ZIMMERFREI
WHERE WE COME FROM
15.05 / 28.09.2012

Reading space and seeing time:
The mobile universe of ZimmerFrei

To interact with the art of the ZimmerFrei group is a little like entering in a dimension of time and space in which the common methodical principles are abandoned and sensory processing triumphs over rational processing.
Their research is directed towards a progressive emotional level and the spectator, just like the artists themselves, become active components of the expressive process.
Collective landscapes and private memories are revealed as in a true romance story, articulated by a precise temporal code: the story begins by reading an artistic work, but has to continue in the imagination of the spectator.
There is a beginning, but no end. The touching narration breaks the normal barriers of description to find legitimization in the fantasy of the observer. This important participation factor is underlined by the careful combination of not only visual tension but auditory tension: the spectator is literally wrapped up in the narration, sees it, hears it, and lives it, too.
The concurrence of different stylistic channels creates a symphony of movements and changes which dictates a living and unexpected rhythm, the subjects are always seen in the moment of a gesture, of a dance, which breaks into space but also manages to cut across it.
The exploration of the place, in its various architectonic, urban and social derivations, is animated by the synchrony of two equal but different perspectives, on one side the authenticity of the present, on the other the infiltration of artificial alterations.
There is no desire to taunt reality, rather to demonstrate its multiple possibilities of life.
This is evident in the series Panorama, where urban surroundings are filmed in the spontaneity of daily rhythms, enriched, however, by surreal scenes, carried out by the artists themselves and bizarre performers, or in the stereoscopical installation Muddy Water, in which a speckless natural landscape is tainted by a mysterious and unresolved plot.
With lexical syncretism, a mix of photography, installation, video art and experimental cinema, ZimmerFrei succeeds in its attempt to read space and see time, bringing the paradoxes and antinomies of our current society together, and tracing the fluctuation of transiting views, transitions of life and the exchange of memories.

Text by Silvia Cirelli







Biography

ZimmerFrei is an artist collective (Massimo Carozzi, Anna de Manincor, Anna Rispoli) which was founded in 2000 and is based in Bologna and Brussels.
ZimmerFrei produces sound installations and videos, performances, documentaries and photo series, and is dedicated to researching true and imaginary urban spaces, and mixes techniques from cinema, theatre and music. Their recent works include urban scenes, narrations in which documentary, sound literature, and fantasy are mixed and explore the borders between public and personal space.
The group has realised several collective exhibitions, events and in-residence projects, among which “ON. Luci di pubblica piazza”, “Sound Facts”, “Space is the Place” in Bologna and “Neverending Cinema” in the Galleria Civica of Trento.
In 2011 the MAMbo Museum in Bologna has dedicated a personal exhibition to ZimmerFrei and has acquired a light sculpture for its permanent collection. The sculpture has been placed at the entrance of the Cineteca of Bologna in via Azzo Gardino 65.

Website: www.zimmerfrei.co.it







On Screening:
Panorama_Roma (MiniDV on file, 24', 2004)
Memoria Esterna (DVD-R, 26'44'', 2007)
LKN Confidential (MiniDV on file, 40', 2010)
The Hill (HD, 40', 2011)

Selected Films:
Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni 1970)
Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman 1971)
Cocksucker Blues (Robert Frank 1972)
Die Große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner (Werner Herzog 1974)
Gerry (Gus Van Sant 2002)
The Wild Blue Yonder (Werner Herzog 2005)
Enjoy Poverty (Renzo Martens 2008)
Exit through the gift shop (Banksy 2010)


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Curated by Marco Nember.
Developed in collaboration with
the Italian Institute of Culture in
Amsterdam between May 2009
and September 2013.