24 settembre 2009
INIZIO ORE 20:00
Palazzo Ruffo di Bagnara
Piazza Dante 89, Napoli
Larry Jordan è da annoverare tra i film makers più creativi degli ultimi 50 anni, i fantastici paesaggi mentali costruiti attraverso collages, immagini reali e animazioni descrivono un mondo onirico personale e spontaneo. “…L’anima anela l’infinito attraverso i simboli… Ogni cultura stabilisce una relazione simbolica ed ha il proprio modo per raggiungere l’infinito. Apprezzo in particolare la cultura Egiziana, molti dei loro simboli e pratiche sono correlati ad una vita ultraterrena. Ognuno ha un luogo interiore personale, un desiderio. E la maggior parte degli artisti lo raggiungono attraverso la rappresentazione. Ciò non è inteso in senso religioso. Naturalmente, il termine infinito va preso come un granello di sale. È il modo più vicino per spiegarlo”.
Lawrence Jordan frequenta a Denver la stessa scuola superiore di Stan Brakhage; tra il 1951-55 segue i corsi alla Harvard University ed è attratto dal Surrealismo, in particolare l’opera di Max Ernst ed i romanzi-collages La Femme aux 100 têtes e Une semaine de bonté. Comincia così a collezionare le incisioni, ri-filmarle e creare i suoi primi esperimenti in movimento, spesso montati in ripresa diretta. Tra il 1955-63 collabora e studia con Joseph Cornell, in particolare seguendo le sue indicazioni fotografa un viaggio verso un luogo sepolcrale ed esegue il montaggio di tre films, in cui Cornell descrive l’area evanescente dove il conscio e l’inconscio si incontrano.
In collaborazione con Light Cone di Parigi e Nova Cinema di Bruxelles, la E-M ARTS/Fondazione Morra ospita Larry Jordan a Napoli e come unica data italiana il 24 settembre proietta undici tra i suoi films più famosi.
RODIA-ESTUDIANTINA 1963 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 4 min.
Simon RODIA, an uneducated Italian imigrant to Los angeles built one of America’s most famous works of primitive art, the Watts towers
DUO CONCERTANTES 1964 / 16mm / b&n / sonoro / 9 min.
Animation. Un grand classique. Des gravures d’acier qui fabriquent un monde de rêve surréaliste. Dans Visionary Film, Sitney a longuement écrit sur ce film. Le film peut être présenté à tout le monde, jeunes, vieux ; il n’a jamais déçu. Ses thèmes: résurrection, renaissance, vol dans les hautes sphères, tout ce qui semblait banni de l’art de ce siècle.
OUR LADY OF THE SPHERE 1969 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 10 min.
L’oeuvre la plus accomplie de Jordan – un collage coloré à l’imagerie rococo juxtaposé à des symboles de l’âge de l’espace. Les images se métamorphosent, se transforment, s’interpénètrent et changent avec la frénésie de bulles d’eau gazeuse, comme des alarmes électriques, des surprises visuelles. Un bijou de la création mystique: une «boîte» de Cornell s’anime.
ONCE UPON A TIME 1974 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 12 min.
Animation. In many ways a more searching, and certainly a more complex film than OUR LADY OF THE SPHERE. We are first presented a cobweb castle, filled with the haunting doubts of the young protagonist. Spirits appear on the screen and are heard on the soundtrack. Gradually a female guide emerges and escorts the young man into an antechamber to another (and possibly higher) world.
MOONLIGHT SONATA 1979 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 5 min.
Probablement le film le plus populaire depuis Our Lady. Animé au son de la Cinquième Gnossienne de Satie. La lune et le clair de lune sont les lumières qui guident cette interprétation, et j’ai gardé les arrière-plans dans de doux bleus et verts. Seul le «gobelet cosmique» échappe à cela, car il est rouge. La musique simplifie et raffine l’imagerie et réalise le cirque céleste auquel j’avais toujours rêvé. Moonlight Sonata ouvre une nouvelle phase dans mon travail d’animation.
MASQUERADE 1981 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 5 min.
For the first time I am animating hand-painted engraved cut-outs on a full-color background. The film is mood-filled: A duel scene in a snowy forest, obviously the morning after a masquerade ball. Harlequin lies dying, while Red Indian walks away with the wings of victory. The woman between them appears, cat-masked. The mask dissolves away. Her spirit passes into the face of the sun upon the sun upon the sun flower. But Harlequin cannot escape death. The blue world engulfs him.
ADAGIO 1983 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 8 min.
Three picture-movements where myths of the past meet visions of the present. All three are live-image scenes and scenery worked to pre-chosen music. Dante and Virgil descended on the back of the monster Geryon into hell. I descended through levels of earthly sensuality and found – the winter season. Part 1, ADAGIO, is a nude study of a beautiful woman; I call her Psyche. And a nude man; I call him Eros. Albinoni is one of my favorite baroque composers. I used a particularly mysterious and compelling composition of his to invoke reminiscences of the old world (gardens of Paris) welling up into the new (the arid, Mexican-like region of southern California), to combine in a personal rendition of the Psyche and Eros theme: first Psyche appears as a nude portrait study for camera, then Eros, the male erotic energy (embodied in the portrait of sculptor George Herms). It is a romantic fantasy, two portraits, and a journey between old and new. I think of the film as a way to destroy such distinctions, that is, the distinction between old and new, past and present, myth and reality.
THE VISIBLE COMPENDIUM 1992 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 17 min.
Ce film construit des morceaux anonymes de sens, des fragments de lumières… réunis ensemble par la bande-son. Ce recueil visible (VISIBLE COMPENDIUM) va au-delà de tous mes autres films d’animation…il tente d’engager l’esprit, et plus particulièrement ce qui est inconnu dans l’esprit…
CHATEAU / POYET 2004 / 16mm / b&n tinto / sonoro / 6 min.
Animation. Nous nous trouvons devant un château français. La caméra part à la recherche d’évènements improbables à travers l’écran. Certains sont construits à partir du travail d’un des graveurs préférés de Jordan : Poyet. Des duels se font sur une corde raide. Des machines plus lourdes que l’air volent (et parfois s’écrasent). Des fusils à air comprimé percent des sphères et les font exploser. Le rythme de l’animation, exquis, se déroule dans une atmosphère où coexistent la frénésie et le plaisir.
POET’S DREAM 2005 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 5 min.
The Poet dreams a maiden’s bubbles thru edifices of forest and eclectic contagion.
THE MIRACLE OF DON CRISTOBAL 2008 / 16mm / colore / sonoro / 11 min.
For a long time, i have wanted to construct a melodrama (animated) from the funky engraving of the 19th century which illustrated “young peoples” adventure stories. Eventually, through a great deal of selection, such a film fell into place. I have attempted to present the high emotional overlay of very mundane events in this “alchemical melodrama”. To that end, Puccini combines with blatent sounds of police sirens and