TATE FILM

IF WAS POP: ARTISTS’ AND EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA IN 1960s–70s

Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium 23–25 October 2015 2 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

IF ARTE POVERA WAS POP: ARTISTS’ AND EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA IN ITALY 1960s–70s £5 / £4 per screening

This film season at proposes to investigate the roots and forms of circulation of arte povera, a deeply interdisciplinary artistic movement that opened itself to theatre, performance and cinema.

If Arte Povera was Pop is a provocative supposition, which puts in evidence the movement’s closeness to time-based media and the existent dialogue between artists working across the visual arts and film.

Alongside rare artists’ films, adventurous avant- garde works, and the documentation of seminal exhibitions, the season will focus on two major Italian cities, exploring the heterodox context of arte povera in , and ’s cosmopolitan, eccentric scene, a city historically associated with and marked by the experience of the Cooperative of Independent Filmmakers, founded in 1967.

The eclectic voices of authors Tonino De Bernardi, Carmelo Bene, Alberto Grifi, and those of artists as Ugo Nespolo, Mario Schifano or ’s advertising commissions, express the vibrancy of a unique moment in the history of the European avant-garde, which the season explores, interrogates and reveals in greater depth.

Organised as a dialogue with the The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop, the season If Arte Povera was Pop presents archival premieres, sessions of expanded cinema and conversations with artists.

Images, cover and this page: Luca Patella SKMP2 1968, film still 4 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

GOOD MORNING MICHELANGELO: LA VESTIZIONE NEONMERZARE ART, ARTIST AND FILM IN TURIN Tonino De Bernardi, Italy 1968, 8mm Ugo Nespolo, Italy 1967, 16mm, colour, Friday 23 October, 19.00–21.00 transferred to video, colour, sound, 26 min sound, 3 min

The opening programme explores the cultural The first part, composed of close-ups of faces From 1967 to 1969 Ugo Nespolo made three context in Turin and influential artists Mario shot at a sharp angle from below, takes place films about three artist friends: , Merz, and Michelangelo at the top of a ladder, where Pistoletto creates Alighiero Boetti and . Pistoletto. Featuring key films produced in an ornate collar and a long cloak of cellophane Neonmerzare, featuring Merz, was shot in the Turin by Ugo Nespolo, Pia Epremian, Tonino that wraps Maria Pioppi. The action shifts gallery of Gian Enzo Sperone in Turin, in 1968. De Bernardi and Plinio Martelli on the occasion then to the ground, where the images of several With lyrical movements, the camera tracks of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s exhibition at the men stripped to the waist (including the artist a series of neon tubes, establishing an ideal gallery L’Attico, Rome, 1968 and Ugo Nespolo Plinio Martelli) blend with those of two nude dialogue between the traditions of the abstract films on Mario Merz and Alighiero Boetti. and brilliant, Buongiorno Michelangelo suggests women dancing in the surface of a mirror cinema of light and colour, and experimental Followed by discussion with Ugo Nespolo a performative, cooperative and perhaps also work by Pistoletto himself, inspired by a famous documentary . The symphony of playful aspect of the attitude of this short and photographic sequence of Eadweard Muybridge. lights is accompanied by jazz improvisation BUONGIORNO MICHELANGELO / intense period. The ‘performed’ humble industrial materials by the saxophonist Carlo Actis Dato. GOOD MORNING, MICHELANGELO foreshadow several motifs developed by Ugo Nespolo, Italy 1968, 16mm transferred to PISTOLETTO & SOTHEBY’S Pistoletto from 1968 with the company BOETTINBIANCHENERO video, colour, sound, 18 min Pia Epremian, Italy 1968, 8mm transferred to Lo Zoo, especially the action Cocapicco e Ugo Nespolo, Italy 1968, 16mm, Featuring: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Maria video, colour, sound, 22 min Vestitorito presented at the Piper Pluriclub , sound, 6 min Pistoletto, Daniela Chiaperotti, Tommaso Trini, disco on 8 May 1968. Daniela Palazzoli, Gianni Simonetti, Vasco Are, This film represents an encounter with several In 1967, a few months after the famous Gian Enzo Sperone, . major icons of the history of , MARIA FOTOGRAFIA exhibition Arte povera-Im Spazio at the gallery ‘while attempting’ – as the filmmaker says – Plinio Martelli, Italy 1968, 16mm transferred to La Bertesca in (when the critic Germano The film challenges the aura of the artwork, ‘to always create a link between art and life, video, black and white, sound, 12 min Celant defined the first guidelines of arte povera), pushing it towards performance in urban space. an impertinence with respect to those images Alighiero Boetti, at the age of 27, had a solo During the exhibition Con-temp-l’azione (1967–68, that the production of works of documentation The film begins with a photo shoot, shown show at the Turin-based gallery Christian curated by Daniela Palazzoli), at the three [books and magazines] brought to the attention in a sequence of often frontal views and Stein. The first part the film explores the galleries Stein, Sperone and Il punto, two works of everyone for the first time.’ Reclaiming art counterviews, in which Michelangelo Pistoletto works assembled with iron, wood and industrial by Michelangelo Pistoletto – the newspaper history in a performative, playful way and photographs Maria Pioppi, encouraging her materials (Eternit, camouflage fabric, enamel ball La sfera di giornali 1966 and La rosa bruciata evoking the tradition of tableau vivant, Pistoletto to assume different poses and to interact paint), then shifts to the reactions and relations 1965 from oggetti in meno (Minus Objects) – are with his daughters Cristina and Maria Pioppi with various objects. The negatives of the with the works of the audience at the opening taken out into the street. The film marks the ‘act out’ in a series of little scenes: Orpheus photographs gradually appear over the flow (the artists Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario beginning of a more militant and performative and Eurydice, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Raphael, of images. The images once hung on the walls, Ceroli and , and the dealer Gian phase in Pistoletto’s career, opening up possible Chaim Soutine, James Ensor, Edgar Degas, are subjected to a series of bizarre performative Enzo Sperone are recognisable). The black and references to Situationism, and nouveau Vincent Van Gogh. Shot in Pistoletto’s studio actions by a group of young people, as if at an white images are accompanied by a saxophone réalisme. The film starts with Pistoletto shaving in 1967, which had been officially declared opening (including the artist Ugo Nespolo and improvisation by Carlo Actis Dato. in front of one of his ‘mirrors’: the codes of ‘open,’ against a backdrop of photographs of the filmmakers Renato Ferraro and Gioachino everyday life and advertising burst into the pop culture icons, mirrors, and a soundtrack Nichot), who then shift into a dance with playful Programme duration: 87 min scene. The large ball of newspapers roams Turin of vocal sounds, noises and pianoforte, the and erotic overtones. Two versions of the film in a convertible automobile. The music of The film was part of creative collaborations between exist, one developed positive and one negative. Beatles accompanies the exploration of different young filmmakers from Turin and the artist filming and editing techniques. From the gallery before his solo show held in February – March of Christian Stein, La rosa bruciata is carried 1968 at Galleria L’Attico in Rome, where the films along the porticos of the city. Intense, amused were screened. Image: Ugo Nespolo Buongiorno Michelangelo 1968, film still 6 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

