A NEW STAND Giorgia Piffaretti

GIORGIA PIFFARETTI

n. 0001 • YEAR 01

JUNE 2019

NETHERLANDS FILM ACADEMY

A NEW STAND

HE

RE

MAST E R O F FILM - ART IST IC RE S EARCH IN AN D T H ROUG H FILM

- magazine for observations, projections and imagination -

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JUNE 2019 • Number 0001 • Year 01

SUMMARY PORTFOLIO

A NEWSSTAND AS A MULTIFUNCTIONAL DEVICE pag. 52

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RESEARCH

Questioning the familiar way of seeing

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SPECIAL SECTION

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REPORT FROM THE ‘IN BETWEEN’

-In between-

Three examples from my bookshelf Layers of an image -Backside of a picture -What?! More serious?”

Letter to the reader Giorgia Piffaretti

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Dear readers, new access to information and different viewpoints is something that is very important to me, it is also fundamental in its own way in my visual art practice.

In addition to that, the aspect of selection, or curatorial role, is something In this edition you’ll find articles where that I’m experimenting in relation to I reflect through images and texts on my own archival material. key aspects related to my work, contextualising the research I’ve developed However, Internazionale is not just over the last few years, and re-fram- about curating translations, it also creing my previous work. The layout and ates its own platforms for new content. the concept are inspired by one of my I’m thinking, for instance, about the favorite magazines, Internazionale. I section Images, that presents every new like this magazine very much because edition with four full sized pictures; or it consists of a selection of current ar- the section Portfolio, in which there’s ticles translated into Italian (original- space to display and review the work of ly published in other newspapers or photographers and artists. magazines). That allows the access to different content and points of view, Having been inspired by the idea beotherwise limited by language barriers. yond this weekly magazine, I decided to A clear example of this intention is experiment with this flexible structure, represented in the section Visti dagli appropriating the different features of altri (Seen from others’ point of view), each category, according to my needs. dedicated to articles about Italy, written and published in other countries. This I hope you enjoy my work. ◆ This magazine is a form of publication of my research, led at the Master of Film “Artistic Research in and through cinema” at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam.

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PERSONAL ARCHIVE

Choose one, I’ll tell you a story What kind of elements inform us and how?

The moment I make this dot

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PORTFOLIO

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SEEN FROM OTHERS’ POINT OF VIEW

Gaggiolo’s newsstand A multifunctional device

Dialogue

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MANY THANKS

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What is visible at first sight?

What do you see, what do you notice?

RESEARCH

Questioning the familiar way of seeing The relationship between inside-outside, the exchange between subjective perception and the external world, is an essential drive to my artistic practice. It steers the desire to investigate the hidden side of the visible and play with the invisible, but nonetheless imaginable.

An object, a place, or something external and tangible are the starting points of a project, triggering and provoking my imagination, and therefore a creative process.

In that sense, it is important to point out that in my work, I focus on the observation instead of on inventing something out of nowhere or developing a project from a pre-existing concept. The crucial point which characterises my works is spotting potential in the unspectacular and in everyday experiences.

The starting point is the moment in which the familiarity of an object is questioned, creating the possibility and the necessity to re-establish a new conscious relationship with it.

Changing positions brings one to oscillate between the familiar and the no-longer familiar, initiating a movement that generates a space in between, where new connections can be created.

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What is a familiarscope ?

“The starting point is the moment in which the familiarity of an object is questioned, creating the possibility and the necessity to re-establish a new conscious relationship with it.”

That is why my method is based on a constant process of positioning and repositioning towards the observed object.

This constant movement might explain the desire to work with my own personal archive as a source of reflection, and to re-contextualise the meaning of images, objects and anecdotes, as they are profoundly familiar and therefore especially eligible for defamiliarization.

This process of defamiliarization happens by investigating how such ‘inside’ (familiar) images, objects and anecdotes occupy a place in the ‘outside’ world.

Can they become part of larger context or specific circumstances, and thus enable various connections to be traced or imagined?

- Space in b

etween -

The FAMILIARSCOPE is an optical instrument used for viewing familiar elements, such as objects, images or situations with the purpose to enable one to reconsider the relevancy of what at first sight could appear banal. Its mechanism works with ‘distance’, as it first creates a defamiliarisation to the observed object, to then make space for subjective projection, thus allowing one to reconsider what is perceived.

