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Under the Skin - between ordinary and fantasy

The other week I finally managed to see the last Jonathan Glazer’s film ‘Under the Skin’ and I liked it, although I wasn’t entirely sure on what degree. When I walked out of the cinema I didn’t feel particularly excited about it, but there was something that was striking me somehow and it took me a few days to figure out what was it.

Under the Skin is a film based on the Michel Faber’s novel and talks about an alien who takes the body of an attractive woman, Scarlett Johansson, and drives a van around the streets of Glasgow killing random men. Johansson dresses in a way as an ordinary girl, who wants to be liked (by men), needs to look like; she wears red lipstick and a black bob wig and buys (the right) clothes that empathised her voluptuous figure: skinny jeans, a low-necked red jumper, a synthetic fur, and a pair of heeled boots. She behaves as a woman who is aware of her sexual appeal and enjoys –quoting the Au Pairs’ album- ‘playing with a different sex’; we can see that by the way she easily manages to stop men on the street with the excuse of asking for directions and offering a lift, and to attract them to her place. Would you ever accept a lift from Scarlett Johansson? Oh yeah, most of the men (and women as well) would do probably, even without being aware that the lady chit chatting them from a van is Scarlett Johansson –like some of the Glaswegians in the film. When in front of the sensual woman who walks sensually and gets undressed –the high levels of tension and sensuality of the scene are increased by a superb score by Mica Levi, all men lose their minds (get so horny) to the point that they are unable to realise what is happening in reality: they are not going to have sex with Scarlett Johansson but in fact they are sinking into an oily dark floor. So all men who think of the alien in sexual terms seem being destined to a punishment: suffocating inside a dark mysterious space, which made me think so much of that series of beautiful etching by Anish Kapoor called ‘Blackness from her womb’. Is that dark space symbol of woman’s genital then? Possibly! Under the Skin seems condemning male lust and representing female sexuality as dangerous social weapon.

Blackness from her womb by Anish Kapoor, 2000

If Scarlet Johansson’s trick may provoke (a kind of perverse?) enjoyment at first - my eyes felt a kind of anxious curiosity when following the alien’s gaze across the streets of Glasgow: who is going to be her next victim?- it can also result disturbing when Johansson lets a screaming innocent toddler dying in the most inhumane way. We would have expected a ‘real’ woman to (at least) show a maternal tenderness when in front of a crying toddler; but in fact the sexy woman is not human. However, this is proved wrong when during one of her nocturnal hunting Johansson happens to run into a man affected by neurofibromatosis, who recalls a Lynchian ‘Elephant Man’. The deformed man is allowed to food shopping only at night since society doesn’t accept him as a human being, like in the Lynch’s film. Who is now the alien then? We are here put in front of a dramatic and crucial point in which on one side we almost struggle to keep watching the screen when the camera closes up on the deformed man, but on the other side -for the first time perhaps- we actually sympathise for a Johansson’s victim. The degree of humanity accorded to both Johansson and the deformed man relies only on what we (us as society) accept as ‘normal’. When the beautiful alien happens to be in front of somebody who can be considered less human than her, she shows a human side by sparing her victim’s life this time.

The last part of the film features a woman who almost naively discovers herself, gets lost –in a gorgeous wild Scotland- and is extraneous of those rules that govern society. Whether before Johansson appeared in perfect control of her sexuality, she is now unable to have any human love relationship. She was thought and created as a men’s sexual fantasy and therefore she struggles to see herself as a ‘real’ woman; the scene of her attempt to have sex with (the only) a man who shows affection to her, is emblematic of this. Is Glazer here trying to make the point that a beautiful woman can find social approval easily when seen as a sexual object then? Yes, probably! The whole film seems being a reflection on female sexuality in relation to what society expects from it. Indeed, what is socially accepted and socially unaccepted, Under the Skin tells us very loudly and the last scene of the film summarises that very well, I think. Scarlett Johansson is walking alone in the wood, something that every girl since was little has been warned to do as “dangerous”, -although in reality it is not, but the society makes us perceive as so-, and in this way is breaking the social rules; as a consequence Johansson is going to be raped. The scene is disturbing and full of tension; we all expect someone (a man perhaps) to come and save her. No one will save her, like in real life (or in a beautiful fairy tale), but what in fact rescues her from being raped is her not-human nature. She is still an alien or just an object of someone’s fantasy.

all you need is a girl and a gun

Dior by John Galliano, Fall/Winter 2011-2012

Mina - Bang Bang 

Salvatore Ferragamo, Fall/Winter 2013-2014

Here's some pics of women that I've been collecting lately. I have selected outfits proposed by some fashion firms I follow and shots of films I love. I have been reflecting on the influence that fashion firms have on constructing an idea of women: for instance the pics here can all signify women who are very feminine, emotional, charming and reflective, but also masculine, strong, determinate, brave and instinctive. I have found very similar identities represented in films where the main character shows very feminine aspects of her personality but also embodies characteristics usually associated with man in films. So, my question has been: how can the message of these images matter from a woman and feminist point of view?

