk, Russia
- (2018) 27th Florida Film Festival, Maitland, US
- (2018) 48th USA Film Festival, Dallas TX, US
- (2018) 45th Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens OH, US
- (2018) Cinema Perpetuum Mobile – International Short Film Festival, Post-Documentary Section, (multiple venues/screenings), Belarus
- (2018) 17th Festival Internacional de la Imagen, Manizales, Colombia
- (2018) 15th Oxford Film Festival, Oxford MI, US
- (2017) (European Premiere) 35° Torino Film Festival – TFFdoc, Cinema Massimo, Torino, Italy
- (2017) (American Premiere) SLIFF – 26th St. Louis International Film Festival, .ZACK – Kranzberger Art Foundation, St. Louis, MO, US
- (2017) (Preview) Harvard Film Archive, VES (Visual and Environmental Studies) Screenings, Cambridge MA, US
EXHIBITIONS:
- (2023) MBAL – Musée des Beaux-Arts. Animal Instinct, curated by Federica Chiocchetti, Le Locle, Switzerland
- (2021) Convento di San Francesco. Il rituale del serpente: artisti, simboli e trasformazioni, curated by Viola Emaldi and Valentina Rossi, Bagnacavallo, Italy
- (2021) BACO. Image Stream, curated by Sara Benaglia and Mauro Zanco, Bergamo, Italy
- (2021) (Solo Exhibition) Modern Art Base. rs548049170_1_69869_TT (The Other Shapes of Me): Errors, Limits and Malfunctions, curated by Ramdom and ArtHub Asia, Shanghai, China
- (2020) (Online Exhibition) MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo. Animal Cinema – XVI Giornata del Contemporaneo, Rome, Italy
- (2020) (Online Exhibition) Rokolectiv Festival, Probabilities Around the Centre, curated by Rokolectiv, Bucharest, Romania
- (2020) Domus Magna / Palazzo della Misericordia, (2020) Metafotografia, curated by Mario Zanchi and Sara Benaglia, Bergamo, Italy
- (2019) Kyiv Biennial 2019. The Black Cloud, curated by Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Ukraine
- (2019) Khodynka Municipal Gallery, Animal Internet, curated by Sasha Burenkov, Moscow, Russia.
- (2019) Museu de Ciències Naturals of Barcelona – Loop Festival 2019, Land(e)scape, curated by Aurélien Le Genissel, Barcelona, Spain
- (2018) Something Else, OFF Biennale Cairo, head curator Simon Njami, Section curated by Elena Giulia Abbiatici, Darb 1718 Contemporary Art Centre, Cairo, Egypt
- (2018) Artissima 2018, GALLLERIAPIÙ: New Entries Section, Turin, Italy
- (2018) Associazione Barriera + Treignac Project, Kaluchua, curated by Mattia Solari and Martina Sabbadini, Turin and Treignac, Italy and France
- (2018) Laznia Center for Contemporary Art, No Middle, No End, curated by Federica Patti, Gdańsk, Poland
- (2017) (Solo Exhibition) GALLLERIAPIÙ, RE: CAPTURE: Room(s) for Imperfection, part of THE WRONG – New Digital Art Biennale, curated by Federica Patti, Bologna, Italy
(Selected) BIBLIOGRAPHY:
[ACADEMIC PAPER]
Filmische Moderne: 60 Fragmente
“What the Water Said, Nos. 1-3 (1998)” by Laura Frahm (Edited by Olivier Frahle et al.)
transcript, Bielefeg (Germany), 2019, pp. 315-322. (ger)
[ESSAY]
PALM / Jeu de Paume
“Nouvelle Visions du Vivant: Animal Cinema”
by Emilio Vavarella, June 2022 (fra-eng)
[SOURCE (fra) | SOURCE (eng) | ARCHIVED (fra) | ARCHIVED (eng)]
[INTERVIEW]
Doppiozero
“Glitch: la verità nell’errore. Conversazione con Emilio Vavarella”
Interview by Mauro Zanchi and Sara Benaglia, 5 July 2020. (ita)
[CRITICAL TEXT]
Artslife – Fotoromanzo
“Emilio Vavarella: arte, errori e tecnologia. Una costante messa in discussione”
by Andrea Tinterri, May 2020 (ita)
[INTERVIEW]
Juliet
“Emilio Vavarella – Interdisciplinarità artistica”
Interview by Emanuela Zanon, Magazine n. 192, apr/mag 2019. (ita)
[EXHIBITION REVIEW]
Spectate
“Интернет животных. Спор вокруг (A conversation around Animal Internet)”
by Ivan Streltsov, November 2019. (rus)
[SOURCE]
[ARTIST BOOK]
“Animal Cinema: A World Remaking Cinema for Itself”
Published in collaboration with GALLLERIAPIÙ, Cambridge and Bologna
2017 (eng).
[PROJECT]
[CURATORIAL TEXT]
Curatorial text.
“RE-CAPTURE: Room(s) for Imperfection”
by Federica Patti, 2017 (ita-eng).
[PROJECT REVIEW]
Il Fatto Quotidiano
“Animal Cinema, quando cani, polipi, scimmie e orsi diventano registi di un film”
Review by Davide Turrini, 2017 (ita)
[PROJECT REVIEW]
Artribune
“Animal Cinema: quando dietro la telecamera non c’è l’occhio umano”
Review by Valerio Veneruso, 2017 (ita).