More

than

an

object

it

is

an

attitude

that

just

needs

to

be

activated.

This User’s Manual offers with simple and clear steps a guidance to develope the ability to use the familiarscope in everyday situations,

coming soon

- Space in between Giorgia Piffaretti | Exam A newIIIstand | December \ June 2019 2018

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SPECIAL SECTION

- In between What is in between two people? two images? a person and an object? a person and an image

as an object?

Concentrate on the space that emerges “in between�: this not an empty space

- rather - a field for mental and visual projections.

How to be more imaginative and playful in the way we relate to what is observed?

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REPORT FROM THE ‘ IN BETWEEN’

Three examples from my bookshelf

◆ Ufficio proiezioni luminose (Light projections office), an essay by writer and philosopher Matteo Terzaghi ◆ Des histoires vraies (True stories), a collection of autobiographical anecdotes by artist Sophie Calle ◆ Tutto quello che non so di lei (Everything I don’t know about her), short story extract from the book Una cosa piccola che sta per esplodere, (A small thing that is about to explode) by writer Paolo Cognetti.

For a long time, I’ve been interested in the relationships we create with images that are meaningful to us. Of course it’s a very broad subject, depending on the kind of images and their context.

I’m mainly referring to images belonging to the private sphere, images produced or collected that refer to personal interests and experiences, belonging to a family collection, or found in other contexts: photographs, postcards, clip images, documents, (...)

What is beyond these images? Is it simply the intention to preserve a memory of a moment, to capture an idea, or to confirm someone’s presence in a specific place?

I’m wondering what remains. What is there once we no longer recognise their context anymore, or when we don’t recognise a person in a picture anymore? This might be the moment that enables one to see beyond what is portrayed. The missing information makes one wonder what could have been the context and motivation of its

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existence. I look at fragments as the result of an intention, as indirect information about my own (or someone else’s) need or desire. These pictures become interesting, as the lack of information welcomes reflection: how can that actually affect our understanding of images and the meaning we attribute to them? What was the reasoning behind taking the picture? What does it show me now?

What does this mean and how does it document a habit or, alternatively, make a case for something singular?

Obviously, some pictures will affect one’s mind more than others, and thus bring to light the relationship between the subjective gaze and the image’s content.

From this point of view, three examples from my bookshelf come to mind, of authors approaching this type of images in different ways. Their diversified ways to establish a relationship with pictures allow me to notice differences and analyse the methodological approaches these authors work with.

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REPORT FROM THE ‘ IN BETWEEN’ Matteo Terzaghi On the back of Matteo Terzaghi’s book Ufficio proiezioni luminose: “Every day a multitude of images meet us and get lost behind our backs. But among the many that swarm away, some are caught in our imagination: a cloud of steam, a racing car, two wheels of a bicycle without a bicycle, (…). These and other photographs, which have remained etched in the author’s memory, carry with them the stories told here. In a way that is always unpredictable, they all illuminate the sense of an experience or, on the contrary, they wrap it definitively in mystery.”

Terzaghi develops reflections from a selection of physical or remembered images. With his projections he guides the reader through a chain of thoughts that finally reveal a specific aspect, modifying the initial perception of the image. Often the narration describes new insights, discovered during the attentive observation of the picture.

The importance lies in the fact that these are not analyses of the portrayed subject. In Terzaghi’s approach, the image becomes a tool to think and explore potential meanings beyond it, sharing a subjective understanding. In that sense, not only is the image important: the circumstances and context in which the author came into contact with are an integral part and influence his speculations.

A sentence I underlined years ago in a chapter of Farbe der Warheit by Hito Steyerl, now caught my attention again: “(...) ohne historischen Kontext kann ein Bild alles Mögliche bedeuten. Erst zusammenhang mit anderen Bildern, Texten und Tönen klärt uns jedoch darüber auf, was es wirklich zeigt”. “(...) without a historical context, an image can mean anything. It

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is only in connection with other pictures, texts and sounds that it enlightens us about what it really shows”.