For me Feminism is also very much about being free to decide to be how I am and to express my individual identity also from the way I look and I behave like. 

Who says that shooting with a gun is masculine? :)

Blumarine, Fall/Winter 2013-2014

Moschino, Spring/Summer 2012

Mama Fratelli ;)

'What It Feels Like' exhibition -Press Release

‘What It Feels Like’

Preview Friday 2^nd August 2013, 6-9pm

Exhibition open 3^rd-15^th August, 2-7pm

Bankley Studios, Levenshulme, Manchester, M19 3PP

The purpose of this exhibition is to explore languages of representation and to challenge the meaning of signs in our system of reference.

We were inspired by the word ‘Divine’, and wanted to discover what this really meant, in relation to the Ordinary (as a course of symbols we see everyday that we recognise and we accept without challenging or even thinking about them).

We felt the Divine was something beyond us, perhaps the opposite of the Ordinary; to rise above our daily lives/ to transcend.

However there is perhaps much beauty to be found within everyday existence, can we find Divinity on an average and mundane day?

We want to challenge our personal perception of our surroundings - looking at signs within the Ordinary and Nature. Nature is the context in which we want question the representation of beauty and femininity: can Beauty be Ugliness, can Feminine be Masculine? How do we identify beauty and where do we look for ideas of beauty? Is it purely through taught social codes?

By bringing together female artists, this will address being female and how that is understood and represented by our own system of reference; challenging given definitions of femininity as well as exploring ideas of Feminism.

As a group show, ‘What It Feels Like’ works as a collaborative voice, of Women Artists.

A composition of each individual artists subjective response to the theme; showing their personal perspective, how they see things and reflecting on their identity as women.

We are excited to present the eight artists we have brought together; talented women who are actively making art in Manchester, Glasgow, Copenhagen and Barcelona.

Combining many different mediums, from illustration to print, photography, textiles, film and installation ‘What It Feels Like’ will explore a diverse range of female expression.

The Artists involved are: 
Lucy Jones http://lucy-jones.tumblr.com/illustration, 
Bryony Jackson http://www.bryonyjackson.net/, 
Alba Yruela http://albayruela.tumblr.com/, 
Hannah Mort http://www.hannahmort.tv, 
Jess Higgins http://jesshiggins.tumblr.com/, 
Faye Johnson http://www.fayecoraljohnson.com/, 
Alex Humphreys http://alexhumphreys.tumblr.com/ and 
Tine Bek http://tinebek.com/.

The show has been curated and realised by Valentina Orrù and Hannah Mort.

‘What It Feels Like’.

first project 'What It Feels Like' exhibition

Everything started when around two months ago my friend Hannah told me she had something in mind about doing an exhibition of female artists and if I was interested in collaborating. The idea was great! plus that would have been a great opportunity to finally doing something which is mine, my project. Since I have been in Manchester, this summer has been the first time in which I have felt like: okay time  to say something I want to say out loud (there is a positive Karma in the air...).  It feels so great to actually do something, to think about it, to discuss it and to put it on for everybody to enjoy. Plus, it is a great fun!

I and Hannah have been sharing ideas, discussing opinions and what it has come up in the end is an exhibition of female artists that has as main themes that of discussing the representation of Femininity, Divine and Beauty within Nature and the Ordinary. We are both into semiotic (I am in particular, after having spent the last year reading loads of Barthes and being obsessed with the 'interpretation' of signs in my everyday life...), curious about the unknown and critic about the known. At first we didn't expect to organize something feminist (although probably the idea of showing only woman arts is inevitably feminist to some extent), but our reflections led us to the necessity of addressing feminism and the language of representation behind femininity and being female. 