THE ROME SCHOOL – PART 1 CIAO, CIAO Saturday 24 October, 16.00–18.00 Adamo Vergine, Italy 1967, 16mm transferred to video, black and white, silent, 6 min This programme explores the artists associated with the influential but short-lived Independent The film comes from an 8mm home movie shot Cinema Co-operative / Cooperativa Cinema by the filmmaker during an excursion in 1955. Indipendente (1967–70) in Rome. The sequences, joined in a loop, are projected on ground glass and shot again with an 8mm IMMAGINE DEL TEMPO / IMAGE OF TIME camera, using all the possible variations of Mario Masini, Italy 1964, 16mm transferred to speed and focus. The film is in the double video, black and white, sound, 4 min 8mm format that was usually divided in two lengthwise, after developing, and then projected Mario Masini, collaborator of Alberto as standard 8mm. Instead, Adamo Vergine uses PRIMAVERA NASCOSTA / HIDDEN SPRING COSTRETTO A SCOMPARIRE / Grifi, cameraman for Carmelo Bene and the full width as if it were 16mm film, in such Claudio Cintoli, Italy 1969, 35mm transferred to FORCED TO DISAPPEAR cinematographer of Teza 2008 by the legendary a way as to show four film frames at the same video, colour, sound, 10 min Gianfranco Baruchello, Italy 1968, 16mm Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, explores the time in the same projection, two for the left Collaborators: Pino Borghini, Francesca Bolic, transferred to video, colour, sound, 15 min lithograph by the artist Emilio Vedova that gives footage and two for the right. Fausta D’Eufemia, Vittorio Cintoli the film its title. A wide range of movements Cinematography: Elio Gagliardo The film is the story of the crude destruction, over the lithograph and editing that alternates AMOUR DU CINÉMA Music: Francesco Santucci meticulously done by the artist himself, of a accelerated sequences of urban landscapes, Rosa Foschi in collaboration with Luca Patella, Production company: Corona Cinematografica frozen turkey produced in America. The meat daytime and nocturnal interiors, unfold against Italy 1968, 35mm transferred to video, colour, is placed in a wooden box and buried in a grave a background of a cut-up soundtrack from sound, 12 min An animated film using mixed techniques in a field. Dedicated to the fundamental concepts different sources. Cinematography: Elio Gagliardo on the natural world and its metamorphoses, of the ‘lay military priesthood’ (terminology Music: Stefano Torossi Primavera nascosta starts with a voyage in the typical of the generals): discipline, honour and MOTION VISION Production company: Corona Cinematografica tradition of abstract experimentalism, exploring other sacred duties, the film is part of a trilogy Umberto Bignardi in collaboration with Alfredo sea creatures and then those of the air, only to by Baruchello against the Vietnam War. Leonardi, Italy 1967, 8mm transferred to video, Defined as an ‘animated medley’ by its maker, digress towards heavenly space and astronauts, colour, sound, 8 min the film is an animated photographic tribute prior to the conclusion. ERRORE DI GRUPPO N. 2 / GROUP ERROR N. 2 to cinema through a gallery of stars from the Karma Film, Italy 1972, 16mm transferred to Motion Vision was originally screened in silent era onward, alternating with more or less A CORPO video, colour, sound, 12 min alternation with slides as part of the rotating disorienting images of various origins. Through Anna Lajolo & Guido Lombardi, Italy 1968, installation Rotor Vision, in Rome in 1967 for the the widest range of techniques, recombined 8mm transferred to video, colour, silent, The film shows a woman mysteriously seminal group show at L’Attico entitled Fuoco, according to an associative logic that could 12 min wandering, pistol in hand, through the streets Immagine, Acqua, Terra with the participation evoke the cinema of the dada avant-garde, of Lourdes, France. It is a portrait of Patrizia of Mario Bignardi, Mario Ceroli, , but also fashion magazines from the past, With rapid editing that alternates a wide range of Vicinelli, the great poet active in the avant- , Pino Pascali and Michelangelo Amour du Cinéma is undoubtedly a singular sources through an extensive variety of shooting garde Gruppo 63, who worked with the leading Pistoletto. In Motion Vision Bignardi constructs film with pop overtones. and editing techniques, A Corpo is a drift through magazines of the time, close to both the theatre a curious repertoire of animal profiles drawn the consumer imagery of the day, in which the and the experimental cinema of Alberto Grifi and in colour on paper, alternated with pop icons body of the single individual corresponds to Gianni Castagnoli. and a sequence of everyday gestures: from political struggle, militancy and anti-imperialist the tying of neckties the film passes to walking engagement against the war in Vietnam. Programme duration: 79 min nude figures in slow motion, alluding to Muybridge and his chronophotography.

World premiere of the restored film Images: Umberto Bignardi Motion Vision 1967, film still 8 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

THE ROME SCHOOL – PART 2 COMMUTAZIONI CON MUTAZIONE / Saturday 24 October, 19.00–21.00 COMMUTATIONS WITH MUTATIONS Paolo Gioli, Italy 1969, 16mm, 18fps, This second screening explores other figures black and white, silent, 7 min from the Rome School and other forms of experimenting with cinema. Featuring Commutazioni con Mutazione is composed by films by Giorgio Turi and Roberto Capanna, overlapping three different film formats, that Alfredo Leonardi, Paolo Gioli, Pietro Bargellini, have been made to co-exist: Super-8, 16mm, Alberto Grifi and Carmelo Bene. and 35mm on a single 16mm support. The variations in size caused the original framelines VOY-AGE to overlap, subjecting them – and their images – Giorgo Turi & Roberto Capanna, Italy 1964, to a singularly diabolical rhythm. The formats 16mm, black and white, sound, 11 min were glued together, one at a time, fragment ORGONAUTI, EVVIVA! HERMITAGE on top of fragment, using transparent adhesive Alberto Grifi, Italy 1968–70, 35mm, colour, Carmelo Bene, Italy 1967, 35mm, colour, The film is literally a voyage (the title is an tape. The final result is a film whose imagery sound, 19 min sound, 26 min untranslatable word game in French) in the spans from the tradition of abstract film to Featuring: Aya Alkin, Paolo Brunatto, Poupée Cinematography: Giulio Albonico relationship between the ageing of the human found footage. Brunatto, Sandra Cardini, Giordano Falzoni, Music: Vittorio Gelmetti body and the ‘age’ of iron as a metaphor Gianna Gelmetti, Alberto Hammerman, Featuring: Carmelo Bene, Lydia Mancinelli for already obsolete technology. Made with TRASFERIMENTO DI MODULAZIONE / Alfredo Leonardi, Silvana Leonardi, Saro Liotta, Production company: Nexus Film intense editing of extremely varied materials, TRANSFER OF MODULATION Sophie Marland, Gioacchino Saitto it alternates shots of industrial sites, iron objects Piero Bargellini, Italy 1969, 16mm, Music: Alvin Curran - Gruppo di musica A man (played by Carmelo Bene) closes himself of different kinds, elderly men and shots of black and white, silent, 7 min elettronica VIVA inside room 805 of the Hotel Hermitage, where instruments that measure time. The film’s knack Production company: Corona Cinematografica he performs a series of actions: disrobing, for visual invention evokes and reinvents the Made from pornographic materials from the dressing, drinking, smoking, writing and experiences of early cinema avant-gardes, 1950s, the film is composed of scratched, poorly A little-known film by Alberto Grifi, Orgonauti, sleeping. The actions are interrupted by an especially the films of Dziga Vertov and spliced footage, in bad condition, whose images Evviva! portrays a group of young people in unknown woman who knocks on the door, Walter Ruttmann. are in a clear state of decay. Subsequently a spaceship from the future, descendants of mistaking the man for another. Realising her developed and printed altering the chemical a subversive minority that has escaped the mistake, she vanishes. Carmelo Bene uses the SE L’INCONSCIO SI RIBELLA / processes, scratching the surfaces and destruction of the Earth. The young people voice as a narrative structure and replicates the IF UNCONSCIOUS REVOLT using bath processes to lighten fragments. recover a capsule that contains the hibernating provocative approach of his theatre: ‘Yesterday, Alfredo Leonardi, Italy 1967, 16mm, Trasferimento di modulazione had a single body of a reactionary warmonger, who after as today. Getting top grades in history to make black and white, sound, 21 min copy, intended to decay and flake apart with having caused war and death has abandoned his mother happy, or killing his mother to make each screening, making the bodies lose their the Earth, which has become a planet on which history happy...’. The final provocation plays In a game of elegant overlaps and dissolves consistency and underlining the material nature it is not possible to live anymore. The elegant with the codes of the radio medium and with in black and white, the film gives form to a of the film. visual experimentation intertwines psychedelic the dada tradition: after the credits, the film dialogue between everyday life and the stage, visions and the orgone theory (hence the title) concludes with ‘you have been listening to immediacy of childlike reactions and the of the Austrian psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich, in a music by Giuseppe Verdi.’ In a visual atmosphere theatrical and musical experiments of the dystopic, resplendent setting, pervaded by the that seems to foreshadow the line of research day. Based on improvisation and freedom sophisticated soundtrack by Alvin Curran-MEV. of Derek Jarman. Hermitage is a flash of the from the constraints of apparatuses and visionary and profoundly experimental cinema traditions. The alter-ego of the director, his World premiere of the new 35mm print of Carmelo Bene. son Francesco, alternates with that of artist friends like Cathy Berberian, Peter Hartman Programme duration: 92 min and members of the Living Theatre. Image, left: Alberto Grifi Orgonauti, evviva! 1968–70, film still Right: Carmelo Bene Hermitage 1967, film still 10 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