Following the reflection above, we can state that it’s the observer’s context (or position), and gaze (or intention) that produces the meaning of an image: its meaning lies in the position taken towards it, rather than the picture itself. I understand therefore “what it really shows” as a possibility, depending on the circumstances.

Sophie Calle While Terzaghi works with the images he encounters, Sophie Calle in her book Des histoires vraies takes an almost opposite approach.

Every couple of pages is an image that illustrates (or almost legitimates?) a biographical anecdote, on the right page and its narration on the left page.

Reality and fiction are blurred, and even if in some cases it is not clear, the majority of the images, with their very strict composition, are staged.

In the end it is not very relevant to determine whether they are or not, what is important is what they communicate. The way they invite the reader to interpret them is different from Terzaghi’s approach, as if Calle’s could “declare” or support in an ambiguous way the veracity of the anecdotes.

Everything plays in this indistinguishable field of uncertainty, confusing and challenging the reader with different perceptions of the anecdotes. The statement in the title “Des histoires vraies” is of course establishing that they are true.

Since my Bachelor studies I was fascinated by this thin blurred line between reality/documentary and fiction, trying to understand why this specific field would trigger my interest.

Back then, I gave more importance

to the distinction between what was effectively “real” or “invented”, and more specifically the role that ‘memory’ comes to play in this process.

I realised that as an artist or filmmaker, it is rather a choice that establishes the way in which the spectator will engage with the work. It’s an invitation to perceive and explore this tension between what is real , the imaginary and their potential.

Now I rather focus on this area by identifying it as “the space in between”.

The observer is on the one hand directly linked to tangible elements of “reality”, and on the other hand creating layers of perceptions or mental projections. This results in a rich experience, which invites the observer to constantly change their perception and interpretation.

Through this research I’ve become aware of the potential of “the space in between” enabling me to recognise the movement of oscillation in which my practice takes place.

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REPORT FROM THE ‘ IN BETWEEN’ Once we are not concerned with the separation between ‘true’ and ‘false’ anymore , the dichotomy of ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’, but start to use imagination, many possibilities pop up, transforming the grey zone between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ or ‘true’ and ‘false’ into a malleable playground, in which the act of observation becomes a playful practice.

It allows then to consciously explore this playground, and form relationships with what is observed, but also to facilitate the recognition of other artists’ or authors’ works that are developed through similar dynamics.

If going beyond the limit of ‘true’ and ‘false’ defines the playground, how do authors ‘move’ or ‘play’ in it?

A crucial role is played by the shared observations, the elements that are involved and the way in which imagination or discovery around images is pinpointed.

Paolo Cognetti Paolo Cognetti’s short fiction story Tutte le cose che non so di lei (Everything I don’t know about her) is a good example probably because from the very beginning, the different layers of narration are clearly defined and displayed. The reader is immediately in the position of an image observer from the first sentence.

Everything I don’t know about her Even though there are no visual elements to support the text, the opening lines describe a photograph, which is completed by the subjective relation of the narrator/observer, positioning: “Anita sui gradini del liceo, uno scoglio tra le rapide degli studenti in corsa, la mattina del primo giorno di scuola.”

“Anita, on the steps of a high school, a rock in the rapids of running stu-

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dents, on the morning of her first day of school.”

From the narrator’s point of view, the question behind this first sentence is: what do I see?

The second sentence reveals the narrator’s emotional relationship with the picture: “È strano pensare che questa ragazza (...) tra qualche anno diventerà mia madre.”

“It’s strange to think that some years later this woman (...) will become my mother.”

What is my position towards it?

How do I relate to that?

A few sentences later, after the description of other elements of the picture, the imaginary layer is introduced: “Oggi mia madre, questa ragazza che non è ancora mia madre, dirà il suo nome a qualcuno di loro.

Anita.”

“Today my mother, this girl that is not my mother yet, will say her name to some other girls. Anita.”

If this comment is a plausible assumption, the continuation of the narrator’s train of thought clearly defines and declares a movement towards picturing what is not in the frame: “Dall’ altra parte della lente, in una posa gemella che esiste soltanto nella mia immaginazione, c’è un uomo che non ho mai conosciuto.

