VERS L’EUROPA DESERTA, TERRA INCOGNITA (2017) – Simone Bertuzzi and Simone Trabucchi

Simone Bertuzzi (b. 1983) and Simone Trabucchi (b. 1982)

Vers l’Europa deserta, Terra Incognita aims at a deconstruction of the models of inventive self-representation shared by suburban youth cultures throughout Europe, moving through an expanded periphery between Italy and France.

At the core of what constitutes a complex network of influences, is a common feeling toward a condition seemingly inevitable, delivered sonically through melancholic tones and visually, by a precise approach to self-depiction as actors in these environments.

Employing videoclips, Instagram stories and Snapchat streams as primary media to disseminate complex self-portrayals, these ”actors” live and enact a world where crew dynamics and territory play an important role. Landscape is mostly treated as bling: it is made both iconic and at the same time arbitrary when used as background, as evidenced in PNL’s micro-films.

PNL, the music duo from the Paris banlieu Tarterêts, are a peculiar case in which these topoi intersect generating a transversal phenomenon. In 2015 PNL released Le monde ou rien, their most successful song to date, whose videoclip was shot in Napoli’s infamous social housing project Le Vele; the following year, the song’s refrain was used as a rallying cry and tagline by young protesters in the labor reform riots that struck Paris.

The main interest of Vers l’Europa deserta, Terra Incognita is subject-environment dynamics, rendered through enactments and depictions, in between mise en scene and documentation. Starring Bené and Macha Django, two young actors from PNL’s crew featured in the duo’s micro-films, the video shows the couple traversing landmarks of Parisian culture such as the Theatre du Châtelet and the Salle des fêtes of the Hôtel de Ville; this abstract account is abruptly interrupted by shots of the two in Le Vele, at the same time glitch and glue to the narration.

The protagonists seem to be trapped in a loop where self-representation has been substituted by a perpetual pose for an absent audience, a now deserted Europe acting as stage and backdrop. A main loop repeats itself with slight variations, so as to make a ritournelle emerge. It is the task of the soundtrack, commissioned to two musicians (Robert Girardin and Lorenzo Senni) to break free of this repetition and at the same time highlight it, suggesting different moods for as much versions of the video.

Vers l’Europa deserta, Terra Incognita was presented at Nuit Blanche in Paris on October 7th 2017 and installed at the Salle Labrouste of the Bibliothèque de l’INHA.

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BIO:

Simone Bertuzzi (b. 1983) and Simone Trabucchi (b. 1982) have been collaborating as Invernomuto since 2003. Although their work focuses primarily on the moving image and sound, they also integrate sculpture, performance and publishing into their practice. Invernomuto explores what remain of subcultures by moving through different media. Observed through unashamedly affected eyes, oral cultures and minor histories are laid open, their vernacular forms examined. Inauthentic materials play a fundamental role within this process, emphasizing the fictitious realities that inspire them. Bertuzzi and Trabucchi have developed individual lines of research into sound with the outlets Palm Wine and STILL, respectively.

Solo shows include The MAC, Belfast (2017), The Ifth of Oofth, Pinksummer, Roma (2017), Africa Addio, Pinksummer, Genova (2015), Artspeak, Vancouver (2015), Anabasis Articulata, Triennale di Milano, Milan (2014), Marsèlleria, Milan (2014), Negus – Far Eye, Museion, Bozen (2014), I-Ration, ar/ge kunst, Bozen (2014) and Simone, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Ferrara (2011). In 2017 Invernomuto won the Museion Prize 1 (Bozen).

Their work has been shown at Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), Nuit Blanche 2017 (Paris), Museion (Bozen), Unsound Festival (Krakow), Kunstverein München (Munich), Bozar (Brussels), FAR° (Nyon), Centre d’Art Contemporain (Geneve), Bétonsalon (Paris), Live Arts Week V (Bologna), Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Addis Ababa), Nettie Horn Gallery (London), American Academy in Rome (Rome), MAXXI (Rome), PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (Milan), Vleeshal (Middelburg), Fondation Ricard (Paris), Black Star Film Festival (Philadelphia), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin), Hangar Bicocca (Milan), Netmage 07/09 (Bologna), Premio Furla (Bologna), No Fun Fest 2009 (New York), Biennale Architettura 11 (Venice), Viafarini (Milan), Fair_Play (Lugano), Domus Circular (Milan). Currently Invernomuto is developing a project for MAXXI Bulgari Prize (Rome, May 2018). Invernomuto is represented by Pinksummer gallery, Genoa.