WAS IT POP? ARTISTS’ CINEMA IN ROME SCHERMI / SCREENS TERRA ANIMATA / ANIMATED EARTH Sunday 25 October, 14.00–16.00 , Italy 1968, 16mm transferred to Luca Patella in collaboration with Rosa Foschi, video, black and white, silent, 15 min 1967, 16mm transferred to 35mm, colour and Films by Franco Angeli, Luca Patella, Pino Pascali black and white, silent, 7 min and Mario Schifano draw on pop, advertisement, Franco Angeli films and edits a succession Featuring: Rosa Foschi, Claudio Meldolesi socio-politics and the influence of the New of television screens, repeated and overlaid, American Cinema in the art scene in Rome. reassembling them in the space of the film. Terra animata is composed of a series of actions The work is a manifesto that demonstrates performed by a couple in the landscape with SOUVENIR clear interest in the images, symbols and the a number of props; the camera is a central Mario Schifano, Italy 1967, 16mm, black and flow of media. element in measuring the movements of white, sound, 11 min the bodies and their choreography in space. DOPPIO RITRATTO: SCHIFANO ANGELI / Patella’s film is not a documentary; instead, it Mario Schifano films Peter Hartman and Gerard DOUBLE PORTRAIT: SCHIFANO ANGELI establishes a dialogue at a distance both with Malanga as they visit St. Peter’s Basilica in Franco Angeli: Italy c.1967–70, 16mm SKMP2 the performative experiences in the landscape Rome, mingling with many tourists. Their bodies transferred to video, black and white, Luca Patella, 1968, 16mm transferred to 35mm, typically associated with land art, and with and their curious performative actions form silent, 4 min colour, sound, 30 min more structured actions for camera, such as a counterpoint to the new religion of mass Featuring: Luca Patella, Rosa Foschi, Eliseo in Wind 1968 by Joan Jonas. tourism, which Schifano captures in its most A short fragment recently discovered in the Mattiacci, Jannis Kounellis, Pino Pascali common, pop details. The epilogue of the film Archivio Franco Angeli that was made with Mario CHE POSIZIONE! / WHAT A POSITION! is an explicit metaphor: Gerard Malanga, one Schifano. With elegant, measured shots, the The subtitle ‘ironic-visual reportage’ of SKMP2 Pino Pascali, Italy 1962, 16mm transferred to of the protagonists of Warhol’s Factory, and two artists film each other, like reflections in alerts the viewer to the playful, friendly aspect video, colour, sound, 2 min an actor in most of his films, shoots heroin. a mirror, hiding behind surfaces and objects, in of the entire operation, explicitly evoking Production: Sandro Lodolo for Ferrovie dello the presence of the inevitable television monitor. Entr’acte 1924 by René Clair and Erik Satie, while Stato ANNA at the same time suggesting a performative Mario Schifano, Italy c.1967–70, 16mm, Archival premiere component typical of the Roman scene of artists From 1958 to 1968 Pino Pascali worked black and white, silent, 12 min in the circles of arte povera. The film is divided as a set designer, graphic designer and PASCALI IN MOSTRA / PASCALI ON DISPLAY into four episodes that document the actions of creative author for advertising and television, Anna Carini, Mario Schifano’s partner at the Franco Angeli, Italy 1969, 16mm transferred to four artists connected with the Roman gallery experimenting with materials of different kinds time, is the protagonist of the film. The young video, black and white, silent, 8 min L’Attico of Fabio Sargentini: Eliseo Mattiacci (plastic, polystyrene, papier-mâché) and different woman is observed, followed, questioned in (whose works are performed in the gallery languages (including film , visual poetry close-up, in both indoor and outdoor settings, In September 1968 Pino Pascali died in a and in the street), Jannis Kounellis (apparently and graphics). In Che Posizione! the rather explicit by the camera that partially strays into the motorcycle accident. In May 1969 the Galleria engaged in the hanging of an exhibition, he references are to the historical avant-garde, scene and then briefly makes room for the Nazionale di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea dyes cloth before the eyes of his famous parrot), ranging from Fernand Léger to constructivism, author himself. of Rome held a large retrospective of his work, Luca Patella (who performs an action with flags from pop art to futurism. documented by the artist Franco Angeli. The in nature, with Rosa Foschi) and Pino Pascali VIETNAM rediscovered film, never shown before, explores (engaged in bizarre actions of self-unearthing Programme duration: 96 min Mario Schifano, Italy 1967, 16mm, the work of Pino Pascali in a visual dialogue and planting of loaves of bread on the beach). black and white, silent, 7 min with the participation of a silent young woman, filmed by Angeli with a handheld camera. The Vietnam War was extensively televised, The density of the works on display disperses and Mario Schifano, in turn, filmed it from only when the camera is taken into the garden, the television, in fragments, in keeping with a advancing at ground level to encounter the typical procedure of pop art and a fundamental Bachi da Setola 1969. technique of his work in painting. The director

Marco Ferreri appears at the start of the film. Archival premiere Image: Luca Patella in collaboration with Rosa Foschi Terra animata 1967, film still 12 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

