16/03/2008
City: Valparaiso
BBC Giovanni Serafeni tvn Lorenzo Romano Jun Gao HBO Lello Lopez Nick Gordon Smith Magdelena Vantaggi CNN Shanghai Surbir Mithu Sen uc (13) Giovanni Serafeni Lorenzo Romano WB
The Re-Creation Giovanni Serafini and Lorenzo Romano
"The Re-Creation" is an audio-video artwork realized in the 2007 by Giovanni Serafini (Video) and Lorenzo Romano (music).
It's an allegorical representation of the origin of universe, nature and human being composed by four different and intertouched charapters:
1) Introduction 2) birth of universe 3) birth of nature 4) birth of human being.
INTRODUCTION: translation: "The Re-creation: or three act lyric drama for electronic calculator and videocamera, that talks about the pilgrimage of the ideal substance from the primogenial chaos, to the palingenesis of cartesian I-Think".
An electronic, non-human voice reads the title and his very long subtitle. They are both ironic: in fact they really explain the meaning of the work, but in a over-rethorical language skill, that empty the contents and make them ridicolous.
The music too is in a cabaret-style wich underline this ironic sense; and the screen reproduces an hold mute-movie graphica. The irony is used to adfirm how much is redicolous a kind of art that has his origin and goal in a pure, abstract and intellectual concept.
This work has an explainable meaning but, first of all, it was born from a real and comunicable inspiritation.
"And God said Let there be light" Genesis 1,3.
"In the biginning was the Word" (Gv 1,1); The artists intended "Word" as the basic information.
Universe begins as a light in the darkness. The light and the music grows simultaneusly in accordance with a same, decreasing rithm (wich is a communion of silence and time). The music reproduces a regular and priordial noise wich pulses, and the anamorphic flame too became slowly a perfect circle: ancient symbol of god, a living mandala, something like a cosmic biting heart,
The Universe appears now as an shapeless jumble similar to a double sea ("And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water."Genesis 1,7). The information wich gave a shape to the darkness became life, but still consciousless. In fact, the sea is reppresentation of the unconscious: shapeless, dark, infinite, unknown, misterious.
It's composed by all the minds, all the infinite conscience of the world that live together apparently without a sense. Identity doesn't exists.
The music is a complicated interlacement of more of forty voice recorded while they are reading sentences from books chosen in a random way.
Then, this jumble of indistinct identities has been interlinked by the composer in a new noise that flow quickening and slowing, in accordance with a secret meaning incomprehensible for whom listening.
Suddenly the rithm increases, a human voice appears and a rising sun with it: it's the human self-consciousness wich emerge from the dark sea where it were living without an its own identity.
The noise disappears and a single, disperate voice emerge as the sun rises over the unconsciousness (more it emerge, more the ocean loses light).
The melody of the singer marks the apparition of a double animated portrait of a man: this image is inspired to the figure of a playcard, and to the ancient rappresentation of Janus.
So, once again, we see a double polarity; up and down; light and darkness; wonderfull astonishment and terrifing desperation.
It rappresent the inevitable condition of the human soul, that is lost beetwin hope in a meaning of life, and incapacity for understand his own inner life and nature.
This tragic mistery was yet perfectly expressed by the ancient gregorian choirs, realaborated by L. Romano: they are beautiful and turned to sky.
