Off Course: A Program of Italian and Chinese Short Films
A Narration between Italy and Greater China
Press Review: May 28th, 10:00 am
Public Opening: May 28th, 6:00 pm
Program: May 29th through June 4th, 2013
Venue: Fondazione Querini Stampalia
Venice, Campo Santa Maria Formosa, Castello 5252, Auditorium G. Piamonte
Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice will host Off Course, a program of short films. This program is the result of the desire to build a complex narration among artists from Italy and from greater China: video languages and sensations going beyond the artists’ geographical origins, building a fragmented story that blurs and blends these distant worlds into a continuum of echoes with no logic.
The project, curated by Chiara Bertola and Davide Quadrio, is presented by Fondazione Querinini Stampalia, Venice, and Arthub Asia, Shanghai, in collaboration with the luxury shoes Made in Italy trademark Ballin, which is historically rooted in the territory of Venice (Fiesso d’Artico). Once more, Ballin confirms its commitment to supporting and celebrating an initiative connected to the world of art, culture and creativity, values inherent in the company’s DNA.
The title Off Course, taken from Carnet de route by Marc Augé, emphasizes how being off course, following unexpected roads, creating confusion by opposing different topics, in essence, veering from the established itinerary, can reduce the geographical and cultural distance between two countries so different from each other. Through disorientation and diversions in the distance, there is a mixing of visions, desires, sufferance and ironies, that reveal a proximity much closer than the distance normally measured on the linear path leading from one geographically watertight compartment to another.
The aim is to break the clichés of predictable or typical judgments and drive the spectator to create free associations; to identify other stories in order to realize that human beings, from all eras and locations, have the same need to relate to their past, to not lose the details–both violent and mild–of their daily lives, and, wherever one might be, it is vital to follow off course the routes indicated by poetry.
List of participating artists and their works:
Yuri Ancarani
Ip Op, 2003
La questione romagnola, 2002/2012
Made in Italy, 2009
Parcheggi a pagamento, 2005/2012
Vicino al cuore, 2003
Chen Chieh-jen
The Route, 2006
Ra Di Martino
August 2008, 2009
Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi
Essence d’Absynthe, 1981
Frammento elettrico N.7, 1978
Invernomuto
Negus–Duppy Conquerors, 2013
Kan Xuan
Nothing!, 2002
Object, 2003
Li Ran
From Truck DRIVER to the Political Commissar of the Mounted Troops, 2012
Lu Yang
Uterus Man, 2013
Adrian Paci
Per Speculum, 2006
Roberto Paci Dalò
Ye Shanghai, 2012
Mariateresa Sartori
In Sol maggiore/In Sol minore, 2013
Wu Junyong
Peach, 2012
Yang Zhenzhong
Exam, 2012
Straight Line, 2012
Zhang Peili
Untitled, 2003
Happiness, 2006
Opening Hours:
Wednesday to Friday, May 29th to the 31st from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm
Saturday to Tuesday, June 1st to the 4th from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Entrance: Free
The Querini Stampalia Foundation is located in one of the most interesting cultural complexes of the lagoon city, Palazzo Querini Stampalia. Commissioned in 1868 by Count Giovanni, a library, a museum and an area for temporary exhibitions are all housed there.
The Library, one of general culture, is open until late at night and on holidays, while the museum, with its eighteenth-century and neoclassical furniture, porcelain, sculptures, globes and paintings from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, most of which are from the venetian school, conveys the atmosphere of the old noble residence.
On the ground floor of the sixteenth century palace stands the area restored in 1963 by Carlo Scarpa, considered to be the most cultured and aristocratic architecture of the Italian twentieth century. During the nineties, the architect Mario Botta was entrusted with undertaking the task of an extensive renovation of the headquarters. The diffusion of knowledge and the education of the individual are the Foundation’s mission, which aims to serve as a place of cultural production through the study and the enhancement of its historical heritage, its role as a museum and the determination to grasp the most advanced proposals of contemporary times.
Since 2000, the Foundation has actively promoted Sustaining the Future, a project by Chiara Bertola built on the relationship between ancient and contemporary art and the parallel between a past that needs to be protected and the future that must be invented. The project will involve the most significant artists on the national and international scene, inviting them to create a new work that will be conceived of mainly in relation to the historical collections of the venetian foundation: from the halls of the museum with its collection from the Querini Stampalia family, to the ancient Library’s fund and the more contemporary architectural spaces of the area restored by Carlo Scarpa and Mario Botta.
Ballin
The shoe factory Ballin, established in 1945 thanks to the passion and initiative of brothers Guido and Giorgio Ballin, is located in Fiesso D’Artico along the Riviera del Brenta, a territory in which the production of quality shoes is deeply rooted. Throughout its almost 70 years of history, the company has been able to combine the right mix of tradition and innovation, developing the ability to perceive changes and needs within the market. Professionalism, passion, and a strong heritage are the values that Giorgio Ballin has passed on to his son and two daughters–Gabriella, Alessandro and Reanna–who today lead the company.
The artistic direction is entrusted to Roberto Barina, who inspired by his strong creativity, designs Ballin’s collections, coordinating an internal technical-stylistic team. The trademark, characterized by a logo showing a white shoe against a red background, is distributed in 35 countries around the world in 20 designer outlets and 300 extremely selective multi-brand stores that acknowledge the company’s excellence for its Made in Italy.
For more information please see the contacts below:
Fondazione Querini Stampalia
Telephone: 041 2711411 Fax: 041 2711445
Press Office: Fondazione Querini Stampalia
Sara Bossi, s.bossi@querinistampalia.org
Telephone: +39 041 2711441 Cell: +39 339 8046499
Press Office: Ballin
Attila and Co.
Alessia Cannella, alessia.cannella@attila.it
Telephone: +39 02 34970752
