The project entitled: ‘Between Art & Cinema: Sons of MAAM. The ideal commitment in the work of Paolo Consorti’ includes a film and an exhibition which show the different features of the work of this multimedia artist who is the author of artworks, films, videos and performances. The aim is to underline the ideal (civil and moral) commitment that Consorti infuses into his artistic work by using an ironic and cross language and contaminating the pictorial practice with the filmic and electronic image.
Both the exhibit and the film are part of the Rebellio Patroni, a cycle based on a contemporary and symbolic reinterpretation of the actions of the Saints of Italy, expression of the popular culture of our country and of a geographical and spiritual unity.
The Rebellio Patroni Project started in 2011 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy and was conceived as a many-sided and in progress path in which paintings, sculptures, performances and films constitute the whole corpus of the project. In this project the saints by Consorti express themselves through paradoxical actions and put an original and peaceful form of antagonistic action into effect in the present. This action proposes the urgency of a commitment in the present time, bypassing ironically the rhetoric on the moral and civil decay of society. The Sacred and the profane mingle without scandal or sacrilege, there is nothing blasphemous, since the concept of holiness becomes the excuse for dealing with worldly issues and proposing a form of spirituality for the present time.
In this cycle Paolo Consorti has reworked the sacred iconography imagining the Saints move in the streets of our cities (Venice, Milan, Naples) and has created ironic images with a strong impact by mixing the retro kitsch of the holy cards with the wisdom in the paintings of the altarpieces. What makes his work, both pictorial and cinematographic, original and more effective for the people is the fact that he makes the Saints Patrons impersonated by famous people such as actors, singers and visual artists. For example, San Francesco is interpreted by Elio delle Storie tese, San Gennaro by Giobbe Covatta and so on. For this reason, the project also wishes to be a tribute to cinema since it will occur precisely at the same time when the Rome Film Festival takes place (October 18 - 28, 2018).
MAAM is the acronym of the Museum of the Other and the Elsewhere in Metropoliz (www.museomaam.it) created in a former factory of salami, occupied by immigrants and groups of occasional workers, in Rome. It recently reached the top of the news since it was increased in value thanks to murals and other works of art that were made by various contemporary artists for nothing. On this place in the outskirts of Rome, Consorti has written and directed the film Sons of MAAM, 94', made in 2014, with famous actors such as Luca Lionello, Franco Nero, Alessandro Haber and the extraordinary participation of Michelangelo Pistoletto in the role of himself.
The plot of the film is the following. Rome, we are in Metropoliz, where a man, who thinks he is St. John the Baptist, suddenly appears and is welcomed by the locals. The factory is about to inaugurate a contemporary art exhibition organized by MAAM, the museum that has been created in the occupied building in favour of the "metropolizians" who are repeatedly threatened to be thrown out. Giovanni wanders among the artists and makes friends with the children of Metropoliz, confusing reality with his visions. His intent is to bring all the Saints together in Metropoliz so that they can start again to preach from that place but ... you have to see the film in order to know how it ends.
In Italian with English subtitles.
Entrance free but due to limited seats booking is required.
PAOLO CONSORTI
Born in 1964, Paolo Consorti is an italian artist, performer and director.
He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata, and while there, he collaborated with soviet cinema director Sergei Bondarchuk. In 1991, he debuted his first solo exhibition at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino. In 1992, the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer made a comparison between Consorti and Hieronymus Bosch on the base of their shared “contrast between pictorial and dramatic balance of modern and post- modern”. In 1994, the art critic Pierre Restany called Consorti’s work the “urgency of a sublime post-modern style”. In 2011 he was invited to the 54th Venice International Biennial. He exhibited at the Macro and at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, at Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena, at Madre Museum in Naples, at Teatro Margherita in Bari and at Palazzo Reale in Milan. His works are in important public and private collections in Italy and in the world.
AWARDS
Top 100 di Flash Art on the new Italian art, (2008)
Il sole dei cattivi, full-lenght movie. Festival Popoli e Religioni 2014, Terni:The Best Movie and The Best Actors in the Leading roles (Nino Frassica e Luca Lionello).
Figli di MAAM, full-lenght movie. 19th International Sofia Film Festival 2015, Sofia (BG): Special Screening in ART MOVIE section.
14th Rome Independent Film Festival 2015, Rome (IT): In competition.
FILMOGRAPHY
2014
Sons of MAAM - (Screenplay and direction), full-lenght movie with Luca Lionello, Franco Nero, Alessandro Haber, Michelangelo Pistoletto.
2012
The sun of bad people - (Screenplay and direction), full-lenght movie with Nino Frassica and Luca Lionello.
2011
Rebellio Patroni - (Screenplay and direction), docufilm with Giobbe Covatta, Elio delle Storie tese and Luca Mangoni. Produced by RAI educational.
