JESSICA SOFIA MITRANI
New York based Colombian filmmaker and artist
www.jessicamitranistudio.com
Domande bizzarre per Jessica Mitrani
Prima di tutto vi presentiamo Jessica Mitrani.
Jessica è un’artista “esploratrice”. La sua arte spazia, unisce e fonde video, moda, scultura, installazioni e teatro.
Qualche anno fa rimasi ferma, immobile davanti ad un video intitolato Headpieces for Peace.
Mentre lo guardavo, ad ogni frame il mio sorriso aumentava.
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"Headpieces for Peace” di Jessica Mitrani.
Vincitrice nel 2012 del premio MK2 Cinemas Grand Prix ASVOFF5.
ASVOFF, per chi non lo sapesse è il festival di cinema e moda più prestigioso al mondo con sede a Parigi.
Una manifestazione che ogni anno, passa in rassegna i migliori film che ruotano intorno alla moda, la bellezza e lo Stile…caratterista predominante della Mitrani.
Comunque,
alla visione ovviamente ne rimasi entusiasta, per la leggerezza dei toni, la genialità di espressione dei contenuti e per la semplicità di comunicazione.
Una sfida, volontaria o involontaria ai video convenzionali di moda, elaborando uno stile,
ecco che la parola ritorna, tutto suo.
Che definirei satirico e sovversivo.
Il suo uso degli oggetti e dei corpi è l’equivalente di un punto esclamativo, che non ha bisogno di particolari inquadrature. Mi ricorda vagamente il film degli anni venti di Lubitsch tipo “lo scoiattolo” titolo originale “Die Bergkatze”.
Nata a Barranquilla in Colombia da padre spagnolo e madre bogotana ora da più di 14 anni vive a New York. Vincitrice di numerosi premi, la sua arte è stata esposta in prestigiose gallerie internazionali da New York a Tel- Aviv, dalla Svizzera a Miami passando anche da Milano.
Siamo pronti per qualche domanda bizzarra a Jessica Mitrani.
Ti ricordi la sensazione che hai provato entrando per la prima volta in un teatro?
Ci sono stati dei film che ti hanno in qualche modo “illuminato”?
Esiste un oggetto che più di altri ti ricorda la tua infanzia.
Il tuo ultimo lavoro “Traveling Lady” presenta l’attrice Rossy De Palma in un viaggio introspettivo. Un linguaggio fra il teatrale e il cinematografico dove le immagini frammentano lo spazio e contemporaneamente scavano nel subconscio dell’essere umano.
Ci parli di questo progetto?
La cosa più bizzarra che hai visto nella tua vita?
La cosa che ti fa …biiip (arrabbiare) di più?
First of all, let us present you Jessica Mitrani.
Jessica is an “explorative” artist. Her art distances, unites, and fuses video, fashion, sculpture, installations, and theater.
A few years ago I stopped in front of a video titled Headpieces for Peace, perfectly still.
As I watched it, my smile widened with every frame.
I then clicked to have further information.
"Headpieces for Peace” by Jessica Mitrani.
Winner of the 2012 MK2 Cinemas Grand Prix ASVOFF5 prize.
ASVOFF, for those who didn’t know, is the most prestigious film festival in the world, held in Paris.
A yearly exhibition that shows the best films that have to do with fashion, beauty, and style… one of Mitrani’s predominant characteristics.
Anyway,
I was obvious enthused by this video, by its levity of tone, the genial expression of its content, and by its simplicity in communication.
A challenge, either purposefully or not, to the conventional fashion videos, which elaborated a style, there’s that word again, all of its own.
I would define it as satirical and subversive.
Its use of bodies and objects is the equivalent of an exclamation point, that doesn’t require any particular framing. It vaguely reminds me of one of Lubitsch’s films from the 20’s, “The Squirrel”, originally titled “Die Bergkatze”.
Jessica was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, and she has lived in New York for over 14 years now. Winner of numerous prizes, her art has been shown in prestigious international galleries from New York to Tel-Aviv, from Switzerland to Miami, passing also through Milan.
We’re ready for a few bizarre questions to ask Jessica Mitrani.
Do you remember the sensation you felt the first time you went into a theater?
Yes the first play I remember was Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore it made me feel that I was the seventh.
Have there been films that have “illuminated” you in some way?
When I was in my teens, I saw Hair eleven times. The film illuminated a feeling of resistance I had inside.
The Stepford Wives was recommended by my mother in law when I got married at 18. It opened my eyes to patriarchy and to the magic of supermarkets.
I saw De eso no se habla from the Argentinian filmmaker Maria Luisa Bemberg, when I was 29. The film made me aware that only by recognizing difference we can achieve equality. It brought up my political side.
In my mid thirties I saw Teorema by Pasolini to say it illuminated desire and seduction is an understatement.
When Dogtooth by Yorgos Lanthimos came out I was a mother in my forties, I watched the movie with my teenager sons to remind them that not everything that parents tell you has to be internalized or believed.
My movie of all times is Todd Browning’s Freaks.
If you are reading this article, You are one of us.
Is there an object that, more than anything else, reminds you of your childhood?
Prismacolor colored pencils. I used some of the colors so much that they became smaller and looked like children and babies to me. I looked at all the colors like a big family and when I put them back in their case I was convinced that they were going to sleep.
Your last work of art, “Traveling Lady”, presents actress Rossy De Palma in an introspective voyage. A story told between the theatrical and the cinematographic, where images fragment space while at the same time dig into the subconscious of human beings.
Can you tell us about this project?
I was inspired by Nelly Bly, the American journalist who traveled around the world in 72 days in 1889,with her signature coat, one dress, and a compact suitcase. The largest item in her bag is a jar of cold cream. I was fascinated with Bly’s image and used her as a point of departure to make a film with Rossy de Palma as the traveling lady.
The film becomes a performance when Rossy comes out of the movie into the stage and interacts with an eight foot vintage coat that serves as the narrator of the project.
Rossy embodies for me every woman, she travels inside her house, around the block, then across borders… She mades a voyage in Love, through language, into a plant and finally Behind “the Mask”.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen in your life?
Life itself. Never got used to it. I find it wonderful and strange to wake up every day.
The thing that makes you… beeep (get angry) the most?
A burqa, it spells out for me the oppression that all women have endured in one way or another in every patriarchal culture.