Euforia Carogna – Rezza Mastrella
EUFORIA CAROGNA is an immersive, high-definition multimedia guide based on webVR (web in Virtual Reality) technology that can be used on-site and remotely. The innovative technological solution develops a new real-world tourist and cultural experience using Metaverse technologies, enabling a new deep relationship with Rezza and Mastrella’s works that is more inclusive and engaging.
Why
Digitized performances can be viewed by a larger and more diverse audience, including those who may not have had the opportunity to attend a live performance due to location, cost, or other factors. This permanent record of the show can also be preserved and accessed for future generations, and it can be viewed at any time and from any location, providing more flexibility for audiences. This comes with the fact that Digitizing a performance can be more cost-effective than producing a live performance, and can potentially generate revenue through online ticket sales or other digital distribution methods, although we decided to implement a free platform for all. New opportunities for experimentation arise with new forms of storytelling, special effects, and other innovative techniques that may not be feasible in a live performance setting.
What
The exhibition itself is presented as one big performance, in which cycles of stage sculptures used in Fotofinish, blow-ups taken from some theatrical performances, books on wheels and handmade, Quadri di luce, Quadri di Scena, Juggling Cards, Visi…Goti, musical instruments, fabric sculptures on mirrored sheets animate the space like fragile and impertinent intruders, while in some rooms videos, film fragments, theatrical actions and voices such as Il pianto del centauro are projected. A sort of vain party of works and images, costumes and small habitats, inviting the viewer to participate, to touch, to play the creative and uninhibited game to which Rezza gives voice and body and Mastrella support and structure. A perfect balance between order and chaos, rigor and improvisation, RezzaMastrella’s habitat and stage machine are capable of invading space and being invaded by the audience, of soliciting and being solicited by our reactions. CarraroLab tryes to recreate a new spatiality, a digital twin of the museum of Palazzo Collicola, where their works take on the features of a true form of autonomous life, a pulsating organ, a creative anarchy designed down to the smallest detail.
How
Narrating a story with virtual spaces can be done by creating a digital environment that corresponds to the setting of the story. This can be accomplished using virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) technology, or by creating 3D models and environments in a game engine or other software. The narrator can then guide the audience through the virtual space, providing context, descriptions, and interactions to help immerse the audience in the story. The use of sound effects and visual cues can also enhance the storytelling experience in virtual spaces.
However, CarraroLAB opts for a more symbolic approach, where signs in space represent specific actions. The immersive story-telling is not external and abstract, but concretized in the first-person in the virtual situations into which the visitor is teleported. The term “Story-Telling” can no longer be as useful as in traditional media. CarraroLAB prefers to use the neologism “Space-Telling.” In such story-telling, at the center is not the story, but the environment, the context that is being explored virtually. These virtual places also represent a digitalized version of Mastrella’s costumes. By creating digital copies of her costumes, Flavia Mastrella can ensure that their work is preserved in case the original costumes are damaged, lost, or destroyed. Digital copies can be stored and accessed easily, and can be reproduced as needed. They are also made available online, allowing a wider audience to access and appreciate her artwork. This can be especially valuable for people who are unable to travel to see the physical copies in person. Viewing them in digital form can provide an enhanced experience, as viewers can zoom in to examine details that might be difficult to see as spectators of their theatrical shows, and can view the sculpture from different angles. This document can also be used in educational settings to teach students about art and sculpture. This allows for new types of research, allowing scholars to study and analyze the costumes in new ways. The way Mastrella conceives her costumes is, moreover, particularly akin to the new immersive turn of the Internet. Her “habitats,” a term the artist uses to refer to his costumes, in fact extend into space, acquiring a dimension between dress and sculpture, playing conceptually between the design object and interior decoration. Such costumes are inhabited by Antonio Rezza, who moves them and gives them life. In the exhibition-performance created with CarraroLAB, such works are alive and performed by Rezza, allowing the viewer to understand the true meaning of the two artists’ joint work. However, the use of 360 video has aroused in Flavia Mastrella a renewed interest in artistic research. The author has already acknowledged that virtual reality can provide artists with new creative opportunities and can allow for experimentation and innovation in their work. 360-degree videos can be used to narrate a performance by allowing the viewer to experience the performance from multiple perspectives, and creating a more immersive viewing experience. The actor can interact with the environment around them, making the viewer feel like they are part of the scene. This can be achieved through the actor’s movements, gestures, and facial expressions. Careful use of 360-degree technology can allow the audience to experience a performance in a more immersive way, giving them the feeling of being in the audience or even on stage. This can make the viewer feel more connected to the performers and the performance. In this way, performers and producers can highlight details of the performance that might not be visible from a traditional fixed-camera perspective. For example, viewers can see the costume performed from different angles, or focus on different parts of the stage or set. The use of sound effects can further enhance the immersive experience. For example, if the actor is performing in a busy street, the sound of cars passing by or people talking in the background can make the viewer feel like they are really there. In the case of “Euforia Carogna,” the background sound was carefully chosen by Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella, made to go along with the user’s path inside the virtual museum, and radically altering his perception of the digital place. it is, in sum, a way to induce the user to believe that he is present inside a dynamic and living space. This allows for a more dynamic narrative of the performance. For example, the camera can be used to follow performers as they move across the stage, using visual cues to draw the viewer’s attention to different parts of the performance. The performances can also be made more accessible to people who might not be able to attend in person, such as those who live far away or have physical limitations that prevent them from attending in person. Overall, 360-degree videos can help to create a more engaging and immersive experience for the viewer and can provide new opportunities for performers and producers to tell their stories in innovative ways.
