The FFF art work-icons

Since its first edition, Future Film Festival has created a strong link with visual arts: every year the Festival asks an artist of the last generation to create an original work that will become an image-icon of FFF, looking for links and synergies between cinema, visual arts, photography.

“Which artists, nowadays, can ignore the colorful synthetic imagery? (…) A small, but important, selection of artists who are by no means oblivious to it, is offered by the posters that, edition after edition, have been representing the Future Film Festival image”

Guido Bartorelli, Professor of History of Contemporary Art at Padua University.

Mumble Mumble by Alex Pinna

FFF 1999

FFF was born under the sign of the Mouse! The newborn FFF chooses as its first image a work by Alex Pinna: an embryo-mouse, a being which is going to develop into something unknown as yet but whose father is indeed known. Its ears, gloves and little shoes are inherited from Micky Mouse’s DNA. Mumble Mumble becomes an icon of a festival – and of a generation – with a still indefinite identity but with definite origins: the world of cartoon.

The works by Alex Pinna (1967, Imperia), made in the years ’94-’99, play with images and childhood experience and are thus firmly linked to the cartoon world. Alex Pinna has exhibited his works at many  important Italian galleries such as Guidi&Schoen (Genoa), Ronchini (Terni), Mimmo Scognamiglio (Naples), Ciocca (Milan) and in collective exhibitions in Rome, Lugano, Bologna, Turin, Grenoble and many more.

“We can say that the New World has roots in the Old World, in the old cartoons which will be the story of the next future”

Guido Bartorelli

FFF2000 by Laurence Gartel

FFF2000

The second year of FFF is represented by the American digital artist Laurence Gartel, pioneer of computer graphics. A rigid and square robot holds the number 2000. The embryo-mouse by Pinna seems to be taking on its first possible identity.
 Like all of Gartel’s works, FFF2000 is a computer-made piece of art: since 1975 Gartel has been experimenting with new graphic styles, manipulating and transforming real images through the digital medium.

The works by Laurence Gartel (1956, New York) have been exhibited at NY Museum of Modern Art,  Long Beach Museum of Art, Princeton Art Museum and in the permanent collections such as Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American History and  Bibliothèque Nationale. He also has exhibited his works in many European and US museums and galleries.

“The embryo-mouse by Alex Pinna, Future Film Festival 1999 symbol, has changed into a square-shaped robot of the ‘70s, with the naive face of the good super-hero of the ‘5’s, transplanted into space like a mushroom on a brick”

Giulietta Fara

Biancaneve by Massimo Caiazzo and Alessandro Mendini

FFF2001

Biancaneve is a playful sculpture with thousands of meanings and seven faces, every face being guarded by one of the seven dwarfs of the classic Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A lot of symbols, linked to number 7, refer to each other (7 celestial globes, 7 dwarfs, 7 virtues, 7 colors of the rainbow, 7 wonders of the world…) and create a work to be handed down to posterity as the synthesis of human history. For its third edition, FFF gets in touch with the world of design involving two well-know designers of the Mendini atelier, which, in particular through Alessandro Mendini’s work, over the past few years has contributed to “animating” everyday life objects, introducing color and play into our homes and spaces.

Alessandro Mendini (1931, Milan) had directed architecture magazines such as “Casabella”, “Modo” and “Domus”. Since the ‘80s, his work has been very important for the Italian design renovation. He has realized many objects, pieces of furniture, sets, architectures and installations for International brands such as Alessi, Philips, Cartier, Swatch, Hermés, Venini. He has won a lot of awards, such as the Compasso d’oro for design in 1981. His work has been exhibited in many museums and private collections.

“Imagining an achievable object, looking for a shape, inventing a task. Why, what, how, when, for who? It is like consulting an oracle that replies with other questions: hypotheses multiply endlessly, worlds create other worlds”.

Alessandro Mendini, Massimo Caiazzo

Argilla di Stella by Pablo Echaurren

FFF2002

What has a terracotta star got to do with most innovative technologies and, hence, with Future Film Festival? Does it seems to you it has nothing to do with it? On the contrary: Argilla di Stella by Pablo Echaurren was sculpture symbol of FFF2002 because, as the author says: “baked clay and terracotta only seem to be the most fragile, perishable, materials, least suitable to represent the idea of future. On the contrary, terracotta is a material that you can carry into the future: there are civilizations  we  know about solely thanks to the few pieces of pots they left. Therefore, you can say terracotta represents the future.” So FFF2002 throws itself into the future under the good star that guides it along the way of mixing different media, contaminating different styles, bottom down, from educated to popular.

Pablo Echaurren (1951, Rome) since 1972 has been exhibiting his work in many Italian and International galleries and museums such as Galleria Schwarz (Basel), Marian Locks Gallery (Philadelphia), Galerie Springer (Berlin), Galleria La Margherita (Rome), Lens Fine Art (Anversa), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome), Galleria Corraini (Mantova).

“Who knows whether our star, decorated with figures, will manage to travel in time, to ride the waves of time and space, to surf over the billow of envious centuries, which are reluctant to let out information on the remote past that one day may be ours, quien sabe?”

Pablo Echaurren

Domestic fight: continue? (burning babe) by Marina Bolmini

FFF2003

A modern Dying Gaul in a female version. A “beat ‘em up” figther falls onto grandmother’s dolly. A manga girl as a pottery statuette. The sculpture by Marina Bolmini is a violent mix of contradictions: a modern videogame heroine with knick-knacks and laces of a retro drawing room.