[ACADEMIC PAPER]
Studi Culturali (Il Mulino)
“La specie è un ossimoro.”
by Federica Timeto, 2017 (ita).
[SOLO EXHIBITION REVIEW]
Artribune
“Errori e tecnologia: Emilio Vavarella a Bologna”
2017. (ita)
[SOURCE]
[SOLO EXHIBITION REVIEW]
Juliet Art Magazine
“Emilio Vavarella: RE-CAPTURE: Room(s) for Imperfection”
2017 (ita-eng).
[SOURCE (ITA) | SOURCE (ENG) | ARCHIVED]
[EXHIBITION REVIEW]
Wall Street International Magazine.
“Re-Capture. Room (s) for Imperfection. Solo show di Emilio Vavarella”
2017 (ita).
[INTERVIEW]
ATP DIARY
“Intervista con Emilio Vavarella”
By Irene Angenica, 2017 (ita)
[PROJECT REVIEW]
La Foresta. Itinerari nell’arte contemporanea
“Un impero è caduto”
Review of “Animal Cinema” by Andrea Tinterri, La Foresta n.1, Nuova Editrice Berti, 2019. (ita)
[PROJECT REVIEW]
Cinelapsus
“Animal Cinema di Emilio Vavarella”
Review by Marco Romagna, 2017 (ita)
[SOLO EXHIBITION REVIEW]
Exibart
“Emilio Vavarella, Re-Capture- Room(s) For Imperfection”
2017 (ita).
[PDF]
[OFFICIAL CATALOGUE]
TFF – Official Catalogue
“Animal Cinema”
2017. (ita)
[PRESS COVERAGE]
Artribune
“L’Italia alla Off Biennale Cairo 2018”
2018 (ita)
[PRESS COVERAGE]
Exibart
“Diario di una Biennale al Cairo” (5 parts),
by Elena Giulia Abbiatici, 2018 (ita)
[PRESS COVERAGE]
La Stampa
“TFFDoc: una GoPro tra le zampe svela la filosofia animale”
2017. (ita)
[PRESS COVERAGE]
la Repubblica
“Torino Film Festival, sullo schermo arrivano gli animali”
2017. (ita)
[PRESS COVERAGE]
ABC
“Loop: cuando el vídeo «invade» Barcelona”
by Isabel Lázaro, 2019. (spa)
[INTERVIEW]
Digicult.
“Thought is my Main Medium. Interview with Emilio Vavarella | Il pensiero è il mio medium principale. Intervista con Emilio Vavarella”
by Giada Totaro, July 2020. (ita-eng)
[SOURCE (ita) | SOURCE (eng) | ARCHIVED]
[INTERVIEW]
Loosenart
“Glitch: The Truth in the Error. A Conversation with Emilio Vavarella”
by Sara Benaglia and Mauro Zanchi, August 2020. (eng)
[SOURCE (eng) | ARCHIVED]
[INTERVIEW / BOOK]
Metafotografia, Vol.2. Le mutazioni delle immagini
“Intervista 25: Emilio Vavarella”
Edited by Mauro Zanchi and Sara Benaglia (eds.) Skinnerbox, Jesi (Italy), 2020, pp. 112-117. (ita-eng).
[EXHIBITION REVIEW]
ATP Diary
“L’arte come messaggera di possibilità. Emilio Vavarella in mostra ad Arthub, Shanghai”
Elena Bordignon talks with Davide Quadrio, 12 Jan 2021. (ita)
[BOOK CHAPTER]
Animals
“Does visual language limit our view of the natural world?”
Book by Henry Carroll. NYC: Abrams Books, 2021 (eng)
[ESSAY]
Sajetta
“Non-human visual perspectives / Prospettive visive non umane”
by Linda Carluccio, June 2021 (ita-eng)
[INTERVIEW]
ATP Diary
“Nuove ipotesi di realtà. Intervista con Emilio Vavarella (New hypotheses of reality: interview with Emilio Vavarella)”
Interview by Elena Bordignon, January 2020. (ita-eng)
[MA THESIS]
Lodz Film School
“Animal Cinema” in Zwierzęca perspektywa w dokumencie przyrodniczym (“Animal perspective in a document of nature”
by Karolina Kajetanowicz, Poland, 2021, pp.47-51 (pol)
[MA THESIS]
Università La Sapienza
Le altre animali nell’opera di Art Orienté Object (The Other (she)animals in the Art Orienté Object)
by Silvi, Martina, Department of History, Anthropology, Religion, Art, Spectacle. Lettere e Filosofia, Università La Sapienza, Roma, Italy, 2020-21. (ita)
[BOOK]
Videoarte in Italia. Il video rende felici
“Per un’arte in divenire. L’immaginario macchinico dell’audiovisivo italiano di inizio millennio” by Marco Mancuso, Treccani, 2022
[INTERVIEW]
The Parkview Museum
“Emilio Vavarella: Unpredictability of Technological Power”
in Bio Art (ed. by Camilla Latini, Maurice Xu and Xiadi Sun). Published by the Parkview Museum Beijing – Singapore, 2023. (chi-eng)
[INTERVIEW / EXHIBITION CATALOGUE]
Il rituale del serpente. Artisti, simboli, trasformazioni
by Emaldi, Viola and Valentina Rosssi (ed. by). “Emilio Vavarella” in Il rituale del serpente: artisti, simboli e trasformazioni, Ravenna: Danilo Montanari Editore, 2021, pp. 54-55. (ita)