THE NORTH WIND IL MOSTRO VERDE belong to an attitude of research to explore Sunday 25 October, 17.00–19.00 Tonino De Bernardi, Italy 1967, 16mm the structure and apparatus of cinema, but transferred to video, colour, sound, rather an attempt to expand the physiological The reinvention of cinema in Turin between art, 2 screens, 24 min limits of sight to represent the radical changes avant-garde and expanded cinema. Featuring Sculptures by in progress, the explosion of subjectivities, films by Massimo Bacigalupo, Tonino De Featuring: Pia Epremian De Silvestris, Taylor the mobility of the vantage point and the Bernardi, Pia Epremian, Ugo Nespolo and Mead, Tonino De Bernardi, Angela Rolando, deflagration of shadings between reality a selection of pop influenced promotional Mariella Navale, Paolo Menzio, Mario Rolando, and representation. films produced by the company Olivetti. Paola Bonfante, Misetta Quaini, Mara Di Fabio, Adriano Spatola, Maurizio Spatola. Programme duration: 83 min Followed by discussion with Tonino De Bernardi Defined by De Bernardi as a ‘film of friendship TATE MODERN & ICA DISSOLVIMENTO / DISSOLUTION Donne) and artistic (Piero della Francesca, and enthusiasm,’ Il mostro verde is a visionary, Sunday 25 October 2015, 20.30 Pia Epremian, Italy 1970, 8mm transferred to Caravaggio, Bosch, Beardsley and Kandinsky) playful work for two screens, influenced by Institute of Contemporary Arts video, colour, silent, 9 min references, as well as links to experimental American beat culture and that of the Italian Featuring: Pia Epremian De Silvestris and cinema (Stan Brakhage). neo-avant-garde. The film begins on the right MORIRE GRATIS Gigliola Carretti screen, showing a couple fleeing in a meadow. Sandro Franchina, Italy 1968, 35mm, OLIVETTI PROMOTIONAL FILMS: When the left projection begins, the shots are black and white, 83 min Dissolvimento shows two women in domestic VALENTINE - FLIPPER details of the floor, entrails, industrial materials, Featuring: Franco Angeli, Karen Blanguernon, interiors who perform two different actions, Italy 1969, colour, 1 min fabric, twisted metal (details from the sculptures Mario Pisu edited one after the other. In the first, the painter WOMAN IN SPACE by the artist Marisa Merz), manipulated by the Gigliola Carretti is engaged in an action with Italy 1969/1970, colour, 1 min green hands of the presumed ‘monster’ of the Morire Gratis, Sandro Franchina’s extraordinary a series of sexually explicit props, making SWINGING LONDON title. Citing as inspiration Frankenstein by Mary yet only film, is one of the most invisible and the activity resemble the brushing of teeth; Italy 1969/1970, colour, 1 min Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker, the writings of understated films of Italian cinema. A nocturnal in the second, the director herself is seen from LOVERS William Burroughs, the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, , rougher and more existentialist than behind, seated on a toilet. The film ends with Italy 1969/1970, black and white, 1 min the films of Andy Warhol and Jack Smith, it Dino Risi’s Il Sorpasso / The Easy Life 1962, Morire the almost abstract view of cascades of the GIRLS represents a striking contrast to the stereotype Gratis is a disturbing and tormented film which fountains of Turin. Italy 1969/1970, black and white, 1 min of the austere, engaged scene of arte povera originally held the highly appropriate title of in Turin. Il sole all’ombra / Sun in the Shadow. 60 METRI PER IL 31 MARZO / Halfway through the 1960s Olivetti, a leader 60 METERS FOR 31 MARCH in the production of typewriters and adding LA FAVOLOSA STORIA: IL BESTIARIO The film tells the story of a drug smuggling Massimo Bacigalupo, Italy 1968, 16mm machines, produced the first personal computer. Tonino De Bernardi, Italy 1968, 8mm committed by car. The drugs are hidden in the transferred to video, black and white, The company’s innovation was reflected in transferred to video, colour, sound, 27 min belly of a sculpture of a Capitoline Wolf which silent, 17 min various aspects, from a focus on the quality travels on the back seat of an Alfa Romeo Giulia of life for workers to the involvement of Il bestiario is part of La favolosa storia, a three- driven by a ‘young Roman painter’ (interpreted Shot and entirely edited in the camera on a outstanding intellectuals and designers in the part film also composed of Il vaso etrusco and by the artist Franco Angeli). In Morire Gratis single 60m/200ft roll of film on a spring day in construction of their corporate image. When Il sogno di Costantino (projected on three screens). Sandro Franchina — a friend and collaborator 1968. The film is divided into six parts that follow the ‘Valentine’ model, an absolutely ‘pop’ object It is composed of four partially overlapping of Jean Rouch, admired by the Brazilian the structure of the scared Hindu text, The Katha designed by Ettore Sottsass Jr. in 1969, was screens that form a crooked cross. Il bestiario filmmakers of Glauber Rocha Upanishad in which the youth Nakiketa converses launched on markets around the world, the presents continuous overlays of faces and and Paulo César Saraceni, and a protagonist with death. Each episode describes an event, in advertising spots seeking to establish a dialogue colours as in a kaleidoscope, pointing to an of the Roman artistic scene of Piazza del Popolo reference to literary and artistic sources. Whether with the revolution of fashion and lifestyle could interest in performance, cross-dressing, and — masterfully portrayed the restless face of the references are more or less familiar, the film not help but come from the pop art tradition. the combination of representations of gender the post-Dolce Vita and pre-1968 generation. can be seen as a refined poetic-visual meditation identities in general. As in De Bernardi’s Il mostro pervaded by erudite literary (Ezra Pound, John Archival premieres verde, the multiplication of screens does not Image: Tonino De Bernardi Il mostro verde 1967, film still John Collins, extract from ‘Further Notes from Italy’, First International Festival, catalogue, National Film Theatre, London 14–20 September 1970 If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM 18 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION: a fundamental intermediary for the encounter/ the hope of surfacing from the underground True ‘home movies’ from the Roman art scene EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA IN ITALY clash between the inner self and outer reality, and reaching a wider audience. In these years include the 16mm works by Franco Angeli, who and thus for the political transformation of the Schifano stretches his desire to experiment with also captures the images of the major exhibition ‘A single spark can start a prairie fire’ – the world. While the films of Jonas Mekas, Stan new languages to the point of forming the rock organised at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte famous assertion of Chairman Mao so often Brakhage and Kenneth Anger demonstrate that band Le Stelle, and after abandoning film he Moderna in Rome immediately after the death quoted in the West by protest movements – the ideal territory of this confrontation between makes a famous cycle of works that still features of Pino Pascali, and plays the leading role perfectly explains the sudden flare-up of self and world could be cinema. the ‘screen’ of the television. For Carmelo Bene (partially based on himself) in Morire gratis experimental cinema in Italy in the 1960s. But A cinema that has to be reinvented from film is also a phase of passage, but a central 1966–7 by Sandro Franchina: a road movie that let’s take a quick look at what the prairie was scratch, as Paolo Gioli did with films made one in the creative career of an artist who follows the artist from Rome to Paris, with his like, before we examine the identity of the spark. without the mediation of the camera, in a beyond his taste for extreme provocation often Lupa Capitolina sculpture stuffed with drugs. For Italy these were the years of the ‘boom,’ hand-to-hand struggle with matter and light, seems to identify with Cavalier Cavaradossi when Experimentation and linguistic hybrids are the ‘economic miracle’ that transformed the where the fingers of the author take the place he sings, in Puccini’s Tosca: ‘l’arte nel suo mistero part of the spirit of the time and sneak in nearly country into an industrial power, while at the of the shutter. A cinema of subjective expression, le diverse bellezze insiem confonde’ (Art, in its everywhere. In cinema: just consider Dillinger is same time laying the groundwork for the harsh as in the ‘home movies’ of Adamo Vergine mystery, blends together different beauties). Dead 1969 by Marco Ferreri or Red Desert 1964 social and political conflicts of the latter part of and Mario Masini, or the ‘diaries’ of Massimo Cinema can establish a dialogue with the by Michelangelo Antonioni, but also the title the decade. Parallel to this, the art and culture Bacigalupo. A cinema that subverts the rule of performances and exhibitions of friends: thanks sequences of spaghetti westerns; or the film scene was transformed, in a radical way that Hollywood, rediscovering the surrealist shock of to SKMP2 1968 of Luca Patella we see Eliseo posters that find their way into the decollages had never been witnessed since the actions of the objet trouvé in films that reassemble scraps of Mattiacci, Jannis Kounellis, Pino Pascali; and of . But also the publicity of a the futurists at the turn of the century. What footage, as in Verifica incerta 1965 by Gianfranco in Turin, Ugo Nespolo (who like Patella would design-conscious company like Olivetti; and is striking is not just the internal renewal of Baruchello and Alberto Grifi. Tonino De Bernardi continue to experiment with film throughout even more directly, the advertising made by Pino the individual disciplines, but also the utopian expands the boundaries of visual perception in his career) films Alighiero Boetti and Mario Pascali as set designer, illustrator, creative author desire for the speech of every individual to works that ‘escape from the picture’ to project Merz, and gets involved in an original operation and scriptwriter for many commercial brands become the language of all. Artistic expression, themselves on multiple screens. Piero Bargellini prompted by Michelangelo Pistoletto, who from ice cream to canned tomatoes to railroads musical composition, theatrical performance makes the phantoms of the unconscious in 1968, for a solo show at the gallery L’Attico, from 1958 to 1967. and poetic inspiration break down boundaries visible, and Alfredo Leonardi plays with them. asks twelve friends to make a film with him. The adventure of experimental cinema is also and expanded, trying to burst off the stage. Umberto Bignardi traces back to the origins The five works that have survived (directed a story of meetings and disputes, dialogues and The focus on performance, to move art into life, of images in motion, recouping Muybridge and by Ugo Nespolo, De Bernardi, Plinio Martelli, conflicts. Between pop art and arte povera, for rapidly evolved into radical politics, as happened chronophotography. The eye and the adventures Renato Ferraro and Pia Epremian De Silvestris, example. Or between Turin and Rome, where the in the case of many avant-garde filmmakers in of sight, on the one hand, and the direct physical a true ‘woman with movie camera’ of the artists engage with galleries like L’Attico of Fabio the 1970s. character of the body become the protagonists Italian avant-garde), besides representing their Sargentini, La Tartaruga of Plinio De Martiis, One of the most explosive ‘sparks’ comes of Voy-age 1964 by Giorgo Turi and Roberto makers, reinforce the conviction that a ‘cinema La Salita of Gian Tomaso Liverani in Rome, and from the USA. The programme of Italia ‘61 – Capanna, or Alberto Grifi’s Orgonauti, evviva! of Michelangelo Pistoletto’ does exist, which Christian Stein, Gian Enzo Sperone, the major exposition in Turin to mark the first 1968–70, an ode to the pansexual theories of first of all includes his mirror works, but also in Turin. Or between individual research (but centennial of national unity (also visited by Wilhelm Reich. A corpo 1968 by Guido Lombardi performances like this one, which he described also revolt) and the hope of revolution. Because Queen Elizabeth) – included the Living Theatre already hints at the future militant turn of his as follows: ‘One evening – we are in 1968 – in the 1960s – swinging and roaring – cinema who performed The Connection. Right after that, films with Anna Lajolo. Political engagement, I made my film. I put a device of neon light is also the medium through which the eye takes the Festival of Spoleto (attended by the entire in fact, is a constant of Italian artists’ films, like inside a projector that in complete darkness possession of the world. As the French critic Roman art and culture scene) presents the films the ‘Vietnam trilogy’ of Baruchello or Vietnam projected it from the ground; and a bit further André Bazin, one of the fathers of the Nouvelle of New American Cinema for the first time in 1967 by Mario Schifano, an early case of on, between the projector and the wall, there Vague, puts it, cinema ‘replaces what we see Italy. The impact of the Living Theatre – who demystification of televised information. was a small square of lit candles. The heat of the with a world attuned to our desires.’ later would be featured in an excellent film While for some filmmaking is an all-absorbing flames made the image of the neon projected by Alfredo Leonardi (Living and Glorious 1965) pursuit, for others it is one of many possible on the wall vibrate, so one had a dual sensation, — Sergio Toffetti, September 2015 – reinforces on the one hand the sense of the linguistic experiences: Mario Schifano, besides that of the neon as it really is and, with the Translated from Italian by transiting.eu group, of the militant collective, and on the creating 16mm films, shoots three works in vibration, and at the same time, that of the (s. piccolo) other the perception that the body is a medium, 35mm, including Umano, non umano 1969, in rhythm of film.’ 20 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