The title 'What it feels like' came up one day when my friend Vittoria showed me this:

a scene from the film 'The Cement Garden' based on the book by Ian McEwan (mental stuff), and it sounded a perfect title for the exhibition! What it feels like wants to challenge our system of reference by which we give a meaning to the signs around us. We aim that the subjective responses of the eight artists that are going to show their work can be a means to read inside our way to see things.  One of the themes is Nature, which is the context of our reflection: we want to question the meaning of femininity and masculinity, beauty and ugliness as signs within nature. Also we want to challenge given definitions of femininity researching values of beauty and divine within our ordinary life.

This is (see below) our amazing poster that Alex, one of the artists whose works are gonna be on display, has made for us (sooo nice of her). The exhibition preview is on the 2nd of August at Bankley studios in Levenshulme and it will be open for two weeks, until the 15th of August. Ah! after the preview I and Hannah are also putting on an afterparty with live music and djs at the Klondyke club. I was really excited to find out the other day that the Klondyke used to be a popular venue for gigs like 7-5 years ago and that then people stopped putting gig on in there because it is too far away (and maybe because Levenshulme is not really an 'arty' place?!). I knew Levenshulme from before only for being home of a big Irish community, but not for anything else and this is a good chance to get to know the area better (it's not even too far from my new house in Rusholme). It'd be really cool if we manage to bring a nice crowd to Levenshulme and hopefully it's gonna be a fun night! The bands/solo playing at the Klondyke are: Lady Neptune (she comes from London and plays this grungey sweet stuff, quite cool), Kaatskill Mountains (a duo, a guy and a girl, couple in real life -sweet!) and Anna Louisa Etherington (she sings with the Manchester band 'Letters to Fiesta', super lovely girl and amazing voice, she is gonna perform her solo project...looking forward to it). Also, since collaboration between women is great and important, the girls who have been organizing that club night in Manchester called 'Typical Girls' have been super enthusiastic to help us too and they're gonna djing for us during the afterparty. Can't wait!!  

Poster by Alex Humphreys - http://alexhumphreys.tumblr.com/

my contribution to BiFoto fest 2013

Last June I was asked to say something for the opening of the photography festival 'BiFoto' that is run in my village Mogoro every year since 2011. I decided to discuss the role of arts as a driver for regeneration taking England as an example, and to conclude with a really positive note on the role of the festival within the local area. This a summary of what I said (sorry, it's in Italian):

Quando Stefano e Vittorio, i miei compaesani ideatori e organizzatori di BiFoto, mi hanno chiesto di fare questo intervento per l’inaugurazione del festival, ho pensato che questa sarebbe stata un’ottima occasione per riportare in paese qualcosa della mia esperienza nel Regno Unito. Mi sono laureata in management dell’arte e della cultura all’università di Manchester l’anno scorso e da circa tre anni sto facendo delle esperienze lavorative tra diverse organizzazioni culturali della città.

Il management dell’arte e della cultura è una disciplina relativamente nuova in Italia che non riguarda solo la gestione del cosiddetto settore dei beni e delle attività culturali ma anche la valorizzazione dell’arte e della cultura in quanto ‘risorse’ culturali di un territorio. Le risorse culturali possono essere fisiche, per esempio i monumenti e le opere d’arte, naturali, come il paesaggio, e umane, come le tradizioni e l’innovazione. In Italia negli ultimi dieci anni si è aperto un dibattito che all’estero (mi riferisco in particolare al Regno Unito) è stato iniziato decenni fa, e che riflette sull’importanza delle risorse culturali nello sviluppo locale.

Nel Regno Unito, dalla crisi economica della fine degli anni 70’ e la trasformazione da un’economia basata sull’industria manifatturiera a un’economia dei servizi, le amministrazioni pubbliche locali sono state impegnate in piani di riqualificazione con lo scopo di risollevare le sorti economiche e sociali del territorio. In questo contesto, si è iniziato ad interrogarsi sul valore della cultura, la quale è stata sempre più pensata come una risorsa ‘strategica’ locale. In altre parole, le esperienze post-industriali inglesi hanno dimostrato che la valorizzazione delle risorse culturali attrae talenti e turisti, crea di conseguenza nuovi posti di lavoro, migliora la qualità della vita delle comunità locali, alimenta lo spirito d’innovazione, e attiva così dei processi di sviluppo di un territorio. Tuttavia la valorizzazione delle risorse culturali è un processo complesso che richiede una comprensione attenta di un territorio, un’amministrazione pubblica aperta al dialogo e una pianificazione coerente e partecipativa, per cui le persone, noi, siamo protagonisti.

