Yervant gianikian biography of william

In February 2018, the Italian artist and filmmaker Angela Ricci Lucchi passed away following over 40 years of politically charged moving image work with her longtime partner and collaborator Yervant Gianikian. With their radical use of archival imagery—concerning oft-overlooked instances of 20th-century violence—the duo were pioneers of a form of essayistic, montage-based filmmaking that subjected found materials to an assortment of rephotography and extra-sensory effects. As evident in such landmark works as From the Pole to the Equator (1987), comprised of repurposed footage of colonial expansion originally shot by the Italian filmmaker Luca Comerio, or a series of “scented films” that paired the couple’s frequently troubling imagery with a variety of soothing fragrances, the pair skillfully worked to interrogate all aspects of the medium.

In the time since Ricci Lucchi’s death, Gianikian has embarked on a more personal journey through the couple’s own archives. Angela’s Diaries is a thus far two-part tribute to their working relationship in which Gianikian combines footage of the duo’s personal and professional lives with corresponding excerpts from Ricci Lucchi’s handwritten notebooks and images of her luminous watercolor sketches. In my report for Film Comment from the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam, I described the series’ first entry, Angela’s Diaries: Two Filmmakers (2018), as both “a primer on this sorely under-recognized duo and an exquisite work of personal-poetic nonfiction.” The follow-up, Angela’s Diaries: Chapter Two, continues the excavation but pivots from the earlier film’s focus on the couple’s home life and European travels to their extended tour through the U.S. in the early ’80s (with stops at a variety of underground film organizations in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and a more recent, eye-opening trip to Jerusalem. Across both films, a vision of life, love, com

An exhibition on the two artists, poised between experimental cinema and visual arts, who have dedicated their lives to the great dramas of the 20th century. Back in the early 2000s, the Mart started an important collaboration with Yervant Gianikian (1942) and Angela Ricci Lucchi (1942-2018), winners of the Golden Lion at the 2015 Venice Art Biennale. Celebrated by the most important cultural institutions worldwide, the two artists have dedicated the past few decades to unearthing the great tragedies of the 20th century. Archive materials and recovered footage of events such as diaspora, war, and genocide have been distilled into artistic interpretations.

Two years exactly after Angela Ricci Lucchi's death, the Mart renews its association with the artistic couple by presenting the duo's latest work, now part of the museum Collections, I diari di Angela. Noi due cineasti. Capitolo secondo (2019). A poetic story that, through archive films and papers gathered in over forty years, reveals part of the life of the two directors. The autobiographical account of one of the most complex and original cinematographic experiences is a collage that mixes Yervant and Angela's story with that of their productions, assembling together private and public, family and work, thoughts and worksites, present and past.

Their work is exhibited in conjunction with Trittico del XX secolo (2002-2008), a five-channel video installation co-produced by the Mart and first showcased in 2008. To mark the occasion, the installation has been rehoused on the second floor. Also in this case, the archive materials and the recovery of documents are at the basis of a complex rewriting of history, in a narration that denounces its contradictions and distortions.