Marina Bolmini (1970, Vasto) exhibited her works at Quadreria Cesarini/WhiteCubeProject in Fossombrone in 2008, at galleria Het Houde Raadhuis in Hoffdorp (Olanda) in 2007, at Girondini Arte Contemporanea in Verona in 2002 and in a lot of collective exhibitions.

“Going from thefrigidity of  technology  to the warmth of an archaic craft: undying flawless, fearless heroes turned into majolica figurine, fragile drawing-room images reminding you, day after day, that failure is part of life. One can be beaten.”

Marina Bolmini

Discroll with children by Michael Dumontier

FFF2004

The FFF2004 mascotte is a puppet, Discroll, who carries two children in his arms. The children become his eyes. Discroll can be the artist or the audience and says: “I submit myself to their point of view“. An exhortation to recover the feeling of astonishment, the wonder and the imaginary.

Michael Dumontier (Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1974) has worked with Drue Langlois. Both have been members from 1996 to 2008 of the group The Royal Art Lodge,  producer of drawings, videos, music and other objects. In the last few years, Dumontier has exhibited his works at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York; Perugi Artecontemporanea, Padua; Galeria Espacio Minimo, Madrid; Aliceday, Brussels ande CCA Andratx, Mallorca.

“Since I was very young, animation has had a deep and lasting influence on me. Recently, artists such as the great Hayao Miyazaki, have given me hope that beauty remains in the world”

Michael Dumontier

Unidentified Flying Picture by Antonio Riello

FFF2005

A curious flying object lands at FFF2005: an U.F.O. with retro features, adorned with Tiepolo’s works. The fun work is made by Antonio Riello, who is used to urging audiences to discussion and awareness through his works.

Antonio Riello (Marostica, 1958) has exhibited his works and installations in many museums and art galleries: Baltic, Gateshead/NewCastle UK; NGBK, Berlin; Mart, Rovereto; Musee d’Art, Saint Etienne; Kunsthalle , Wien; Fondazione Pomodoro, Milan; PAC, Milan; Palazzo Delle Papesse, Siena; Neue Galerie, Graz; Chelsea Museum Of Art, New York; Elgiz Museum, Istanbul.

“I am one of those people who like to think that reality is nothing but one of the many oddities of science fiction.”

Antonio Riello

Switch by Sébastien Roux

FFF2006

A little and harmless robot with a menacing look is the mascotte of the Future Film Festival 2006  edition. The work is by Superdeux, the French studio made up of Sébastien Roux and Stéphane Huleux, Switch is a prototype of a toy and it can be counted as a member of the Urban Vinyl Toys movement: toys which are not mass produced but collection items, in between work of art, cartoon and animation.

“In these days and age, the image is everything, both truth and falsity.
 No one can distinguish between or separate these two aspects.”

Sébastien Roux

Arto Contemporaneo (Small Green Foot) by Little Laura Little Duck

FFF2007

For its ninth edition Future Film Festival has entrusted its image to the young artist Little Laura Little Duck, an artist now emerging as a significant new talent due to the spare and colorful style of her work, that, while flirting with the infantile naiveties of an amateur, does so using refined and highly developed techniques. The symbol of FFF2007 is a little green dotted foot with red nail varnish, which probably belonged to a little charming monster.

Laurina Paperina (Rovereto, 1980) in the last few years has exhibited her works at many art galleries: Lincart Gallery, San Francisco; Travesia Cuatro Gallery, Madrid; Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris; Siemens ArtLab / Galerie Ernst Hilger, Wien; Perugi artecontemporanea, Padua; Freight + Volume Gallery, New York City; Erdmann Contemporary Gallery, Cape Town.

“L’Arto Contemporaneo (“The Contemporary Limb”, an obvious play upon the Italian words “arto - limb” and “arte - art”) develops from a comics by Little Laura Little Duck and reaches Bologna to take a little trip through the regions of contemporary art (…)”

Guido Bartorelli

Future Film Festival ten-years’ anniversary: everyday heroes

FFF2008

From sculpture to photography: FFF, celebrating its tenth anniversary, asks its audience to play with FFF’s imagery, suggesting ideas for snapshots. The result is four photos representing famous super-heroes or cinema objects during everyday life. In the FFF world: Wonder Woman, wearing her official costume, prepares dinner beating eggs; at the grocer’s shop “mortadella” has been sliced using the Star Wars’ laser sword; Spiderman and Batman talk in underpants at the automatic laundry, waiting for their costumes to be washed; Catwoman at the pub, drinks a cappuccino. The photos are by Alessandro Ruggeri, the official photographer of FFF.

Equilibrismi di fantasia by DEM

FFF2009

It’s wallpainting time. The image -symbol of  the 11th edition of the Festival has been painted on a wall of  “Casa Khaoula” library (Bologna) by DEM, the ironic artist who creates strange and surreal creatures, which live in between the most imperceptibles layers of human reality. The face of the eleventh FFF edition is that of new creatures, characters invented by DEM mixing animal and human features, flowers and plants, which introduce the spectator to the flux of animated or live-action images, as experienced during the event.

DEM (1978, Cotogno) has exhibited his works at Galleria Stamperia Squadro (Bologna) In January 2009: his fist personal exhibition organized by FFF during ArteFiera Off. His art production, whose ideal setting is represented by dismissed factories, has been showed on different occasion, such as a personal exhibition at the Oro Gallery in Gothenburg, and collective exhibitions such as Street Art, Sweet Art at PAC in Milan, Street Lab at Stazione Termini in Rome and Nomadaz at Scion Installation in Los Angeles.