Penso che BiFoto sia un ottimo esempio di pratica di management dell’arte e della cultura. Da tre anni il festival ha avuto l’obiettivo di valorizzare l’arte della fotografia in Sardegna, scegliendo come sede il nostro paese di Mogoro e i nostri bellissimi locali della Fiera del Tappeto; penso che questa scelta abbia un valore molto importante. Mogoro è culla di molte risorse culturali: le nostre chiese e nuraghi; il territorio; i prodotti agro-alimentari e artigianali del legno e tessili; le tradizioni e le antiche pratiche; la nostra lingua sarda. A Mogoro vi sono anche: bravissimi musicisti e cantanti; talentuosi artisti nel campo dell’arte visiva, come pittori e fotografi; dell’arte performativa, come il teatro e la danza; del cinema; e della letteratura. Non dimentichiamo che il nostro paese si distingue anche per lo spirito imprenditoriale e innovativo di cui la zona artigianale è un ottimo esempio; e per aver un altissimo numero di associazioni, circa quaranta, che sono impegnate nell’organizzazione di eventi e attività durante tutto l’anno. La nostra amministrazione comunale sta dimostrando molto impegno nel valorizzare le risorse culturali del paese e una grande apertura nei confronti dell’innovazione e della creatività di noi giovani.

Mogoro è dunque una sede ottima per ospitare il festival della fotografia in Sardegna. BiFoto è un’occasione per noi abitanti di avvicinarci all’arte della fotografia e condividere un momento importante non solo per il settore dell’arte ma anche per il paese e la sua comunità. In questo periodo di instabilità economica e politica pare difficile pensare all’arte e alla cultura; ma io penso che sia proprio sulle nostre risorse culturali che ci si debba focalizzare e si possano trovare gli stimoli per l’innovazione e la ripresa sociale ed economica del territorio. La nostra cultura e le nostre arti sono le risorse preziose che esprimono al meglio il nostro talento, la nostra creatività ed energia. Per questo penso che sia molto importante che l’amministrazione comunale e noi abitanti di Mogoro continuiamo a dimostrare il nostro supporto a BiFoto lasciandoci coinvolgere, interrogare e ispirare dall’arte. 

Digital R&D in Arts Forum and our project for Mogoro

Last week I went to the conference ‘Digital R&D in Arts’ in Manchester Town Hall organised by the Arts Council England in partnership with Nesta and the Humanities Research Council. People from the national arts and cultural sector gathered together to discuss about the possibilities of using technology in the sector bringing existing examples and reflecting on new opportunities for the sector. I attended the conference as a young arts management graduate and so with the curiosity of who wants to listen and absorb new information and ideas.

My first thought off the top of my head is the irresistible comparison between the UK and Italian cultural sectors and observing how the UK sector is 15 or 20 years ahead of the Italian one (I am definitely not the first one to think it). If in Italy we are still struggling on how to bring additional services such as bookshops or cafè within our museums –although some of our organisations has been doing well, for instance ‘La Triennale di Milano’, many are still stuck with the past-, in the UK, cultural organisations hold a meeting to discuss the use of technology and share ideas all together. Indeed the UK has been undertaking a structured dialogue on the use of technology since the 90s, whereby there is now a special £7 fund (The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts) to support arts project that involve technology.

My second thought and the more developed one, regards my personal experience of using technology in culture that for a couple of months has been the object of meetings and skype calls with a group of friends from home. Everything started one day when all of us were back in our Sardinian home-village Mogoro for the Christmas break and in front of a pint we were reflecting on the cultural assets of Mogoro and how it could be good to do something to make the most of them. The cultural assets in Mogoro are both tangible such as churches and some relevant archaeological sites (in particular the ‘Nuraghe Cuccurada’*), the landscape, the traditional crafts and the agricultural products, among which Mogoro is particularly renowned for the production of wine; and intangible, such as traditions and the Sardinian language. Moreover, Mogoro has an incredible number (around 40!) of cultural associations among its inhabitants (about 5000), that are involved in organising events in the village but that are not always able to collaborate and often compete between each other to obtain funding from the local council.

Thus, the idea that came out from our buzzing mind is that of using technology to create a network among those cultural assets and associations in order to channel the energy of all the actors together into the regeneration of our little village. We think that technology can be the right tool to bring the associations of Mogoro together, to help them collaborate and to make all the actors aware of the cultural resources of our territory. Our challenge is that of encouraging the cultural associations to work together within a virtual sphere in the ideation of events around the cultural assets of Mogoro, with the aim that the virtual dimension could be then translated into a real dimension.

