Filippo Sciascia: Exploring the digital world<\/p>\n
A solo exhibition by native Italian artist Filippo Sciascia is
\nbeing held at the Gaya Fusion gallery in Ubud, Bali from July 16
\nto Aug. 16. In the exhibition Sciascia presents cinema, painting,
\nmusic, literature\/philosophy, and speech in a single video
\n\"performance\" -- which is a highly ambitious endeavor, according
\nto writer and art critic Jean Couteau.<\/p>\n
A screen: a woman appears, her image blurring, then turning
\nclear before blurring again. She is compulsively whispering the
\nsame repetitive sentence, whose text simultaneously appears on
\nthe screen. The text, which comes and goes, is a \"philosophical
\nstatement\" on man's endeavor in life. As the text continues
\nunfolding with the woman whispering, the screen divides into
\nseveral sections displaying different scenes; then as the screen
\nis further subdivided, the face of the same woman reappears in
\nmultiple minuscule windows. Other women appear, and another
\nreading of the same sentence is proposed. Simple, obsessive music
\naccompanies the whole sequence. And, when the video itself stops,
\na set of paintings come into view, which was produced by the
\nartist on the basis of this video and to illustrate it.<\/p>\n
What Filippo Sciascia presents in this work is a highly
\nambitious endeavor: cinema, painting, music, literature,
\nphilosophy, and speech are all brought together in a single video
\n\"performance\". Not only are the traditional boundaries between
\nthese genres explored, questioned, and even transgressed, but
\neach of the genres, with the exception of music, is itself
\nquestioned and \"dismantled\" in structure or content.<\/p>\n
The pictures are sometimes realist, sometimes blurred through
\nthe manipulation of pixels; reality is thus relativized. The
\ncinematographic narrative is \"cut into pieces\" and its order at
\ntimes reversed -- thus losing its meaning. Sound becomes silence,
\nas the obsessive whispering is most of the time voiceless;
\nmeaning is thus rendered \"meaningless\". The screen is split into
\nas many scenes as deemed necessary, while the content itself, and
\nthus the meaning of the message represented, are manipulated at
\nour convenience, as the name of the performance -- For Your
\nConsideration -- indicates. And the \"paintings\" that the artist
\ncreates out of his video are based not on \"reality\", but on the
\nengineered pixel rendition of this reality, relativizing it yet
\nagain.<\/p>\n
As this short analysis of this video piece demonstrates,
\nFilippo is systematically exploring all the possibilities opened
\nby the recent digitalization of the media -- a late 20th century
\ninvention. The \"formal research\" aspect of his work is thus
\nparamount. But this does not mean that the content side is
\nneglected. His innovative approach to \"form\" through his
\nexploration of the video medium in fact aims at conveying a
\nmessage as multi-faceted as the form.<\/p>\n
The core issue that Filippo is raising is a classical issue of
\nthe position and condition of being human. His approach is
\nresolutely anthropocentric, after the tradition prevalent in the
\nWest: most of the images focus on a human face -- that of a
\nwhispering woman -- or on human actions and statements. Yet, the
\nreadings one can make of his presentation of the issue can differ
\nradically according to the context.<\/p>\n
First one can take the text that accompanies the video at face
\nvalue, and read it as a positivist statement. The obsessively
\nrepeated sentence \"We are always trying to do something, or
\nbecome something or be somebody; and in this having to be
\nsomebody we create all our difficulties, because right there the
\nego comes popping\" then become a call, an invitation to do
\nsomething, while being wary of one's ego. This is proposed for
\n\"our consideration\", as a matter of realism.<\/p>\n
But it is also possible to make an altogether different
\nreading of the same utterance, especially if one frames it in the
\ncontext of the video imagery where it is inserted. The way the
\ncharacters behave and utter the script -- repetitively,
\ninaudibly, or blandly, as if the meaning was simply \"for your