Stamattina il nonno ha lavato la macchina e scelto il vestito buono.”

“On the other side of the lens, in a specular position that exists only in my imagination, there is a man that I have never met. This morning the grandfather has washed the car and has chosen a beautiful suit.”

What do I (subjectively) imagine from this starting point?

In these few sentences, we are directly in this oscillating movement between the observation of the image and the description of the narrator’s

thoughts, led by what he can’t see but imagines.

It is interesting to notice that the second sentence (in which he describes the actions of the grandfather), is formulated in the present perfect, giving “body” or more importance to this imagination, while bringing us directly to Anita’s imagined point of view. In that sense we are in the narrator’s imagination, projecting himself in the gaze of the depicted

person.

What she might have seen?

This is the emancipation of the narration, becoming broader and stronger than the initial description of what is effectively there (a picture).

The story’s structure is entirely based on this back and forth movement between observing pictures and imagining the un-depicted meaning, adding at some point the description of non-existing images that the nar-

rator wishes to see. Thus, the reader is consciously guided and involved in the narration. The relationship between the reader and the text and its subject changes. It takes place in between different narrated images existing within one ‘frame’, the narrator’s gaze and the story’s protagonist (Anita).

This is enriched by a new layer: the dialogue in present time between the narrator and his grandmother, who

acts as a “live” encounter that allows him to re-interpret and contextualise what he knows and what he sees.

Moving beyond the first encounter, the question that produces such a narration, is: what interaction between the subject depicted and myself allows me to fulfill the potential of a picture?

This example seems particularly significant, as it is in the act of narration that the story itself develops. Whose story is narrated through this process? How does the reader become involved, as part of the narrative act, alongside the imagination of the narrator, thinking how the story may unfold?

In between frames of pictures, imagination and dialogues, moving and crossing from one position to the other, a sort of hybrid narration is generated. It is a narration that makes the reader aware of the content and of the question, how it is presented, and from which sources the story is generated.

The oscillation between what is there to be seen, to be discovered or to be imagined, is a fruitful movement. It activates the way in which singular aspects can be perceived and developed, which creates an engagement with what is shown or told, rather that consuming it passively, questioning the habits and mental schemes of our perception that we are unconsciously subjected to.

Rather than a narrative strategy, we shall consider this as an act of transcending the story itself. An act that encourages the reader/spectator to observe the way in which one looks at and narrate facts, episodes, or the fundamental elements that define our position towards the surrounding world. Experiencing this act (through others’ reflections and stories), enables one to develop a personal conscience and awareness, training one’s flexibility to adopt different points of view.

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Layers of an image Via Vela 8, short film, 2015

Starting from my grandparent’s house in the moment in which it was still furnished but uninhabited, the film, with a fragmentary structure, examines the mechanism of memory and the function of film as a support for the act of remembering. The following two scenes are from the short film Via Vela 8, and exemplify the possibility to unfold hidden layers of an image. link to the video: https://vimeo.com/150917940 password: viavela8

The back of a picture

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min 00:00 - 00:15

min.14:25 -14:30

(opening of the short film - first scene) You see: the back of a picture.

White paper and label.

The sound of a scan.

What can a photograph, framing a personal subject, show me?

I look at the materiality of the picture.

What is shown in the foreground is a beginning, rather than a conclusion. The back of the picture, with its soft detail, adds a layer of information, and makes me reconsider it in a wider context of image production.

I consider this picture to be an object rather than merely an image.

In the montage of the film, the same shot appears again.

This time the light of the scan goes through the picture, saving a digital image that is going to be part of my archive.

For a moment you can see parts of the portrayed subject vertical lines shining through a glimpse of the house.

Aren’t they the circumstances of the moment in which something is observed, that rather create its meaning?

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REPORT FROM THE ‘ IN BETWEEN’ During one of the shooting sessions at the house, my father stands next to this picture, mimicking a portrait pose looking straight into the lens of the camera, smiling.

From my perspective the difference in facial expressions is striking.

I’m commenting: “you were more serious”.

He turns to the picture and ask surprised: “what?! More serious?”

“I remember the moment in which this picture was taken!”

