Female Bodies in the Digital – international art film exhibit —ENG bellow—
Куратор: Зорница Стоянова
“Женски тела в дигиталния свят” е провокативно проучване на женствеността и нейните различни прояви в съвременната култура. Чрез необичайна колекция от интернационални експериментални филми, изложбата разширява границите на традиционните възприятия за женското представяне в дигиталната среда.
Чрез отворен конкурс, Зорница Стоянова курира и избира 16 различни филми, които проучват теми свързани жената и нейното тяло. Някои от засегнатите теми са визуалното представяне на женствеността, психичното здраве, експлоатацията, раждането, смъртта, болката, женското овластяване, стареенето и други.
В програмата ще видите също филма “Кралица” на българските режисьори Мариана Перянова, известна като Yagama, и Илина Перянова, както и филма “Вътрешна стая” на хореограф и режисьор Ина Димитрова-Гергинова.
***Забележка: В някои от филмите има женско голо тяло.
Пълната програма продължава 1 час и 20 минути и се върти непрекъснато по време на постоянната изложба.
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Female Bodies in the Digital is a provocative exploration of femininity and its various manifestations in contemporary culture, through a collection of unconventional, experimental films that push the boundaries of traditional modes of female representation in media and on the screen.
Through an open call, Zornitsa Stoyanova curated and chose 16 different films that explore themes related to the female body such as visual representation, mental health, exploitation, birth, death, pain, female empowerment, aging, and others.
In the program, you will also see the film Queen by Bulgarian directors Marianna Perianova aka Yagama and Ilina Perianova, as well as the film Inner Room by choreographer and director Ina Dimitrova Gerginova.
***PLEASE NOTE: There is some artful full female nudity in some of the films
The duration of the full program is 1h 20min and it runs continuously.
List of films, please click for details:
Pagan Inner by Alessandro Amaducci (Italy)
The Naked Truth by Lena Grobusch (Germany)
Immaculate by Charlie Haan (France)
who are we when all this unfolds by Leah Katz (Germany)
Queen by Marianna Perianova aka Yagama, Ilina Perianova (Bulgaria)
Out of the Folds of Women by Anabella Lenzu (USA/Argentina)
Tricks for Gold by Sophie Vitelli, Frida Giulia Franceschini (Germany)
To disappear #1 by Nara Coló Rosetto (Brazil)
Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter by Tess Martin (Netherlands)
Body Landscape by Vanessa Cardui (Germany)
Quality Control by Jasmine De Silva (United Kingdom)
SILENT FRAGMENTS by Andrea Hackl (Austria)
Inner Room by Ina Dimitrova Gerginova (Bulgaria)
Butterfly by No Plexus & AuthessX (Netherlands)
Self(i.e.;) by Laura Iancu (USA)
Program:
Pagan Inner by Alessandro Amaducci (Italy)
Cast: Caterina Genta
“Radical experimenter, explorer of techniques and effects, artist and scholar, teacher. Alessandro Amaducci’s profile is completely original in the Italian panorama. Between symbolic images and poetic references, philosophical echoes, memories, an audiovisual reflection unfolds – between analogue and digital – dense, full of references, intertwined with various arts and yet radically different.”
Sandra Lischi, catalogue of the Festival INVIDEO 2016. https://www.alessandroamaducci.com/
The Naked Truth by Lena Grobusch (Germany)
Producers: Christophe Hermans, Fanny Pluymers
Cast: Katharina Hamp, Lena Grobusch
Image and sound: Lena Grobusch, Katharina Hamp, Camilla Orlando;
Editing, mix and grading: Lena Grobusch;
Cameras, sound and lights: LICAM Université de Liège
How do we look at women’s bodies and how does the visual objectification of female bodies influence our understanding of what it means to be a woman? Starting from this question, a cinematic experiment is launched that deconstructs the male gaze with the help of a female artist, open-body landscapes, and the playfulness of a brushstroke.