\nconsideration\", as the artist puts it, and thus unimportant --
\nsuggests an underlying existential questioning, which the artist
\nexpresses by baring the inherent ambiguity, and contradiction, of
\nthe human condition.<\/p>\n
As shown in and through the video, humans are both central and
\nmarginal, all-powerful and impotent; the choices they make, even
\nwhen they seem to be decided based on \"consideration\", are
\nillusory. In this interpretation, it is not only the individual's
\nperception of, and hence, power over reality that seems to be in
\nquestion, but \"reality\" itself, whose only truth, perhaps, lies
\nin being an illusion of reality.<\/p>\n
Whichever interpretation one chooses, it is obvious that there
\nis no true way to interpret the video. It is for our
\n\"consideration\". We can read it as we like: it will always be
\ncontingent. In the end, Filippo is not only telling us that there
\nis no reality, but also that there is no \"truth\" in any reality.<\/p>\n
One recognizes, in this multi-faceted reading that Filippo is
\nproposing to us, the mark of several influences. Filippo being
\nItalian, the name of the great playwright Pirandello comes to
\nmind with regard to the idea of multi-faceted reality. But a more
\nuniversal existentialist search for meaning pervades his work. It
\nwill be interesting to see how he further deepens the treatment
\nof these themes in his future work.<\/p>\n
Yet, it is not in the \"message\" side of his work that Filippo
\nreally breaks new ground, but rather in the way he links this
\nmessage to a novel exploration of \"form\", made possible by
\ndigital technology.<\/p>\n
Filippo's work shows that he senses himself at a crossroads.
\nHe has a new instrument, the digital video camera-cum-computer,
\nwhich embodies a new phase of scientific and technical
\ninnovation. He grasps that this new instrument should
\nrevolutionize artistic creativities, the practical methods that
\nartists use to combine form and content through the available
\ntechniques of their day. Then he launches himself in a systematic
\ninvestigation, in all directions, of the potentials of his media.
\nHe sees, in his quest, all the formerly existing barriers between
\ndifferent media and genres breaking down one after another. His
\nwork is the dizzying result of this exploration.<\/p>\n
Filippo Sciascia is indeed not the first artist, nor,
\nprobably, the only one in our times to be enthused by the
\nbreaking of new ground. Scientific and technical innovation has
\nalways played a paramount role in the evolution of the arts. In
\nthe 13th century, it was the rediscovery of Euclidian geometry by
\nthe Northern Italians that led to Giotto and the Florentine
\nschool of painting: the third dimension of reality -- depth --
\ncould now be made manifest in the two-dimensional form of
\npainting.<\/p>\n
From that time onward, the focus of artistic expression
\nchanged: symbolism, or any other type of artistic expression, had
\nto be molded into a realistic form. In the 19th century, the
\ndiscovery of black and white photography by Niepce and Daguerre
\nwas no less momentous in its consequences. Invalidating the
\nsearch for realism in painting, it led first to the exploration
\nof light and color by the expressionists, and then to the
\nsystematic \"deconstruction\" of art (form, subject, media, etc.)
\nnow known as modern and contemporary art. The introduction of
\nfilm at the beginning of the 20th century did not have an
\nimmediate influence on the other forms of visual expression, but
\nit impacted greatly on literature, as it multiplied the
\npossibilities of storytelling and rendered verbal description
\nnearly useless. Cinematography became an artistic genre in
\nitself.<\/p>\n
Today, given the opportunity to record, reproduce, \"cut and
\npaste\", and thus recombine sounds and images at will, a whole new
\nfield of artistic exploration and creation opens before us.
\nFilippo Sciasca is one of the artists pioneering its discovery.
\nMay the field he helps to open be a wide and beautiful one.<\/p>\n
For more information about Sciascia's works, exhibitions and
\nbiography, please visit www.filipposciascia.it or e-mail
\nsciascia72@hotmail.com<\/p>",
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