Valerio Rocco Orlando, OSMOSIS, 2015. Production still. Courtesy: the artist
Valerio Rocco Orlando, Dialogue with the Unseen, 2015. Production still. Courtesy: the artist
Valerio Rocco Orlando was born in Milan in 1978. He is an eclectic artist and filmmaker with an impressive portfolio. His collaborations include working with French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, English composer Michael Nyman, artists Gilbert & George, Ugo Rondinone and Liam Gillick, supermodel Eva Riccobono, actress Alba Rohrwacher and psychoanalyst Luigi Zoja. In 2009 Valerio Rocco Orlando won the Iscp New York Prize promoted by Parc/Seat/Gai. In 2011 he was awarded a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts and in 2014 he received an International Artist Fellowship at the MMCA National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea. 2015 has been a year of great success and full of important projects. His art is dialog, osmosis, it’s made of virtual and real steps, and I decided to let his voice tell you about his visual poetry.
Height, length and depth of your last work: tell us about its meaning.
“Dialogue with the Unseen” is my last film, a portrait of what Palestina is today from the point of view of the new generations, which aims to overcome he failure of Location Hunting in Palestine directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, who, in the 70s, didn’t manage to find a fertile ground for his Vangelo secondo Matteo. My main purpose is to go on a pilgrimage which differs from the traditional one to the Holy Land, directly experiencing the social fabric of the area and bringing it back through conversations among individuals who question themselves about their relationship with the Cosmos. It’s not just God they consider, but also the relationship with nature and society. In this sense, I’m approaching a new method of filming, in which the protagonist (Saleh Bakri) becomes an author himself and each person involved actively participates, helping choosing the location and how to collaborate. It’s a great challenge, we are experimenting with it, together, day by day.
Could you please define yourself and your art with 5 key words?
Meeting, personal, poetical, political, sentimental.
Is art today still social or is it just based on social media?
Art is endurance. It’s both social media and social, as long as it stands up against the annihilation of individuality.
Your project “OSMOSIS” is about art as something active, it’s about art as something that belongs to people since it’s a portrait of people, among many other things. How did this work start?
“OSMOSIS” is a public art project on large scale, commissioned by Associazione dei Musei d’Arte Contemporanea Italiani and by Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo. For months I have been meeting mediators, executives, curators, artists, presidents, members of labor unions, communication experts, waiters, members of security all over the country. Every meeting generated a question, leading to a group session to think about our role in – and outside – our society and to compare ourselves to the contemporary art audience and reflect upon the nature of this relationship, considering the public function of the museum and the key role of education in shaping our society. All these issue are largely discussed by AMACI, which enables an apparatus that becomes a personal and collective work of art. A clear trestle, an unexpected creation. Joining, sharing and having a say is up to you.
ywyw means“you are what you wear”. In your opinion,
we are what we…share.