Lena Grobusch is a former language student who now specializes in film and film studies. Her international master’s program took her to the Université de Liège in Belgium in 2022, where she made her first short film called “The Naked Truth”.
The film was shot in Saarbrücken, Germany, in cooperation with a local artist named Katharina Hamp, and aims to take a closer look at women and their (naked) bodies in the Arts and how they’re depicted. Mostly, the relation between artist and model is a strongly hierarchical one organized around bias and oppositions between the work of art and its creator, between the one that directs the gaze from a safe position behind a camera or a blank canvas and the one that is exposed and becomes the very object of this gaze. “The Naked Truth” tries to look behind this seemingly solid power dynamic, it sees no clear separation between active and passive, no boundary between the two entities of artist and model. To prevent the reproduction of hierarchies and conventional bias, it is, therefore, the filmmaker who exposes herself, who is in the center of the gaze and becomes both object of and director of the eye of the camera. In this sense, the film invites you to look closely but also reveals how the objectification and sexualization of women and the power of the (male) gaze, which has been extremely dominant in the arts and in film, affects our personal and corporeal experience of being and living in this world. The very fact of being seen, observed, regarded, contemplated, and constantly judged according to visual standards or norms leaves its mark on us and roots us in our bodies and in the present. This bodily presence shapes our existence, our way of comprehending the world around us, and the role we play in it.
Immaculate by Charlie Haan (France)
Once was here but flew away.
Unveiled taboo.
Producer: Caroline Chassaing
Technician for film & television, Charlie Haan makes a step towards directing with this intimate and experimental first film.
who are we when all this unfolds by Leah Katz (Germany)
Editor: Trevor Silverstein
who are we when all this unfolds was shot between March and December 2020, spanning the duration of pregnancy and the first COVID lockdowns in Berlin. While the dances’ chronology doesn’t factor into this film, the first dance was captured the day after a positive pregnancy test, the same day that lockdown began in Berlin, and the last dance was captured the night before the child was born. This film is a record of the nine months of pregnancy and a pandemic. It depicts a desire for movement during a time of globally restricted movement, during a body’s changes, and the growth of a new body.
Leah Katz is a dance artist, originally from Massachusetts, USA. She received a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase before relocating to Berlin in 2010. Leah has performed and collaborated internationally with artists including Tino Sehgal, Adam Linder, Alexandra Pirici, Jeremy Shaw/Justin F. Kennedy, Kat Valastur, Dafna Maimon, Liz Magic Laser/Sanya Kantarovsky, the Deutsche Oper, and the Staatsoper Berlin. She also teaches yoga and co-owns the Comedy Cafe Berlin. This is her first film.
Queen by Marianna Perianova aka Yagama, Ilina Perianova (BUL)
Writers: Marianna Perianova aka Yagama, Ilina Perianova, Anna Dmitrieva
Cast: Mery Jagbesie, Adel Oberto
The experimental poetry short “Queen,” is inspired by the power of authentic femininity. The desire to find that source of nourishment in a world ruled by men, where women are expected to project masculine energy in order to succeed, propelled us on a search for imagery that would speak the universal language of the subconscious to a wide audience, in order to encourage an honest search for what it is to be a woman. The events surrounding the “Me Too” movement, as well as our own life experiences, propelled us to ask questions about gender power dynamics. We sought our answer in the arts, in poetry and in symbolism, in the strong image of the Egyptian Goddess Isis. There are as many answers to what femininity entails as there are female-identifying people. This is why we felt that addressing this social, psychological and philosophical question can only come from inside, the depths of each woman, as she knows it for herself. For this reason we created the archetypal atmosphere of the film, the feeling of being in space and simultaneously in our mothers womb – a reminder that we all have a mother to honour, and that our responsibility lies first to ourselves, knowing ourselves, respecting and taking care of ourselves. For only then can we be responsible towards the other. And yet the way our film answers the question of female