filmmakers construct cine-installations for stage The largest number of films of the Cooperativa space (like Umberto Bignardi and the filmmakers is produced in 1968, but this is also the year Giorgio Turi and Roberto Capanna for the piece in Italy that marks the start of a long period by Mario Ricci Illuminazione, with a text by of student, labour and social unrest. The , a member of Gruppo 63); coincidence is telling: in both cases, a process while men of the theatre like Carmelo Bene that began at the start of the decade finds its transfer the research on the body of the actor fulfilment. A high point is reached, but one that and the destruction of the text into their films. also indicates the start of a transformation, Moreover, until 1967 – the year of the involving the context in which artists operate, founding in Rome of Filmstudio 70, a cinema the interests of the audience, the available tools programming underground films – the art (1968 is also the year of the first experiences galleries, especially La Tartaruga of Plinio De with video in Italy). Political engagement, Martiis and L’Attico of Fabio Sargentini, are the activism and action in and on social reality venues for screenings of experimental films. become increasingly urgent aspects for a Later, and above all as long as the Cooperativa number of filmmakers. Anna Lajolo, Guido CAPITOLINE FRAGMENTS the movement of the neo-avant-garde and was active, both in official form and as an Lombardi and Alfredo Leonardi, members of the period of great artistic, cultural and political informal group, the films are shown at festivals, the Cooperativa, abandon film and the research ‘Underground’ is a perfect definition for the ferment of the 1960s in Italy. cultural circles, off-circuit venues in Italy and conducted thus far and form the collective kind of experimental, artists’ cinema that The entire Italian scene is quite vital, but it abroad (for example, the participation at the Videobase, for the production of militant, was produced in Italy from the mid-1960s is above all in Rome that a community of artists International Underground Film Festival in grassroots video works. Shortly thereafter, to the mid-1970s. A cinema that even today, takes form, experimenting with new paths in London in September 1970). But it would Alberto Grifi takes the same path. Filmstudio with few exceptions such as Paolo Gioli or various disciplines, breaking with the post-war be limiting to consider underground cinema 70, relying on its foreign contacts, becomes the Tonino De Bernardi, for example, remains tradition and looking to the historical avant- only as a ‘matter of artists’ because alongside most important distribution centre for militant substantially unknown. gardes (dada, futurism) and the transformations them we also find young filmmakers critical international cinema in Italy. This is also where This is a far from negligible difference with of a society in the midst of a full-fledged of narrative cinema and without any interest the groundwork is laid for nascent Italian respect to movements from the same period in economic boom. The cinema machine, a tool in breaking into the film industry, who live the feminist cinema. Annabella Miscuglio, one of other European and North American countries: and dimension of the imaginary at the same freedom of artisan creation and of expressive the founders of Filmstudio, and Rony Daopoulos, the experience of the Cooperativa Cinema time, becomes one of the fields of action in endeavour not hampered by the standards one of her most assiduous collaborators, active Indipendente, based on the model of the an inter-media perspective bent on breaking of film language or the obligations of the in one of the first Roman feminist collectives, Filmmakers’ Coop, officially lasted only three down the boundaries between the arts, and marketplace with great intensity. The private make the first Italian feminist film within the years; many filmmakers were already halting in pursuit of a new position for the artist dimension connected with ‘home movies’ seen Collettivo di Cinema Femminista of Rome: their activities in the 1970s, also due to the vis-à-vis social reality. Painters, poets, directors in the films of artists who observe the world L’aggettivo donna, in 1972. But this is the situation of extreme political and social conflict and theatre actors, filmmakers, composers, often with a mechanical, estranged gaze (see the films beginning of another story. in Italy; in the meantime, the cultural institutions undertake joint ‘actions’ in a new intertwining of of Mario Schifano), or in those of professional and universities remained impenetrable, at least languages and media. Poets and painters show filmmakers like Mario Masini and Alfredo — Annamaria Licciardello, September 2015 until the 2000s. In short, keeping faith with its work together (as in the exhibition Tredici pittori Leonardi – but also in the productions of Translated from Italian by transiting.eu original choice of radical marginal status, Italian a Roma in 1963) or create visual poems together certain cinephile-amateurs – reveals one of the (s. piccolo) experimental cinema really does operate ‘under (like Alfredo Giuliani and Toti Scialoja); painters particular characteristics of Italian underground the crust’ of official culture. like Gianfranco Baruchello and Giordano Falzoni cinema. Filmmakers like Tonino De Bernardi, Furthermore, the influence of American take part in the encounters of Gruppo 63 with Pia Epremian De Silvestris, Massimo Bacigalupo, underground cinema, seen in Italy on multiple their own texts, and a poet like Patrizia Vicinelli Piero Bargellini, and Adamo Vergine embody occasions starting in 1961, was stronger on participates as a performer in the theatre the figure of the ‘amateur’ theorized by Stan a cultural and organisational level, rather than experiments of Aldo Braibanti, and makes Brakhage, through awareness of necessity more in terms of aesthetics. The experience of Italian a film herself in 1972 with the group of Karma than by choice, making works of unexpected , in fact, is closely linked to Film. Not even theatre is exempt: artists and novelty and expressive force. Image: Michelangelo Pistoletto’s studio, Turin, February 1968 22 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

