Exhibition view, POLIPHONY, Simone Carella, Io poeto tu, MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, 2021, Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Imparare x Concretare + Propagare = Poetare.
Photo credit: Agnese Bedini e Melania Dalle Grave, DSL Studio.
IMPARARE x CONCRETARE x PROPAGARE = POETARE
HD video, VHS, MiniDV, archive material, CGI; 31’06’, 2021.
Sound Design by Mauro Remiddi.
Produced by MACRO - Museum of Modern Art of Rome.
The video is the result of the exploration of the personal archive of Simone Carella, artistic director of Beat 72—who originally intended to use it for his project Roma ‘60/’70: un Affresco at Teatro India—plus extensive research into the avant-garde theatrical movement developed in Rome in the 70s and 80s, including what was later called basements’ theatre.
Through the alternate voices of Pippo Di Marca, Fabio Sargentini, Ulisse Benedetti, Rossella Or, Marco Solari, and Paolo Grassini, Poetare tries to understand the complex character that Simone was and to contextualize his work as an author, artist, and organizer within a period when music, theatre, performance, dance, and visual arts were coming closer together.
The video also contains re-enactments of various scenes from the documentary film L’Altro Teatro by Nico Garrone, depicting “the golden age of Italian experimental theatre”: Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi act alongside some of the basements’ protagonists (Pippo Di Marca, Rossella Or and Ulisse Benedetti) in the same locations the documentary was shot, reactivating archive material through performativity.
Stills from video. POETARE, Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, 2021.Exhibition view, POLIPHONY, Simone Carella, Io poeto tu, MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, 2021, Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Imparare x Concretare + Propagare = Poetare.
Photo credit: Agnese Bedini e Melania Dalle Grave, DSL Studio.