identity is not apolitical. We deliberately chose African-inspired costumes, and a main character of African origin. Our aim was to underscore the power of those who have been sidelined in history and under- or mis-represented in the arts, whether due to race or gender, and to pay homage to them. “Queen” is a journey deep within to the essence of soul of a woman, and it’s no accident many cultures consider the soul to be female. There is unrecognized might in softness, in pure presence, in the ability to go deep, to focus, to connect with oneself, as in a state of meditation. Our film is thus a metaphorical prayer for a healing of Woman – and consequently, the healing also of Man. Just as in the ending of our film, we believe love will lead the way in acknowledging, respecting, and tolerating our beautiful human differences, no matter the gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
Ilina Perianova and Yagama aka Marianna Perianova are a creative sister tandem from Bulgaria working together since 2009. They share values and an artistic vision, combining their perspectives and life experiences to create striking, multilayered works. Ilina’s experience with actors and a solid formal education in film and drama combined with Yagama’s unusual visual aesthetic and background in the art and music scene inspire them to tackle the convergence of the social and the personal in an original way. The duo’s latest films are award winning “Eat Me!” and “Snowgirl” shorts, both directed by Ilina and produced by both. They are also co-founders of the Uga Buga Art production house.
Out of the Folds of Women by Anabella Lenzu (USA/Argentina)
Writers and producers: Anabella Lenzu Anabella Lenzu & Todd Carroll
Cast: Anabella Lenzu, Todd Carroll
Art is a political act.
Dance is discipline and revolt.
My body is my country.
I react to my environment and use the body as a receptacle and messenger of the multiple realities that we are immersed in.
My work reflects my experience as a Latina/European artist living in New York and comes from a deep examination of my motivations as a woman, mother, and immigrant.
Performance is a conduit for examining cultural identity through form and content, as well as relationships between people and society.
Sharing my point of view on life with others is my duty and my pleasure.
I investigate the interior logic of performance and the role of a dancer in our culture today, redefining the parameters of dance and theater.
My works live inside and outside of the theatrical traditions and venues.
My art is about celebration and criticism of socio-political and cultural barriers. It is a ceremony of awareness.
I explore rituals to document intimacy and organize layers of character-driven drama, and break apart quotidian social gestures. I am creating a living vocabulary of meaningful movement that springs directly from emotions with visceral strength.
By using movement, spoken word, sounds, music, photographs, video projections, masks and props as tools, I create a dialogue to provoke a cathartic experience in the audience.
The principle that drives my work is that Motion creates Emotion, and Emotion creates Motion.
I love to work and collaborate in an atmosphere of creativity, respect, responsibility, honesty, independence and freedom.
Motion creates Emotion, Emotion creates Motion.
This is the principle that drives my work. This goes hand in hand with the concept “Every gesture is expressive of something…It is preceded by and given birth by a thought, a feeling, an emotion, a purpose, a design or a motive.” -Delsarte
Just as I aim to integrate mind + body + spirit, I write + choreograph + teach.
It is my hope that in the works I choreograph, artists and audience find themselves walking in the same direction – to integrate mind + body + spirit . Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu is a dancer, choreographer, writer and teacher with over 30 years experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy, London and the USA.
Biography:
Lenzu directs her own company, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama (ALDD), which since 2006 has presented 390 performances, created 14 choreographic works and performed at 100 venues, presenting thought-provoking and historically conscious dance-theater in NYC.
As a choreographer, she has been commissioned all over the world for opera, TV programs, theatre productions, and by many dance companies. She has produced and directed several award-winning short dance films and screened her work in over 50 festivals both nationally and internationally, including London, Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, Portugal, Argentina, and Mexico.