WAS IT POP? fragmentary portrait of Anna Carini (Schifano’s girlfriend at the time) was integral to Schifano’s Was Rome the hub of Italian pop art and Turin solo presentation at Galleria Marconi in , the epicentre of arte povera? The answer is 1967. Images of Anna running on the beach, generally affirmative. The industrial and speaking to the camera are seamlessly city is traditionally associated with the merged with Schifano’s latest series of , interdisciplinary activities of the arte povera featuring kitsch elements like brightly coloured group, while the ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’ (as palm trees and stars. Similarly Vietnam, a Rome was known in those days) is where Italian patchwork of appropriated footage, including pop art thrived thanks to the Scuola di Piazza images of the Vietnam War, was integral to del Popolo. This loose association of artists, the set up for Schifano’s one off event at the who turned to the figurative language of pop popular Piper disco in Rome. Writer Alberto art in the early 1960s, took their name from the Moravia who reviewed the event for the popular iconic Roman square, Piazza del Popolo. The magazine L’Espresso titled his article ‘At the members of the group could be seen gathering night club with the Vietcong,’ a nod to the visual at the Café Rosati or heading to Plinio De Martiis’ and musical cacophony of the event, including leading contemporary art gallery, La Tartaruga. music by Schifano’s newly formed band Le Stelle At the forefront of the group was Franco Angeli di Mario Schifano, where Vietnam War warriors and Mario Schifano. Mostly recognised for their and aerial bombings sat alongside catchy pictorial output, they turned to pop art as a rhythms and dancing girls. Also lured by the means to comment on the shifting cultural, spatial and environmental possibilities offered social and political context resulting from the by night clubs, was Michelangelo Pistoletto post-war economic boom. Directly responding who around the same time organised an event to and engaging with the image culture of the with his experimental theatre group, Zoo at the time, Angeli and Schifano – and the Scuola di Piper disco in Turin. There they presented the Piazza del Popolo more generally – were hailed group’s first performance Cocapicco e Vestitorito. one of the emblems of the new consumer filled to the brim with Pascali’s sculptures. From as seminal Italian pop artists. While the label While Pistoletto, one of the leading arte povera society, but rather embrace its potential as the early pop inspired female red lips and the certainly holds true in relation to some aspects artists, was soon recognised for his interests in an art medium; erring again from the linear intimidating military weapons, passing through of their work, it is very counterproductive in sculpture and performance, Schifano’s intentional path of pop art. the ethereal fake sculptures and ending on the relation to their more interdisciplinary interests breakdown of media barriers, remained While Angeli and Schifano were and still are humble ploughed fields, puddles and kitsch that places them in dialogue with arte povera unframed, leading to the simplistic analysis perceived as the quintessential Italian pop artists, blue spiders. Pascali transverses both camps, and ostensibly acts a catalyst for what would of his oeuvre solely through the pop lens. Pino Pascali has eschewed this pigeonholing showing how pop art and arte povera were not happen in Turin. Prey to an equally narrow understanding and can be located both as a member of the two separate worlds, but the former was actually With his extensive forays into film and video, of his work is Franco Angeli, whose paintings Scuola di Piazza del Popolo or alongside arte instrumental to the existence of the latter. Luca Schifano stands out as one of the pioneering (ostensibly the most substantial component povera. Readily co-opted by Patella’s seminal SKMP2 with Pascali raising from figures in the medium. A painter with an of his output) have long overshadowed his in his seminal Arte Povera exhibition at Galleria the sand, Kounellis performing with a parrot inkling for moving images, Schifano rapidly forays into filmmaking. Schermi, a fragmentary De’ Foscherari in in 1968 and in many and Mattiacci driving cars proves how Rome began to treat filmmaking as an extension narrative centred on TV screens, appears to arte povera shows that followed, Pascali has – especially in its filmic output – had by 1968 of his pictorial practice, to the point that be paying homage to Schifano’s own obsession nonetheless maintained a strong presence moved beyond pop and provided a launch pad he almost gave up painting in favour of film. with TV. A constant presence in his home, in the Roman scene, sanctioned by his large for arte povera. To Schifano the relationship between the two where multiple screens were switched on at monographic show held at the Galleria Nazionale was deeply entwined and this manifested itself all times, television was the inspiration and d’Arte Moderna in Rome, in 1969, shortly after — Flavia Frigeri, Curator, International Art, not only in the appearance of his paintings on subject matter of Schifano’s series of paintings his sudden death. The show is captured through Tate Modern. October 2015 screen, but also in the presentation of film and Paesaggi TV. Angeli’s Schermi and Schifano’s the lens of Franco Angeli’s Pascali in mostra, painting alongside each other. Anna, a silent Paesaggi TV do not set out to critique television, which takes the viewer through the galleries Image: Luca Patella SKMP2 1968, film still 24 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

BIOGRAPHIES PIERO BARGELLINI CARMELO BENE ROBERTO CAPANNA (Arezzo, 1940–1982) an experimental filmmaker (Campi Salentina, Lecce,1937 – Rome, 2002), (Modena, 1939) has worked on cinema since GIUSEPPE ANGELI awaiting rediscovery, he bought his first movie one of the most important theatre directors 1962, when he studied at the Department of (Rome, 1935–1988), alias Franco, was born in camera at the age of 20, to film motor races. of the 20th century, this peerless protagonist Literature at the University of Rome, collaborating a family with a tradition of socialism. He began Starting in 1966, in time off from his job, he shot, of the avant-garde in the 1960s, 1970s and with Cesare Zavattini, among others. Parallel to paint in 1955, self-taught, and got to know developed and edited film, adding soundtracks, 1980s had contacts with Salvador Dalí, Henry to his intense activity in the artists Tano Festa and Mario Schifano, with in works that stand out for their original way of Moore, and was an actor for Glauber Rocha and – producing many works for television over whom he developed close ties. After an initial handling, manipulating and chemically altering Pier Paolo Pasolini. Over two decades, he made the span of thirty years – he has focused on phase influenced by the Informale movement, film, including both found footage and his own several short films and five feature-length works, experimental film, making Voy-age 1964 and in the 1960s he began to explore mass media shots. In 1968 he joined the Cooperativa del including the avant-garde cinema masterpieces Non permetterò 1967 with Giorgio Turi, and imagery and ideological symbols. He was one Cinema Indipendente. He occasionally worked Nostra Signora dei Turchi / Our Lady of the Turks (a shooting V/M 1969 together with Paolo Poeti. of the artists of the Scuola di Piazza del Popolo for the Italian state television network. His films winner in 1968 at Film Festival), followed and showed at the galleries La Tartaruga and include Morte all’orecchio di Van Gogh 1968, Un by Capricci 1969, Don Giovanni 1970, Salomè CLAUDIO CINTOLI La Salita. The unforgettable protagonist of the ottofilm di Pierfrancesco Bargellini 1969, Gasoline 1972 and Un Amleto di meno / One Hamlet Less (Imola,1935 – Rome,1978), an artist, performer film Morire Gratis 1968 by Sandro Franchina, 1970, Due silenzi e un’armonica 1971, Stricnina 1973. A provocative personality of great culture, and director, in 1958 held his first solo show around 1968 he made several films in which 1969–73 and Dove incominciano le gambe 1975. he was on good terms with the elite of French in Recanati, the town where he grew up. That he expanded his research in an original way. post-structuralist thought, becoming friends with same year he also had a solo show in Rome. The 1970s were marked by various forms of GIANFRANCO BARUCHELLO Klossowski, Foucault, and Deleuze, in particular. Throughout the 1960s he travelled and showed excess, though his commitment to painting (Livorno, 1924) is a unique figure on the Italian Also very active in television, he personally work in Germany, England, Spain and the never diminished. In the next decade, before art scene, in dialogue with the international directed many of his performances himself US, combining his activity as an artist with his death due to AIDS, he made a series of avant-gardes, including the philosopher Jean- for the small screen. work as a critic for many magazines, and works on the theme of the marionette, a sort Francois Lyotard. In over 50 years of activity the production of experimental and animated of sardonic self-portrait. he has drawn, painted, written, and produced UMBERTO BIGNARDI films. In 1973 he created his alter-ego Marcanciel happenings, films and videos. After training in (Bologna, 1935), after having studied at the Stuprò, signing exhibitions, critical writings and MASSIMO BACIGALUPO the Parisian atmosphere of nouveau réalisme, Fine Arts Academy of Bologna, moved to Rome, works with that name. (Rapallo, 1947), a prolific experimental filmmaker, he went to New York, where he came into working mostly on painting and becoming part cinema critic (his pieces have appeared in Film contact with and pop of the scene of the artists of Piazza del Popolo. TONINO DE BERNARDI Culture), writer and teacher, in 1966, while still art. His first solo show dates back to 1963, at He showed work for the first time in 1959 at (Chivasso, Turin, 1937) with a degree in music in high school, he won the Montecatini Festival Galleria La Tartaruga, also the year of his decisive Galleria La Tartaruga, and in 1966 he participated history, in the 1960s he frequented art circles in with the film Quasi una tangente. He then moved meeting with Marcel Duchamp. Since 1963, the at the . In 1967 he made the Turin, and in 1967 debuted with Il mostro verde to Rome to study literature, taking a degree in year in which he made Il grado zero del paesaggio, film Motion Vision to screen on a rotating cylinder co-directed by Paolo Menzio, a rare example of 1971. In the meantime he continued his activity he has made over fifty films and videos; the (Rotor), opening to an idea of expanded cinema, Italian expanded cinema. In the 1970s he moved as a filmmaker, becoming a founder and one of best known on an international level remains and coming into contact with the avant-garde to Casalborgone, where he taught at the local the most active exponents of CCI, and making La verifica incerta 1964–65, made with Alberto music, in particular with Alvin Curran. Interested middle school while continuing to make films. a decisive contribution to establish a dialogue Grifi. In 2014–15 a retrospective of his work in developing the possibilities of new media In the 1980s he began working with the RAI with figures of reference of the international has been held at the Deichtorhallen Sammlung in an environmental dimension, he worked for state television branch in Turin, shooting Elettra experimental cinema avant-garde, helping to Falckenberg, Hamburg, and ZKM, Karlsruhe. many years, first with Olivetti and then with in 1987. Later he concentrated on 35mm films spread his films and those of his colleagues IBM, abandoning the art world. In 1992 he for theatrical distribution, including Piccoli orrori abroad. In 1972 he moved to New York, at returned to making graphic works. / Little Horrors in 1994 and Appassionate in 1999, Columbia University, to continue his studies. which made him one of the most unique and A specialist on Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Wallace original figures on the international independent Stevens and W.B Yeats, he is now a professor cinema scene. of English and American Literature at the University of Genoa. 26 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