But, can then technology actually help people doing things more easily than in a physical sphere? During the conference at the Town Hall, many experiences were presented and among them one of the thoughts I have found particularly interesting is the key idea of “making things relevant to people” expressed by Ben Templeton, creative director of the digital studio based in Bristol ‘Thought Den’. Technology can offer new ways to engage people together and with culture, but that needs to be carefully and accurately planned. One of the barriers of using technology can be that people don’t always have the same level of technology literacy and therefore they can see a digitalisation of interactions as a distant world and be put off of. It is important to think about what people need and what is the value that technology can actually add to the experience of doing things and engaging with culture in ‘the real world’. I do think that technology can really be an important tool to open new possibilities of engagement and address social needs offering, as in the case of our project for Mogoro, new way of organising existing cultural assets and people’s energies. But I also think that to make our project actually relevant it will be necessary to create a conversation with the people of Mogoro and build firstly in ’the real world’ the basis of what technology can then help to work better.

At the moment, my friends and I are struggling to find funding for our project and in the meanwhile we are working on our next steps to lay the ground. Our question is how easy it will be to bring a discourse on technology and culture in a virgin terrain such as Sardinia and Italy in general. In our country, it looks like that the most relevant support could be received only by private foundations, that in the arts and cultural sector have been the most 'illuminate' actors in the latest politically troubled context. The answer is likely to be: "it won’t be easy at all"! However, we are just at the beginning...

*http://www.comune.mogoro.or.it/paese/territorio/archeologia/cuccurada/

Fatti e storie a Copperas Hill building

The last weekend for the Liverpool Biennial is gone and my experience of volunteering has come to an end. I said goodbye to the cold Copperas Hill building behind Lime street station and to the team of volunteers. I am wondering what the John Moores University is going to do with the building now. The university bought Copperas Hill from the Royal Mail in 2011 but it is still uncertain how the university is going to use the building. Rumours among volunteers reveal that there is a possibility of turning the building into a library/learning centre or a student’s hall, although the later in particular would comport a huge investment to be added up to the high amount of money already spent only to buy the building.

Copperas Hill is a really interesting building where everything seems being still the same as the workers had left it and where some of the original structures could even be mistaken for artworks. I often caught visitors fascinated by the building taking pictures of original walls, doors, boards and other little details belonging to the old sorting office. One day one man came to me saying that he used to work there and that seeing the building turned into a gallery was really strange. He said to have many bad memories about the time working in Copperas Hill but he didn’t tell me anything in particular. One man in the team of volunteers also used to work at Copperas Hill and he explained us many things about the building. Particularly interesting was to find out that the grey mezzanine floor above the whole extension of the space occupied by the exhibition ‘City States’, used to be the place where the managers could monitor the productivity of the workers. The mezzanine floor is made with mirrored walls and floors, in order to allow the manager to look through and not to be seen from downstairs. Also, ever noticed the coloured hanging LFSM lights? Those were used to indicate the post going out or coming in, and the different colours represented a different action. 

I really like how the artworks fit into the space in Copperas Hill and in particular, with regard to the City States exhibition, how in each single area elements of the building seem to be integrated with the exhibition. The City States exhibition was composed of 13 areas, each representing a different city and where each artworks responded to the theme of the Biennial, hospitality, in relation to the state of their city. The exhibition wanted to reflect on the connection between the state of cities and the future of states. I think that the curator of City States did such a good work that some of the exhibition spaces seem interact with or even being completed by the elements of the building. For example, I was commenting with Filomena (another Italian volunteer who worked in Copperas Hill with me) how the empty space between the Birmingham and the Taipei area is not actually empty but is filled with the hanging signs (picture above). Also, how in the Hong Kong area the plexiglas wall seem work as a frame or a window to watch the artworks and how that can add something to the experience of visitors.

Another interesting fact is that many of the visitors came to me asking, for instance referring to piece in the Wellington area (picture above), the question: is that art? Many people wanted to know my opinion on the artworks, which was an interesting thing but also difficult sometimes because of the number of elements present in Copperas Hill. It is interesting to mention that that specific piece in Wellington was made with a table originally belonging to the building which could actually be confused as an tool to sort the post (or even a ping-pong table!). Many pieces of contemporary art in Copperas Hill could be confused with objects of the industrial building that sometimes were even considered as part of the exhibition. Could the intentions of the artist be disconnected from the values embodied by the industrial building? Indeed what was most interesting of the visit in Copperas Hill was the experience of being questioned by an environment where contemporary art can be a means to rediscover memories and feelings, and therefore can assume unexpected values.