Anabella’s work has been seen at La Mama, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Movement Research at Judson Church, Draftworks at DanceSpace project/ St. Mark Church, 92nd Street Y, HERE Arts Center, Abrons Arts Center, DUO Multicultural Arts Center, Queens Museum, Bronx Museum, Gibney Dance, Center for Performance Research, Triskelion, Chez Bushwick, Roulette, Chashama, Dixon Place, Sheen Center, The Consulate of Argentina in NYC, NYU/Casa Zerilli Marimo, University Settlement, Baruch Performing Arts Center, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Instituto Cervantes, 3LD Center for Art & Technology, Kumble Theater/Long Island University, among many others. She has received grants from Brooklyn Arts Council, Puffin Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Edwards Foundation, The Vermont Community Foundation, and the Independent Community Foundation.
She holds a MFA in Fine Arts (concentration in Choreography) from Wilson College, PA. Classically trained at the renowned Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, Lenzu studied the modern dance techniques of Humphrey/Limòn and Graham in New York. Her studies of Tango and the folkdances of Argentina, Spain, and Italy, further inform her work.
Lenzu founded her own dance school L’Atelier Centro Creativo de Danza in 1994 in Argentina, and as an educator for more than 30 years, she has been teaching in more than 50 institutions, including universities, professional dance studios, companies, festivals, and symposiums in the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, London, and Italy.
Lenzu has written for various dance and arts magazines, and published her first book in 2013, entitled Unveiling Motion and Emotion. The book contains writings in Spanish and English on the importance of dance, community, choreography, and dance pedagogy. Her second book, Teaching Dance through Meaningful Gestures, is expected in 2020, and explores basic exercises, visualization exercises, active imagination and artistic application. The book explores how technique is a philosophy and a theory, and how the body is an instrument for expression.
Currently, Lenzu conducts classes at NYU Gallatin, Wagner College, Peridance Center, and is Artist-in-Residence at CUNY Dance Initiative, 2019-2020.
Tricks for Gold by Sophie Vitelli, Frida Giulia Franceschini (Germany)
Writers: Sophie Vitelli, Frida Giulia Franceschini
Producers: Amanda Martikainen, Sandra Reitmayer, NPN – Nationale Performance Netz
Cast:Frida Giulia Franceschini, Dani Brown
Costume Design: Lea Kieffer;
Sound and Music: Sophie Vitelli;
Lighting Design: Emilio Cordera Checa;
CGI Artist: Karl Hedin
Tricks for Gold is a fabula set in late capitalism, in which the protagonist, a live-streamer, imagines that she can find freedom by becoming the object of her own desires – money – and endeavors to transform into it.
Sophie and Frida first collaborated in 2016, together with artistic duo CM Gratitude (FR/IT), on the creation of BE WATER MY FRIEND, an interactive performance with live music premiered at Theatre De L’Usine in Geneva, in which the audience could phone-chat with a center-staged mythological humanoid, whose role was to hold space for people and entertain private (or not so private) text conversations with them. An interest in digital intimacies, ( poetic sexting, online support, touchless cuddles) magical realism, absurd contents, dry humor, the direct impact of atmospheric music on the body guided our work in this piece, and paved the way for future collaborations. Sophie was also a part of the initial phase of workshopping the stage work Tricks For Gold. A common thread ties these chances for collaboration: an attempt at making work which connects to an audience through deeply intimate yet intangible, even ephemeral spaces, using technology to play with the tension between virtuosity and vulnerability. Sophie Vitelli is a Stockholm-based composer of electroacoustic music, guitarist and artist. Frida Giulia Franceschini is a dancer and performance artist based in Berlin. Their collaborations include “Be Water My Friend” performed at Theatre de L’Usine in 2016, “Tricks for Gold”, and the ongoing project “The Night”, premiering in 2024.
To disappear #1 by Nara Coló Rosetto (Brazil)
Writer: Nara Coló Rosetto
To Disappear #1 is a video-performance-poem that, starting from self-reference, extrapolates the intimate and personal world of the artist to make the theme universal – physical and psychic suffering that connects us as humans.