PIA EPREMIAN DE SILVESTRIS PAOLO GIOLI (Chivasso, Turin, 1940), only woman filmmaker (Sarzano di Rovigo, 1942), a painter, of the CCI, she spent time on the Turin art photographer and filmmaker, from 1969 to 1975, scene in the 1960s with her childhood friend he lived in Rome, frequenting the Cooperativa and confederate Tonino De Bernardi. Her del Cinema Indipendente, and also explored degree thesis on Proust formed the basis his relationship with photography, above all of her first film Proussade 1967, followed by by investigating the origins and nature of the other short and medium-length films, all in medium. In 1976 he moved to Milan, where 8mm until 1971, when she stop making films. he stayed until 1981, continuing his rigorous She then moved to Rome to concentrate on photographic research. At the start of the 1980s psychoanalysis, specialising in the treatment he settled at Lendinara, in Veneto where he still of children and teenagers. lives and works. One of the figures of reference on an international level in the field of cinema ROSA FOSCHI and photography, Gioli has experimented with (Urbino), a graduate of the superior course Polaroid, Cibachrome, but also procedures like of advertising graphic design of the local art pinhole photography, strip photography, etc., institute, moved to Milan, where she worked designing and building movie and still cameras on advertising, cinema and photography. In with external shutters. Today Gioli makes more Rome, from 1967 to 1971, she frequented the than one film each year, always in 16mm. Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and she worked with Corona Cinematografica, ALBERTO GRIFI making – together with her husband Luca (Rome, 1938–2007), a painter, director, Patella – a series of short films using different cameraman and photographer, is a fundamental animation techniques. Foschi has published figure of Italian experimental and activist poems and created about thirty book-works. cinema. In the first half of the 1960s he worked on the production of documentaries, and in SANDRO FRANCHINA 1964, together with Gianfranco Baruchello, (Rome, 1939 – Paris, 1998), son of the sculptor he made La verifica incerta, followed by many Nino Franchina and grandson of the futurist other experimental films. With the painter Gino Severini, in his early twenties Anna 1975 he was one of the first to experiment he began working on film with the help of with the use of videotape in an independent his friends Guido Cosulich, later a photographer film. In 1976 – together with a group of ‘video and director, Marco Bellocchio, Gustavo Dahl hoodlums’ – he produced documentaries rarely and Enzo Battaglia, all students at the Centro screened today on youth protests in Milan, Sperimentale di Cinematografia. In 1963 he Bologna and Rome. Throughout the 1980s worked in Paris as the assistant of Jean Rouch he shot industrial documentaries in the United and began his activity as a documentary States, Latin America, Africa, Australia and filmmaker. A close friend of the artists of Southeast Asia. Grifi has also produced many the so-called Scuola di Piazza del Popolo radio programmes, published his writings (Mimmo Rotella, Mario Schifano and Franco on penitentiaries, contributed to various film Angeli), in 1968 with Angeli he made his only magazines and held seminars in many squats, fictional film, Morire gratis. From the end of and universities, becoming a reference for future the 1960s he worked extensively for television, militant filmmakers. and then specialised in the production of

Image: Gianfranco Baruchello, poster for Cooperativa Cinema Indipendente/Independent Cinema Co-operative c. 1967–70. Courtesy Fondazione Baruchello Roma art documentaries. 28 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

KARMA FILM PLINIO MARTELLI UGO NESPOLO MARIO SCHIFANO An experimental cinema collective composed of (Turin, 1945), raised in contact with art (his (Mosso, Biella, 1941), a graduate of the (Homs, Libya, 1934 – Rome, 1998), one of the Mario Gianni, Patrizia Vicinelli and Elio Rumma. father Achille Martelli was a Milanese painter Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin, with greatest Italian painters of the post-war era, who moved to Turin), he studied at the School a degree in Modern Letters, made his debut on who achieved international acclaim in the 1960s ANNA LAJOLO (Turin) and of Fine Arts. After taking part in several group the Italian art scene in the 1960s, in the climate and 1970s as an exponent of another possible GUIDO LOMBARDI (Chiavari, Genoa) shows, in 1969 he had his first solo show at the of pop art and arte povera in Turin, spending pop art, Schifano has left behind a boundless moved to Rome, respectively in 1967 and gallery of Christian Stein. He has always worked time with artists like Pistoletto, Merz, Boetti, body of work. After a decisive trip to the United 1965 (where they live and work), and after with different techniques and materials, from Zorio, but taking his own personal path involving States in 1963, he began to make short 16mm being part of the CCI, in 1971 they founded painting to photography to cinema. Since 1967, colour and writing. A painter, sculptor, illustrator, films, nearly always ‘edited in the camera’, the activist research group Videobase, together the year of his first film, he has made many experimenter and explorer of techniques, including Round Trip 1964 and Anna Carini in with Alfredo Leonardi. Later they made many cinema works, including: Swine Sheep 1969, Nespolo – a great cinéphile – has made several agosto vista dalle farfalle 1967. He then made documentaries and investigative reports for The End 1979 and La partita 1981. artist’s films, presented over the years in various a trilogy of feature-length films – Satellite 1968, RAI, the Italian state television network, and exhibitions in Italy and abroad at important Umano non umano / Human, Inhuman 1969 and from 1982 videos for the theatre company MARIO MASINI cultural institutions. For many years he was the Trapianto, consunzione e morte di Franco Brocani Zattera di Babele of the director Carlo Quartucci. (Savona, 1939), after growing up in Florence, president of the National Museum of Cinema in 1969 – which are anomalous from the circles of In 1985, with the artist Gianfranco Baruchello, moved to Rome to study at the Centro Turin, and in recent years has continued to make experimental and art cinema in Rome, of which they founded the collective Altrementi. Their Sperimentale di Cinematografia, graduating in films, using a digital camera. he was never a part. He therefore represents an films have been shown at many festivals, 1961. He then began his activity as a cameraman original, eclectic, autonomous voice. including: Berlin, Pesaro, San Sebastian, Turin, for documentaries and films for television, while PINO PASCALI Taormina, Rotterdam, Bellaria, New York, Paris, also making experimental films on his own. (Bari, 1935 – Rome, 1968), an outstanding figure GIORGIO TURI , Barcelona, Salsomaggiore and Munich. From 1971 to 1979 he was the cinematographer on the international art scene of the 1960s, after (Rome, 1925–2015), with a degree in chemistry for feature films by directors like Carmelo Bene, graduating from the School of Fine Arts, Rome, taken in 1949, he then concentrated on ALFREDO LEONARDI Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, Luigi Di Gianni, Giuseppe he began to work as an assistant set designer photography. Later he shifted to making film (Voghera, 1938), having moved to Rome, in , Vittorio De Sisti, Sylvano Bussotti. After for the Italian state television network. In the documentation for the National Research Council. 1962–3 worked as the assistant of the director having been a Steinerian teacher for many years, meantime, he also began a collaboration with In the early 1970s he also taught photography and intellectual Ugo Gregoretti, and later for the he has returned to working as a cameraman. Sandro Lodolo making television advertisements at the Art Institute of Pomezia. A maker of cultural programmes of RAI. In 1967 he joined He lives in Stuttgart. and title sequences for programmes. In 1965 he experimental films, he was one of the active CCI. In 1969, after receiving a study grant from had his first solo show, at Galleria La Tartaruga members of CCI. Starting in 1968 he worked Fondazione Agnelli, he went to the United States, PAOLO MENZIO in Rome, establishing a relationship with the on experimental programmes for RAI, the where he gave lectures and conferences, coming (Turin) is the son of the painter Francesco Menzio nascent current of arte povera. At the height state television network. In the years to follow into contact with Jonas Mekas and the circles and co-director of Il mostro verde 1967. of his career he was killed in an automobile he shot many documentaries on scientific, of New American Cinema, and writing the book accident in 1968. anthropological and educational themes, Occhio, mio dio: Il new american cinema (published working for television until 1987. in 1971 by Feltrinelli). Starting in the 1970s he LUCA MARIA PATELLA began to make anthropological documentaries (Rome, 1934), a tireless experimenter with ADAMO VERGINE and activist videos of Videobase with Anna first-generation multimedia art, uses different (, 1929), with a degree in medicine, Lajolo and Guido Lombardi. From 1964 to 1983 media with a conceptual approach to test the specialising in psychiatry, he began making he produced segments for various television boundaries between disciplines (photography, films as an amateur, with his brothers Aldo and programmes, after which he has devoted his cinema, graphic design, action, environment, Antonio. After having founded the Centro di time to teaching. written texts, sound installations, etc.). In 1967 Filmologia e Cinema Sperimentale in Naples in he joined CCI, and made several short films for 1966, together with his brothers, Vincenzo M. Corona Cinematografica. Later – together with Siniscalchi and Nicola De Rinaldo, he was a very his wife, Rosa Foschi – Patella taught media active member of CCI in its initial phase. He soon (photography, cinema) and made animated interrupted his activity in cinema to concentrate films at the Art Institute of Pomezia. on his career as a psychoanalyst. 30 TATE FILM If Arte Povera was Pop: Artists’ and experimental cinema in Italy 1960s–70s TATE FILM