This discrepancy brought him to remember; he now recognises a gap between his inner perception of the moment in which the picture was taken and the image hanging on the wall in the present, only tangible trace of this moment.

He remembers that back then, others around him were commenting on his pose, trying to modify it.

Also, back then, there was a gap: while he was convinced he was smiling, the teacher and the photographer were encouraging him to perform a “beautiful smile” for the camera “come on, give us a little smile!”

Three different gazes are overlapping and crossing in this sequence, creating a dialogue around it recorded by my camera. Its presence triggers a reaction by my father, my perspective allows me to notice a discrepancy between those two moments in time.

The surprise causes him to look at the picture in a new way, letting the memory of an experienced moment to arise. That allowed him to evoke or remember the situation in which the picture was taken, including his perception and the intention of the people behind the lens.

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REPORT FROM THE ‘ IN BETWEEN’

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PERSONAL ARCHIVE

Choose one, I’ll tell you a story.

Many years ago, before moving to another house.

Displayed on the carpet are all the notes and pictures gathered on my wall (including pictures of projects and personal notes) that framed a moment in time for me: A constellation of elements representing a specific period.

When a friend asked me to send him a portrait of myself.

I sent him this picture.

“It will give you a more precise image than the look on my face” On the back is the note: “Choose one, I’ll tell you a story.”

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PERSONAL ARCHIVE

What kind of elements inform us and how?

In the past, I avoided presenting images that did not belong to a “finished” project, as they did not yet reach a final form that would justify their sharing. However, I was continuously gathering and rearranging material, coming back to specific images or video sequences. Some of them would hang in my atelier for a long time, as a reminder of an insight (unformulated thought) or a hidden layer that caught my attention. In the last few years I started to take this interest seriously, viewing this practice as something with potential that might reveal and develop something different.

In that way, I gradually abandoned the idea that only a final form could legitimize the use of founded material, embracing the attempt to be more playful with it, and observing how it develops meaning through the specific context in which it is displayed.

From this point of view the archive becomes a place that creates a context for singular elements to resonate with each other, creating the possibility to establish new relationships between them. Rather than seeing it as a static collection, I started to consider it as a live ‘organisme’ where a continuous shift and movement of meaning and understanding is produced.

Working with my personal archive, I have noticed my recurrent interest in observing traces, elements that refer to a specific moment in time and space, which may offer an entrance point to interpretation or a different understanding of yet other elements or works. It became clear that the motivation for me to keep on developing a personal archival praxis, is to create an alternative, subjective way of documenting and processing the world, questioning the rules of preservation, or the legitimacy of subjects to be included in an archive.

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What is the difference between an institutional archive and a personal archive? What does the institution want to preserve? What kind of information does the institution provide?

The question of archival power is directly related to the question of position, perspective and intention.

With a personal archive there’s the freedom to individually select elements, establishing criteria that isn’t subjected to already defined intentions and existing ways of observing. It allows the redefinition of the scale and the context of those “records”, in which singular elements are pointed out, observed and “understood”, in relation to other elements.

I imagine this archive as a way of communicating with the outside world, a micro-world that reacts and creates a bond with the outside world. In taking a personal and human-sized perspective is my attempt to tackle the phenomenological question of how we create meaning through our subjective observation of the world.

I try to think about the alternatives this question offers in how we perceive and narrate history: what kind of elements inform us and how?

Preserving such elements from everyday life creates new possibilities. These might seem irrelevant at first, but upon closer observation, they can give access to other types of information or experiences.

Here is the possibility to unfold alternative histories.

While narrating such stories, I wonder how individual personal elements refer to a larger system or can even stand for such a system. This means a movement which causes a shift in perception, opening up the possibility for another angle to be shown.

Moon-landing document

“The moment I make this dot • the first man stepped on the moon.

Mendrisio, via Vela 8, yellow room” In 1969, while following the moon landing news on the radio, my father prepared a piece of paper and a pen.

His intention or impulse was to write a sort of “personal document” that would have synchronized Armstrong’s feet touching the surface of the moon with the dot traced by himself in the middle of the paper.

Almost an attempt to make this huge historical moment tangible.