Nara Rosetto is a 35-year-old woman from São Paulo, Brazil who lives and works in Porto, Portugal.Drawing from her experience with disability and chronic incurable illnesses, she uses vulnerability, invisibility, pain, and the body as recurring themes in her work. Her process involves cataloging, accumulation, repetition, and long duration, often utilizing the diary as a method in many of her pieces. She works with different mediums such as textile pieces, video, and photo performance. Nara has participated in the blauverschiebung performance festival no.14 in Leipzig, Germany, the Every Woman Biennial in New York, USA, and Porto Femme in Porto, Portugal. She has also been part of the Demonstra.pt artistic residency, was selected to participate in the critical accompaniment of AnaBella Geiger, and won the PROAC Expresso Direto 39/2021 with the project “small gestures – writing in crochet.”
Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter by Tess Martin (Netherlands)
Cast: Iris Schutgevaar, Amy Gale
Director of Photography: Matija Pekic;
Music & Sound Design: Jorick Bronius;
Animator: Marike Verbiest
A photograph is a window into the past, but sometimes, the border between past and present is not entirely clear. This stop-motion animation invites us to think about our relationship to time, by portraying one woman caught in the middle.
Tess Martin is a film and visual artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She brings her perspective as someone who was raised between cultures to explore themes of belonging, identity, and connection. Tess has both a classical fine art and an animation background and these come together in her work: she pushes the conceptual potential of hand-made animation and the narrative potential of site-specific pieces.
Body Landscape by Vanessa Cardui (Germany)
BODY LANDSCAPE is an animated film that draws different body landscapes. From head to toe, we take a cinematic walk over the woman´s body and explore her landscapes. The female curves turn into mountains, lakes, deserts, waterfalls, trees and forests – The body transforms, just by a touch, into a natural landscape full of wonders – The female body becomes a place of birth and transformation.
Vanessa Cardui, born in 1987, is a Berlin based video artist. She studied art and media at university Hildesheim in Germany. Her work is characterized by artistic metamorphoses. She transforms everyday objects into pieces of art by exploring the different techniques of animation to bring the objects to life. She works with meaningful color contrasts and creates an imaginative world that arises from the texture of the material.
Quality Control by Jasmine De Silva (United Kingdom)
Writer: Jasmine De Silva
Cast: Natasha Gravia-Lund, Julie Impens, Serena Butler
Director of Photography: William Hadley;
Stylist: Ayisha Onuorah;
Hair Stylist: Natalia Krzewska;
Makeup Artist: Evie Smith;
Prosthetic Masks: Zoe Fay Kellett
Quality Control is about the construction of the human body. The characters wear a uniform of green to match their sterile surrounding of an ambiguous canteen setting. One by one they collect their dinner trays and, in unison start to create the human face. With each one looking the same, this aims to portray the sense of a simulated and controlled world. https://www.jasminedesilva.com/
SILENT FRAGMENTS by Andrea Hackl (Austria/Finland)
Producers: Andrea Hackl Projects, Malakta Art Factory
Cast: Andrea Hackl
Sound: Ivan Shopov
“I am a filmmaker and choreographer/ performer. Choosing the human body as one main channel of expression, I create dance and interdisciplinary performances and produce short films. Be it my passion as a performer/choreographer or my visual work / short films, my work is a celebration of the life force within us human beings. My films are being presented in festivals worldwide, of which SILENT FRAGMENTS has won two awards for Best Film @ Cinedanza Italy 2020 and Best Choreography @ InShadow 2020 and is being presented at this year’s edition of CINEDANS in Amsterdam. My last work BELE BELTZA has received the PEARL ARTIST PRIZE at POOL Festival ’21 and an honorable mention at Cinedanza and various awards for Best Experimental / Art Film. Further, I am exploring the medium of video/installation in my performances. My sensorial and kinetic experience and perception are essential to my creative path, exploration, and who I am. I love to play with multiple layers, to journey between the narrative / rational and the abstract/sensorial. Working with film opens up a special dimension and allows me to merge the physical/kinetic with the visual. A very interesting place of exploration is for me where performance + film meet, exploring the medium of video and installation.”
