Meet The Artists Discussion :
8 October Friday 7-8pm. RSVP by emailing divfuse@gmail.com. 10 seats only. [Cancelled. Updated 7 October]
Screening :
7-8 October Thursday & Friday 3-7pm
9-10 October Saturday & Sunday 2-6pm
A 16 mm film by Marisol Malatesta (Perú) and Tom Richards (UK), 2016. Running time : 8 minutes
Macao (New Centre of the arts, culture and research), a squad based in an old slaughterhouse from early XX’s building in Milan, became the frame for the recording of the film A Lick and a Promise. Macao’s decadent, almost ghostly atmosphere also contains a great deal of grandiose monumental architecture and design, which set an ideal structure for the film. Thus, the space became a place for constant play.
The idea of the film is conceived in a discussion around the structures and nonsensical relations involved in Malatesta’s art works. Through simple forms derived from modernist abstraction and design, the artist builds figurative images that construct playful but also enigmatic characters.
In the film Malatesta’s ‘paintings’ become the characters.
Simple actions in the film are all shot to a tempo (click track) which then coordinates with a rhythmic and repetitive soundtrack by Richards, encompassing both Foley and score intermingled. Richards has a long held interest in the ritual music of shamanic trance, and the obvious parallels with 20th century minimal music as well as dance music and rave culture. These influences are reflected in his musical output of the film, which creates a dark ritualistic atmosphere with a hint of humor.
Although both artists work in two different media, the collaboration between the two arises from a joined interest in the baroque, the modernist traditions such as the Bauhaus, minimalism and electronic music.
Marisol Malatesta studied at the Universidad Católica del Perú where she graduated in Fine Art (Painting) in 2000. In 2002 and 2003 she received a Post Graduate Diploma and a MFA from Byam Shaw School of Art at Central Saint Martins (London). She teaches at Arts University Bournemouth since 2010. Currently she runs Tilde a multidisciplinary project that includes bread making, residencies and exhibitions. Malatesta currently lives and works in Treviglio / Bergamo of Italy.
Based in London, Dr Tom Richards is a sound engineer and a musician who makes hardware based electronic music using instruments designed and built by the artist himself. He also reimagined and constructed Daphne Oram’s unfinished ‘Mini Oramics’ graphic sound synthesiser system.
Image extracted from A Lick and a Promise.