I’m fascinated by this action inscribed in the past and the trace (the piece of paper) that remains, filled with poetic potential as well

as sociocultural value. I did research within the Swiss-Italian television archives to have a picture of what my father might have seen while following the moon landing in 1969.

I couldn’t find any records that reported this event. The tape that recorded the transmission of the historical event was reused, erasing that specific content. Only a few pictures were preserved, and a video report from that time about the development of a ‘gravitational pen’, a pen developed back then to be used in the orbit, produced with machines

manufactured in Ticino (Swiss-Italian Canton).

I’m fascinated by how the dot on the paper traced by my father turns the perception of a huge event from the media into a personal experience, showing more than the content; the attempt to relate oneself to the outside world. In preserving and revisiting these types of “documents” and giving them visibility I intend to engage with the questions related to the personal archive. How to access history from a personal point of view or scale? Starting from where?

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PORTFOLIO

A newsstand as a multifunctional device 52

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PORTFOLIO

opposite functioning of preserving and renewing fascinated me. Isn’t it also one of the functions of an archive? If there are similarities, how does the newsstand as an archive work?

From that moment on I started to look, imagine, project, and question the familiarity of my previous way of perceiving it.

How does this place function?

Gaggiolo’s newsstand A few meters on the Italian side of the Swiss-Italian border, you can find this newsstand. It has been there, almost untouched, since 1956.

The couple running this place, Anna and Arduino, started to work here 45 years ago alternating shifts in the morning and afternoon, following a constant rhythm. The newsstand is open every day, becoming, for the people living in the surrounding

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area, a sort of reference point.

I started visiting this newsstand regularly when I was a child, crossing (mainly on Saturdays or Sundays) the Swiss-Italian border to bring home my favourite Italian magazines. This ritual that has become more and more sporadic since I moved away from Ticino, the Swiss-Italian Canton were I was born and raised.

Last year, when visiting my parents,

I went to this newsstand again. With more distance I started to notice its features. Besides the closeness to the border and the elliptical futuristic design from the 50s, what surprised me the most was to see that this newsstand seemed to have remained the same forever, while at the same time newspapers and magazines are replaced daily, and the composition of their display changes regularly.

I started to see it as a live installation that is composed and disassembled everyday, preserving its image, but updating its content.

I stopped going there regularly, but the familiar image of this place was preserved in my memory. The difference between what I remembered and my current view of it (that was probably the first time that I really asked myself what this place was or could be), allowed me to start a process of observation, questioning and interaction. I realised that this

“A specular structure with two doors and four “selling-windows”, an architectural choice made in order to allow its orientation to be interchangeable.”

What do I see if I look at it and “through” it in different ways?

What does it stand for?

While gathering new information, I also developed new interpretations of this place and its potential way of functioning, letting my imagination create metaphorical images of it, and build connections with my personal archive.

It has a very specific shape. A specular structure with two doors and

four “selling-windows”, an architectural choice made in order to allow its orientation to be interchangeable.

18 inclined glass façades divided in windows support the display of magazines. Outside, there are some kind of metal wheeled bookcases, where additional magazines are displayed.

The newsstand itself can be seen as a multiple storyline, each window, with its framing and display, creates multiple stories. Magazines ordered at the windows creates associations and resonance with the images used on the front covers: a 2019 Mussolini calendar hangs inside next to Che Guevara, little kittens and a mystical one dedicated to lunar phases. The slogan of the regional newspaper displayed on signs outside, in bold letters, becomes the title of an imaginary sequence.

The structure of this device plays an important role, but it also acts as a meeting point, attracting people from the surrounding areas. Gravitating around this “editing space”, they tell stories as well, with their comments and dialogues or anecdotes. The content of magazines is reflected in people’s stories, and a new montage emerges in between the two worlds, combining perspectives. There are A new stand \ June 2019

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PORTFOLIO

repetitive narratives, like templates told over and over again; there are fairy tales, adventure stories; there are open ended stories, and multilayered stories. Stories within stories and suspense, suggestions about what may come (the next edition of a newspaper or magazine), series, soap opera,...

“Sections with specific contents are defined, creating in my eyes the structure for an archive.”

The huge selection of magazines covers almost every imaginable subject (daily news, gossip, history, art, cinema, cars, porn, traveling, cooking,...). They are re-displayed daily according to a specific order.