Inner Room by Ina Dimitrova Gerginova (BUL)
Writer: Ina Dimitrova Gerginova
Producer: BB Soundscapers Ltd., Storycatchers Association, Muzotanz Dance Company
Cast: Ina Dimitrova Gerginova, Mariana Kapoustyanova, Ana Miteva, Christina Veselinova, Rositsa Ivanova
Cinematographer: Ivan Nikolov;
Editing: Alexander Evtimov-Shamancheto, Ivan Nikolov;
Special Effects: Nikola Gyulmezov Gyulmezov;
Music and Sound design: Alexander Evtimov-Shamancheto;
Stylist: Irina Tsapreva;
Photographer: Nikola Gyulmezov;
Choreographer: Ina Gerginova;
Assistant director: Christina Tantcheva;
Assistant choreographer: Mariana Kapoustyanova;
Grip: Liudmil Venev
“Ina Gerginova is a choreographer, dancer, actress and teacher interested in interdisciplinary experimental formats. She is the founder of the Muzotanz Dance Company, focused in social engagement in arts. Ina’s main tool of expression as a choreographer is contemporary dance. In her last two performances (“”Plast-tonia”” and “”Differsonalities””) she explores the use of dance dramaturgy, scenography and the cinematic approaches in theater. In 2022, she directed her first short dance film “”Inner Room”” and was a scholarship holder of the ImPulsTanz dance festival’s program for choreographers – ATLAS. Ina is also practicing playback theatre. She graduated NATFA “”Krastyo Sarafov”” (BG), BA in Dance Theater in 2013. She has been working with many Bulgarian and foreign choreographers and participates in prestigious international forums. Ina created the platforms “”Muzotanz: Live”” (a series of improvised dance performances) and “”M.U.T.E”” (laboratories for experimental collaboration between artists). Her master’s degree in “”Artistic psycho-social practices and psychodrama”” (NBU, BG) enriches her creativity, knowledge of group dynamics and management of artistic processes. She conducts various seminars for both professionals and amateurs.Ina believes that art is for everyone, it should be accessible and “”talk”” about those things that are usually unspoken.”
Butterfly by No Plexus & AuthessX (Netherlands)
Character Design: Mees Joachim, AuthessX;
Sound Design: Allison Wright;
3D Scanning: Jonathan Szegedi;
MoCap Acting: Bec Plexus
‘Butterfly’ is the first single from experimental electronic music duo No Plexus’ forthcoming record ‘Gen_Y’. The animated music video by Authessx depicts an innocent creature born into a world that initially seems full of promise, but is actually in an irreversible state of decay. The narrative content of the film is an allegory of the experience of the millennial generation, – people born between 1981 and 1996 – illustrated with expressive alien-like character design, post-apocalyptic set design and animation techniques evocative of 2000s era video games.
No Plexus are quickly making a name for themselves in the experimental electronic music scene with a truly unique combination of complex sound design, non-traditional song forms and storytelling. Their music and performances can be described as genre-queer; as the duo carefully combines elements of a wide variety of modern electronic music genres to express complex concepts and emotions such as millennial dread and queer joy.
Self(i.e.;) by Laura Iancu (USA)
Writer: Laura Iancu
Cast: Laura Iancu
Music: Minus;
MUSIC TRACK: Daniel Stanciu aka Minus;
Editing and Special Effects: Laura Iancu
“Iancu is a visual artist working primarily in hybrid video forms and immersive 3D animation & gaming, with an expanded practice of installation and photography. Originally from Romania, she has been teaching, and making images in the US for more a decade. Currently, Laura is an assistant professor of film production at Virginia Tech, School of Performing Arts.”
Countries represented:
Bulgaria, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Austria/Finland
Curated by Zornitsa Stoyanova(BUL/USA)
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