SCREENING SCHEDULE THE ROME SCHOOL – PART 2 THE NORTH WIND IF ARTE POVERA WAS POP: ARTISTS’ AND Saturday 24 October 2015, 19.00–21.00 Sunday 25 October 2015, 17.00–19.00 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA IN ITALY 1960s–70s Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium 23–25 October 2015 Giorgo Turi & Roberto Capanna Voy-age, Pia Epremian Dissolvimento / Dissolution, Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium GOOD MORNING MICHELANGELO: Italy 1964 Italy 1970 ART, ARTIST AND FILM IN TURIN Curated by Andrea Lissoni (Tate Modern), Alfredo Leonardi Se l’inconscio si ribella / If Massimo Bacigalupo 60 metri per il 31 marzo / Friday 23 October 2015, 19.00–21.00 Annamaria Licciardello (Centro Sperimentale di Unconscious Revolt, Italy 1967 60 metres for 31 March , Italy 1968 Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale) and Sergio Ugo Nespolo Buongiorno Michelangelo / Paolo Gioli Commutazioni con mutazione / Olivetti promotional films: Toffetti (Director Archivio Nazionale Cinema Good Morning, Michelangelo, Italy 1968 Commutations with Mutations, Italy 1969 Valentine - Flipper 1969; Woman in Space d’Impresa - CSC) 1969/1970; Swinging London 1969/1970; Pia Epremian Pistoletto & Sotheby’s, Italy 1968 Piero Bargellini Trasferimento di modulazione / Lovers 1969/1970; Girls 1969/1970 The season is organised in collaboration with Transfer of Modulation, Italy 1969 Tonino De Bernardi, La vestizione, Italy 1968 Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Cineteca Tonino De Bernardi Il mostro verde, Italy 1967 Alberto Grifi Orgonauti, evviva!, Italy 1968–70 Nazionale and Archivio Nazionale Cinema Plinio Martelli Maria Fotografia, Italy 1968 Tonino De Bernardi La favolosa storia: Il bestiario, Impresa. Carmelo Bene Hermitage, Italy 1967 Ugo Nespolo Neonmerzare, Italy 1967 Italy 1968 In collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute. Ugo Nespolo Boettinbianchenero, Italy 1968 WAS IT POP? ARTISTS’ CINEMA IN ROME RELATED EVENTS Sunday 25 October 2015, 14.00–16.00 THANKS TO: CSC-Cineteca Nazionale (Laura THE ROME SCHOOL – PART 1 TATE MODERN & ICA Argento, Viridiana Rotondi), Rome; Archivio Saturday 24 October 2015, 16.00–18.00 Mario Schifano Souvenir, Italy 1967 Sunday 25 October 2015, 20.30 Nazionale Cinema Impresa (Elena Testa, Diego Mario Schifano Anna, Italy c.1967-70 Pozzato), Ivrea; Museo Nazionale del Cinema Mario Masini Immagine del tempo / Morire Gratis Sandro Franchina, Italy 1968, (Donata Pesenti, Claudia Gianetto), Turin; Image of Time, Italy 1964 Mario Schifano Vietnam, Italy 1967 35mm, black and white, 83 min Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte (Marco Umberto Bignardi in collaboration with Franco Angeli Schermi / Screens, Italy 1968 Farano), Biella; Ugo Nespolo; Tonino De Bernardi; Alfredo Leonardi Motion Vision, Italy 1967 Institute of Contemporary Arts Pia Epremian De Silvestris; Bruno Di Marino; Franco Angeli Doppio ritratto: Schifano Angel / 12 Carlton House Terrace London, SW1Y 5AH Fondazione Baruchello (Carla Subrizi, Giulia Adamo Vergine Ciao, ciao, Italy 1967 Double portrait: Schifano Angel, Italy c.1967–70 Giovanardi); Associazione Culturale Alberto Rosa Foschi in collaboration with Luca Patella Franco Angeli Pascali in mostra / THE SUN IN THE SHADOW. Grifi; Archivio Mario Schifano, Archivio Franco Amour du cinéma, Italy 1968 Pascali on display, Italy 1969 THE OTHER ROME OF FRANCO ANGELI, Angeli; Alessandra Franchina; Luca Patella and SANDRO FRANCHINA & MARIO SCHIFANO Rosa Foschi, Umberto Bignardi; Nico Marzano Claudio Cintoli Primavera nascosta / Luca Patella SKMP2, Italy 1968 Monday 26 October 2015, 18.30 (ICA, London); Federico Bianchi, Embassy of Italy, Hidden Spring, Italy 1969 Luca Patella in collaboration with Rosa Foschi The Italian Cultural Institute London; Marco Delogu, Giulia Maione, Paola Anna Lajolo & Guido Lombardi A corpo, Terra animata / Animated Earth 1967 Bottini, Italian Cultural Institute; GAM - Galleria Italy 1968 A conversation between Flavia Frigeri (Curator, d’Arte Moderna (Elena Volpato), Turin; Archivio Pino Pascali Che posizione! / What a Position!, Tate Modern, co-curator The World Goes Pop), Storico Olivetti, Ivrea; David Curtis, Simon Gianfranco Baruchello Costretto a Italy 1962 Andrea Lissoni (Senior Curator, International Art Field, Flavia Frigeri, Filippo Ruffilli, Federico scomparire / Forced to Disappear, Italy 1968 (Film), Tate Modern), Robert Lumley, (Professor Spoletti, Emanuele Tessardi, Valentina Aiello, Karma Film Errore di gruppo n. 2 / of Italian Cultural History, UCL), Sergio Toffetti (subti.com, London), Judith Bowdler, George Centre spread images, clockwise from top left: Group Error n. 2, Italy 1972 Alberto Grifi Orgonauti, evviva! 1968–70, film still; Ugo Nespolo Buongiorno Michelangelo (Director Archivio Nazionale Cinema d’Impresa Clark, Lucy Fisher, Samantha Manton, Maria 1968, film still; Franco Angeli Doppio ritratto: Schifano Angel c.1967–70, film still; Mario Schifano Vietnam 1967, film still; Ugo Nespolo Boettinbianchenero 1968, film still; - CSC). Introduced by Marco Delogu (Director of Montero Sierra (Tate Modern). Ugo Nespolo Buongiorno Michelangelo 1968, film still; Ugo Nespolo Neonmerzare 1967, film still; Sandro Franchina Morire Gratis 1968, film still; Alberto Grifi Orgonauti, evviva! 1968–70, film still; Franco Angeli Pascali in mostra 1969, film still; Pia Epremian Dissolvimento The Italian Cultural Institute). 1970, film still; Michelangelo Pistoletto’s exhibition poster at the gallery L’Attico, Rome, 1968; Tonino De Bernardi La favolosa storia 1968, film still. Graphic design by Tate Design Studio

All images in this booklet courtesy Archivio fotografico del Centro Sperimentale di The Italian Cultural Institute Tate Film is supported by LUMA Foundation Cinematografia, Cineteca Nazionale and Archivio Nazionale Cinema Impresa, Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte, Archivio Ugo Nespolo. 39 Belgrave Square London SW1X 8NX Electronic subtitles by SUB-TI London tate.org.uk/film Thoughts, comments, reviews? Tatefilm #tatefilm