In a floating world of digital culture, print magazines make the world tangible, and give it a location, where people attach memories, routines,

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and where people meet or search for what they desire. Sections with specific contents are defined, creating in my eyes the structure for an archive.

But also, being placed in this liminal spot, the newsstand inevitably offers the possibility from an everyday life perspective to observe what the border triggers, has triggered, and the constant confrontation between people. This type of newsstand NEWSSTAND doesn’t exist in Switzerland (we have a chain, “Kiosk”, that sells magazines as well as food and drinks), but the fact that it is frequented mostly by Swiss Italian people, is due to the significantly lower prices, besides the huge selection of magazines. The role this border played in the past, is mentioned by some of the customers more or less indirectly. If this place is taken as a constant, as an observatory, what kind of stories does it narrate? What kind of elements are triggered, and from which perspective?

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PORTFOLIO

A multifunctional device

“The newsstand became a sort of device to grasp the surrounding world, a point of reference that allows me to unfold different layers of meaning around it.”

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Through this process of observing and positioning myself towards new insights from time to time, the newsstand became a sort of device to grasp the surrounding world, a point of reference that allows me to unfold different layers of meaning around it.

I therefore started to project potential ‘functions’ on it, that makes me observe and interpret its features differently.

According to the ‘function’ that is activated, it can become for example: a REFERENCE POINT, to move between time and space, an OBSERVATORY for social political and economic dynamics; a daily renewed ARCHIVE, that creates an access point to the rest of the world through magazines; a NARRATIVE GENERATOR, through the display structure, framing of text and images, news, stories, meeting point for daily chatting.

The newsstand becomes an idea, a meeting point where relationships are formed.

That is how this newsstand became a case study for my research.

Through a spatial installation accompanied by performances/live events and the editing of a series of video essays, I want to give form to my findings and thoughts developed during this process.

The motivation to develop this project, as well as to reflect on the relevance of personal archives, lies in modifying the starting point from where I can begin to understand my position in the world. A realization about something that was considered ordinary (because it was familiar), may allow for a shift of understanding and therefore the possibility to write alternative histories or stories. Through that, my intention is to encourage and stimulate spectators to question their familiar way of seeing things, and to realize how views are rooted in the relationships

we create with our surroundings.

The drive towards a possible meaning beyond what we observe initially creates a wider awareness of one’s place in a specific context, stimulating one’s imagination and therefore one‘ s subjective gaze.

I think it is crucial to practice this questioning by starting with what is ordinary, which is our condition.

I believe this is especially relevant in a time like this, in which the internet facilitates access to virtually any type of information and to different sources. Indeed, this can easily become overwhelming due to the seemingly infinite amount of information to be processed; and it can easily affect the acceptance of pre-conceptualized meaning. My invitation is instead to “pile up“ information in order to build up knowledge or awareness, starting from one‘ s experience, and recognizing the experience itself as a necessity in the learning process. This follows my reflection on the personal archive, and the proposal to invert the source of information, from an institutional organization to a personal starting point, which is an invitation to question what is given and taken for granted and a claim for freedom to imagine. While artists have always used archives in a subjective, playful and autobiographical way for their art works, the difference for me lies in examining the archival material itself, how it has been brought here, into the present, how it is arranged and presented. Through the space in between my personal records and the newsstand as an archive, archival praxis itself becomes visible, as a living archive that activates ideas and stories. Rather than using found footage as raw material to create an image or narrative, there is a projection of ideas from, on and into the archive. Archival praxis becomes a way of thinking, through observation, projection and imagination.

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ON THE FRONT COVER

Looking forward to semester IV TESTING Many practicalities of this project have to be tested. In the upcoming time I will focus on designing the structure with an architect, to test how that could effectively work, as well as on editing the already filmed material to see what possibilities it creates.

CATEGORIZING Order my material in order to have an overview and be able to select what external link I want to create into the archive.

SHOOTING In addition to that, I want to organize a shooting with Daniel Donato (DOP, visual coaching), in order to film with him the most important aspect of the newsstand.

