Screening of “Ophelia did not drown” – An avant garde film by Francesca Fini & a performance of ‘Blind’ by Francesca Fini at Bikaner House, New Delhi
The Italian Embassy Cultural Center, New Delhi, Bikaner House & Culture Monks are delighted to present Francesca Fini’s feature film ‘Ophelia did not drown’ followed by a performance ‘Blind’ at Bikaner House, New Delhi, on Feb 21, 2017 from 5 :30 pm onwards.
Entry is free and open to all. Please note that the show is for mature audience, so discretion is advised.
Written and directed by Francesca Fini, “Ophelia did not drown” is a 90 minutes’ performance art film produced in collaboration with Istituto Luce Cinecittà. The movie integrates heterogeneous languages seemingly incompatible: the sociological national repertoire and original performance art specifically designed for this project. At the center, the movie is an Ophelia who is different from any literary tradition: not the fragile teenager in love with Hamlet, but many women of different colors, features and ages. A modern contemporary Ophelia, very sweet but also cynical. Our Ophelia is not lost in the woods of Denmark, but in the countryside of Lazio, from the Gazometro to the junkyard in Cisterna di Latina, from the arid limestone caves of Riano Flaminio to the wonderful futuristic Villa Perugini in Fregene, passing through another thrilling scenic ride on a tourist bus in Rome. Our Ophelia eventually does not drown, renouncing her destiny of romantic heroine to become a “normal person”.
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BLIND is a performance experiment blending body-art and interaction design.
As a synaesthetic person the artist can “hear” and “feel” colors and the purpose of the performance is exactly to transport the audience in an immersive dimension in which the performer becomes the mediator of an experience of color through interactive sound. During the performance Francesca acts a live bodypaint in front of a webcam which is programmed to recognize different colors. The information produced is then processed by the computer and sent to a digital synthesizer that activates a special sound for each color. The harmonic flow and modulation of each instrument is determined by the data produced by the coordinates of the color blobs in space, so that her painted hands, tracked by the webcam, become a musical instrument that you can actually play. The scientific research on the deep relationship between sound and color is the starting point of a personal journey in which the artist discovers the infinite connections between the senses.
Francesca Fini: “In Blind I want to tell the spirit of each of the four main colors that I use, through a sound or a combination of sounds. In order to be effective I associated to each color a group of instruments with a well-defined personality; I choose a mix of strings for the squeaky, creative, energetic, querulous yellow. I selected an electric guitar for the wise, modern, cool and powerful blue. And then the piano for the passionate, bloody, sweet and round red. I choose some noisy electronic “humming” sounds for the acid, angry and edgy green (imagine a swarm of prickly insects hiding in a dark green forest). As you can imagine the scientific and very precise research about color and blindness is just the beginning of my free and poetical elaboration; in fact I choose the instruments starting from my own personal experience and imagination of colors. The scientific and very precise research is just the beginning of my free and poetical elaboration; in fact I choose the instruments starting from my own personal experience and imagination of colors.”
BLIND is a performance experiment blending body-art and interaction design.
As a synaesthetic person the artist can “hear” and “feel” colors and the purpose of the performance is exactly to transport the audience in an immersive dimension in which the performer becomes the mediator of an experience of color through interactive sound. During the performance Francesca acts a live bodypaint in front of a webcam which is programmed to recognize different colors. The information produced is then processed by the computer and sent to a digital synthesizer that activates a special sound for each color. The harmonic flow and modulation of each instrument is determined by the data produced by the coordinates of the color blobs in space, so that her painted hands, tracked by the webcam, become a musical instrument that you can actually play. The scientific research on the deep relationship between sound and color is the starting point of a personal journey in which the artist discovers the infinite connections between the senses.
Francesca Fini: “In Blind I want to tell the spirit of each of the four main colors that I use, through a sound or a combination of sounds. In order to be effective I associated to each color a group of instruments with a well-defined personality; I choose a mix of strings for the squeaky, creative, energetic, querulous yellow. I selected an electric guitar for the wise, modern, cool and powerful blue. And then the piano for the passionate, bloody, sweet and round red. I choose some noisy electronic “humming” sounds for the acid, angry and edgy green (imagine a swarm of prickly insects hiding in a dark green forest). As you can imagine the scientific and very precise research about color and blindness is just the beginning of my free and poetical elaboration; in fact I choose the instruments starting from my own personal experience and imagination of colors. The scientific and very precise research is just the beginning of my free and poetical elaboration; in fact I choose the instruments starting from my own personal experience and imagination of colors.”
Culture Monks 