filmographyby caludia zanfi. with writing by franco vaccari Solo show, film and video events -“Franco Vaccari: film sperimentali, Libreria Rinascita,
Modena, 1968
Underground 1966/67 16 mm, transferred onto video Black & White, 15' From basements and lavatory walls, this graffiti is to be taken as a kind of anonymous poetry we sometimes come across.
1968 8 mm, transferred onto video colour sound 10' Through the montage of different television clips, we are shown the birth of the world out of an initial state of inarticulate chaos, the ensuing triumph of form and order, and lastly the destruction which leads back to the original state.
1969 8 mm, transferred onto video colour sound (Silence out of order) 2' 4'' Monuments are monumental because they are solid, still and untouched by the passing of time. However, it takes very little (a coloured paper streamer and a piece of chewing gum) to show that the wind - that is, time – is passing. Especially if the person who sticks the chewing gum to the monuments is a friend who is no longer with us. Slow Dogs 1971 8 mm, transferred onto video Black & White and colour Soundtrack taken from "Atom Heart Mother" by Pink Floyd, 12' Stray dogs filmed in slow motion, interaction between the film camera and the dogs, who clearly feel observed. Observation is always perturbing for the subject. Feedback 1972 1/2 inch videotape, transferred onto video Black & White 12' Two media made to interact: video and Polaroid. Experiment with time 1973 1/2 inch videotape, transferred onto video Black & White 9' Even the simplest of subjects, like a walnut moving on a white
sheet of paper, doesn’t allow us to memorise its movements.
But if this nut is cracked, the moment then becomes irreversible;
the direction of time’s arrow is clear. But if then, unexpectedly,
a little worm crawls out of the cracked nut, the question becomes
intensely complex because the worm carries its own sense of time
which is not comparable to our own. The electronic beggar (or “The means is power”) 1973 1/2 inch videotape, transferred onto VHS Black & White sound by the artist Continuous tape used for a video-installation. A man begging for alms is filmed before being replaced by a monitor showing a recording. On the screen, appear the words "DER BLINDE KOMMT GLEICH" (The blind man will be back shortly).
1973/76 from pieces of 4-photo strips I had a poster put up in all the photo booths in Italy saying that I was looking for new faces for a coming film. The film was never made; the work consists of all of the passport-size photos that the aspiring actors left for me in the booths. This is a film made up of people who have only ever seen their own part of it.
1974 8 mm, transferred onto video colour sound by the artist 6' I see a girl in the marketplace. I follow her. She stops to buy some fruit. She chooses a grape. The camera closes in on her mouth as she eats it and follows the grape down as far as the pylorus.
2000 VHS Color sound 16' Along the Via Emilia, immigrants watch television from their own
countries. The prostitutes under the street lights think of their
far away homes. The Emilians put aeroplanes in their front yards
and dream of escaping. Hunger for Wind 2001 Installation using video-projection. Synagogue of Trnava, Slovak Republic After the Jewish community of Trnava disappeared in the Nazi concentration camps, the Synagogue has been used in the last few years to house exhibitions which up until now have been dedicated to the memory of the holocaust. I kept this in mind when planning my installation, but in the spirit of that strange book in the Bible called “Ecclesiastes” or “Quoelet ”, which seems to deny all transcendence. As it says, “…and so all is empty nothingness, and a hunger for wind”. This is where I took the title Hunger for Wind from. In the preparation of the exhibition, several strange coincidences occurred. For example, it seemed to me to be almost a sign of destiny to find a photo from 1937 of the children of the Talmud school of Trnava. I had the photo blown up and put it up in the apse of the synagogue, while a video projector projected images of peacocks onto the floor. At night, a floodlight beam – one of those visible from miles away which are used to mark the presence of a night club – shone up into the clouds.
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