How can I film the tactility of the newsstand? The different material? How can I recreate in a sequence this “choreography” of Arduino’s and Anna’s hands placing in specific ways the different magazines? What other possibilities will emerge from this new experience?

this project, that can illustrate and give an idea of how that would look like. I discussed the possibility to work with an editor for that. I see this collaboration with Albert Elings as a creative process to discuss and create new possibilities.

I think that is also crucial to have a set of external eyes for the footage, that is otherwise too loaded with my projections and feelings about the shooting.

MAKING IT ACCESSIBLE The idea is to think at the publication as edition of a magazine.

In addition to that I’m thinking about a website that should encapsulate the intention of the project and the first simulations. (This website is thought also to eventually be used to apply for funds or residencies after the graduation.)

EDITING Develop a simulation’s visit of a spectator to my archive.

My goal for the graduation is to develop a proposal for

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A new stand Giorgia Piffaretti / June | Exam 2019III | December 2018

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Giorgia Piffaretti | Exam III | December 2018

PORTFOLIO

Dreams

Gaggiolo’s newsstand, Italy 23 April 2018 Newspapers are delivered daily at 6am.

Today an additional big sign with the title sogni (dreams) is consigned.

Is this a sort of visual statement, that indirectly addresses and turns magazines into mirrors reflecting the wishes and desires of the clients?

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SEEN FROM THE OTHERS’ POINT OF VIEW

Dialogues Do you want to read more about the idea of the newsstand as an archive?

Please check the newly published article A NEW(S) STAND: UNFOLDING LAYERS OF MEANING – archival praxis, between observation, projection and imagination, in the online journal Mediapolis, and the upcoming response by Floris Paalman*

Notes * Floris Paalman is lecturer in Film Studies and the MA programme Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

His teaching and research focus on media history, with a special interest in the relationship between cinema and the city.

https://www.mediapolisjournal.com/2019/06/a-news-stand/

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WHAT WILL APPEAR ?

This publication was realized in the context of the Master of Film Artistic Research in and through cinema at the Netherlandse Film Academy in Amsterdam.

June 2019

Many thanks to Nicolle Bussien, Floris Paalman, Eyal Sivan, Áron Birtalan, Sander Bloom, Rachele Piffaretti, Lorenzo Piffaretti, Dolores Piffaretti, Diego Arias Asch, Alexia Delesalle , Stefan Pavlović, Albert Kuhn, Bora LeeKil, Serjo Cuervo Gonzales, Sabine Groenewegen, Maria Iorio and Raphaël Cuomo, Arduino Tommasini, Anna Tommasini, Grazia Tommasini, Giovanna Stefano e Andrea, Viviane Haug, Yafit Taranto, Marleine Van der Werf, Robin Coops, Peter Hammer, Timo Geschwill, Ishaan Sinha, Roger Fähnderich, Teo di Giuseppe, Marcello Marini, Mieke Bernink, Kris Dekkers, Sabien Schütte, Wineke van Muiswinkel, Mirka Dujin, Eliane Bots, Bruno Scuderoni, Kasper Oerlemans, Vincent Mensink, Joana Schertenleib, Ken Tanaka, Eulalia Garcia Valls, Mai Spring, Joris Bressan, Maria Rull, Viola Poggiali, Valentina Bosia, Babeth Van Loo, Sonia Ceppi, Marco Pagani, Tania Stöckli, Federico Dolcet, Stefal Gonzetti, Stefert Pavlotti, Sert Leonetti, Borgia Pavlouhn Leevic, Cuergia Leonzalez Servo, and all the friends and encounters that in the last two years helped me to develop this project.

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What is visible at first sight?

What do you see, what do you notice?

THIS PAGE DOESN’T EXIST

The FAMILIARSCOPE is an optical instrument used for viewing familiar elements, such as objects, images or situations with the purpose of enabling one to reconsider the relevancy of what at first sight could appear ordinary. It works with ‘distance’, as it first creates the defamiliarization of the observed object, to then make space for subjective projection, thus allowing one to reconsider what is perceived.

More than an object, it is an attitude that just needs to be activated.

This User Manual offers guidance to develop the ability to use the familiarscope in everyday situations using simple and clear steps, letting the reader question their relationship with what is observed.

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- Space in between -