by VEGA (Francesca Pionati e Tommaso Arnaldi), Italy 2021, 9'
9’42”, 2021. Courtesy the artists. Florilegio is based on Welcoming the Flowers, 2008, voice recording by John Giorno, courtesy Literaturwerkstatt Berlin
Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte 2021 in occasion of the exhibition Thinking Beyond – Moving Images for a Post-Pandemic WorldThe film is part of VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images - 10th edition
Florilegio investigates the human relationship with death and grief through the behaviours and rituals we perform during the ceremonies dedicated to the birth and departure of our loved ones. The work is the result of research, appropriation, editing and decontextualisation that the artists have carried out on archive videos, mostly amateur and found on the internet, depicting funerals of famous people, baby showers and baptisms. The original images have been totally deconstructed to shift the focus to the flowers, the central symbol of the work and of Welcoming the Flowers by John Giorno, the poem that inspired it. In the video, the artists also re-enact some of the funeral rites described by anthropologist Ernesto de Martino in Morte e pianto rituale. Dal lamento funebre antico al pianto di Maria.
VEGA (Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, 1990/1993, Italy. Live and work in Rome) is a duo of visual artists and directors based in Rome. Their practice emerges from the urgency to hybridate elements that are predefined or have been previously contextualised – like archive materials, traditions or rituals – with contemporary languages and aesthetics, putting into question all foundational elements in order to make room for what is buried to resurface. They mostly investigate stories and subcultural phenomena from Italy impressed by a Gothic Cosmic-Mediterranean vision. Born within the intersection of video art and docu-fiction, their work also incorporates performance. Their work has been shown at MACRO, Rome; Triennale Milano; MEGA; and will be exhibited at Sant’Andrea de Scaphis. In 2021 they curated Iniziative di II in Rome.
Arnaldi studied Visual Arts at RUFA, while Pionati completed her film studies at La Fémis in Paris and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.