Film inspires artists in Venice
Film is a huge source of inspiration for artists, and Open 2003, an exhibition of installations and photographs about to go on show in Venice’s Lido area proves the point. The show, which opens tomorrow along with the city’s Mostra film festival, welcomes works from various artists, not to mention housing creations by Gina Lollobrigida and Dennis Hopper. Most of the works will be scattered around the Lido area, as well as at the Hotel Ungaria and the Hotel de Baigne – the latter having served as the location for the shooting of Visconti’s «Death in Venice.» Representing Greece is Angelos Skourtis. His installation is a three-by-four meter panel which resembles a screen. On the panel are prints of teenagers wearing masks depicting cinema and television personalities. Facing the screen are 30 directors’ chairs with the names of celebrated directors printed on the back in a humorous mesh of film’s younger generation and the monstres sacres. Of equal interest is the Cypriot entry, with an installation by Yula Hadzigeorgiou. The artist was inspired by Francois Truffaut’s «Day of Night,» in which the director used a special lighting technique in order to save time and money which allowed for the shooting of night scenes in broad daylight. «These peculiar Truffaut images made me develop a work defined by a feeling of night. Besides, the idea of artifice is a notion which runs through my work,» said the artist to Kathimerini. The installation, a three-by-five meter printed panel, features part of a female face, focusing on the eyes and nose. The special lighting gives it a shade of green, altering the color of the eyes. Essentially, it is the transformation of the artist’s own face. «In Truffaut’s film, viewers have the illusion that the image is slipping away from its frame. The same happens in this work, as the visitor passes by, there’s an illusion of movement, even though it is completely static. It’s just a play on light,» said the artist.
