- for download:
- Chrome, and click -in the film, right under- the three dots.
- Safari/ Firefox: you can right-click on the movie in the pop-up menu
My fascination for film lies in one of the most outstanding features of film (and photography): its transparency. We look through the medium, to what is performed within the frame, but we look also at the medium, at how the medium evolves, mutates and expands. So, to me, film is seeing one thing, under the light of the other.
-an introduction, 5 short clips (below, in low res), a sketch of a spacial presentation, and a selection of film stills.
In this photography project, titled The Setting of Violence, I focus on the presence of futuristic paintings on the walls in the film Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Motivation
I saw this movie for the first time as an art student long ago. A group of fascists subject 18 young boys and girls to their cruel power for 120 days in a villa, in the puppet state Salò, in the last year of World War 2 in Italy.
Besides displayed humiliation, torture, and murder, I was immediately struck by how prominent modernist art, especially futuristic painting, was in this film. As an art student, I always associated avant-garde and modernist art with positivism and progressive world views. So, what were these modernist paintings doing in this fascist setting? Are these paintings silent witnesses or accomplices? Did Pasolini denounce the avant-garde for its collaboration with the fascist regime? Or (I don’t think so) did he consider the avant-garde as a victim, abused by these fascist rulers? What connection did Pasolini want to make between futuristic art and these outrages committed by fascist rulers?
There had been a strong relationship between fascism and this avant-garde movement. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the foreman of the futurist movement, called himself an ultra-fascist, and Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader, proclaimed that fascism wouldn’t had this form without the futurist movement.
What I do
The final work consists of film frames out of the film Saló (authorized and scanned by Cineteca di Bologna).
I examine Pasolini’s intentions by editing these frames and stripping them of all atrocities, victims, and perpetrators. The paintings in the background now become foreground. What remain are empty spaces with an ominous atmosphere. What took place here, or what is going to take place?
The duration of the film-stills is stretched from their original 1/24 second to a much longer time-span. Partly through AI processing, the stills are set in subtle motion again. I zoom in on the paintings, and hover between still and motion, photo and film. The frames become spacious, as if the viewer is inside the rooms. Besides the interiors, two landscape scenes are included in the loops.
The text slides show quotes from Charles Baudelaire, Roland Barthes, and Pierre Klossowski, spoken by these fascists. They cocooned with high culture, probably as legitimization of their misdeeds. The soundscape is composed of (a.o.)sounds outside of the notorious villa, radio “white noise,” with fragments of a radio speech by Mussolini.
Total length of the film:
In this link, only short clips of each loop are displayed.
Five loops are simultaneously playing. The estimated time to see all loops after each other, is approx. 20 minutes.
What I will do (work in progress)
This work needs some extra time to work on the AI processing, the length of the loops, the text slides in between the frames, and some more film stills. Each screen will also have a wooden frame. This will work as a reference to the projected images, such as paintings, furniture. The screens, usually invisible, will now have their own presence.
Total budget of the project €. 23.103,85
PS:
Just a few weeks before the IDFA starts, I will present this project for the first time, for only one week in the MAMbo, the Museum for Contemporary Art in Bologna, the town Pasolini was born.
This year 2025 is the anniversary of the release of the film Saló, a few weeks after the tragic death of Pasolini, this year 50 years ago.
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short clip of loop 1
short clip of loop 2
short clip of loop 3
short clip of loop 4
short clip of loop 5
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Proposal for a presentation. The installation and the dimensions of the screens are flexible and can be adjusted to the given space.
Proposal for a presentation. The installation and the dimensions of the screens are flexible and can be adjusted to the given space.
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film stills
Film still out of the film Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Film still out of the film Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Film still out of the film Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Film still out of the film Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Team:
-Photography processing: Roy Taylor, Pablo Keunings, Rein Jelle Terpstra
-AI, 3D processing: Milo Poelman
Editing: Rein Jelle Terpstra, Albert Elings, Melissa Kleine
Sound: Albert Elings, Rein Jelle Terpstra, Jurriaan Terpstra
-technical support: Ivo van Stiphout (Video Art Lab), Melissa Kleine
Many thanks to the Mondriaan Fund and the Dommering Foundation for their trust in this project.