Where
The original venue for Euphoria Carogna is Palazzo Collicola. the place wants to be in itself a “monstrum” i.e. prodigy exhibition, which announces itself right from the entrance staircase of the museum and swaggering inside the austere and noble spaces of Palazzo Collicola and its collection of paintings, mirrors, tapestries, wall paintings and antique furniture, where history observes contemporaneity through the stern or impassioned gazes of cardinals, saints, madonnas, and martyrs, hanging on the walls of the Hall of Honor, the Chapel and all 15 rooms in which the exhibition’s itinerary unfolds, culminating in a large, threadlike and transparent installation suspended along the Painted Gallery.
The same sense of strangeness and creative madness is intended to be preserved in the virtual version of the exhibition, generated through SPORES. the contribution of CarraroLab thus makes it possible to perceive the original location of the work, virtually, anywhere on the planet.
When
Euforia Carogna‘s original exhibition at Palazzo Collicola took place from June 25, 2022 to September 25, 2022. However, its virtual dimension created for SPORES is freely accessible via the web. This implies that it can be enjoyed at any time.
Who
CarraroLAB has been active from the start of the project with Roberto Carraro. The research path of Roberto Carraro has focused since the 1980s on the development of digital languages in a cultural and artistic sense. Roberto Carraro, with his brother Gualtiero, can be considered one of the pioneers of multimedia in Italy. Roberto shot the 360-degree footage on location, and the CarraroLAB team edited the result, creating the EUFORIACAROGNA website.
Originally from Anzio, Flavia Mastrella is a multifaceted artist. She began her artistic career making ceilings and painted glass in houses, offices and clubs. Between 1977 and 1986 she made paintings, sculptures and agglomerates that she exhibited in municipal spaces or galleries, while editing volumes. In 1987 he met Antonio Rezza, a theater performer with whom he would begin a long artistic association, under the name “Rezzamastrella.” From there, the duo collaborates successfully in the world of performing arts and contemporary art, such as between the years 1989 and1990, where Mastrella curates the staging of Visi…Goti portraits of Antonio Rezza photographed by Angelo Frantini, featured in Euforia Carogna. Flavia Mastralla maintains a very high level of quality, working crosswise in theater, art, set design, the manufacture of innovative objects, and now, thanks to the experimentation of SPORES, also in new technologies.
Antonio Rezza was born in Novara on March 5, 1965. He moved with his family to Nettuno in 1967 and lived and worked in the same city until February 2019. Since then, he has therefore been working in Anzio. Rezza is considered one of the most influential actors in Italy.
Since 1987, Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza have created fourteen plays performed by Rezza. Extracts of these plays have been shown on the television channels RAI 1, RAI 2, CANALE 5, TMC, VIDEOMUSIC, ITALIA UNO, LA SEPT ART and the plays have reaped awards at all the major international comedy festivals (Cetona, Forte dei Marmi, Grottammare, Polverigi). In 1990 they set up the photographic exhibition The Visi…goths held in Giovanni Semerano’s gallery “Il Fotogramma”: ironic simulations of concepts, objects and characters are projected, and chase one another, on A. Rezza’s face. F. Mastrella was in charge of the stage design, Angelo Fratini was the author of the photographs, and A. Rezza and Massimo Camilli conceived the exhibition. “Il Fotogramma” will hold every initiative of the duo until 1998. In 1991 the duo shoots the short film Suppietij (winner of the first prize at the Fano Film Festival). In the same year, Beard and Tie is shown in French at the Avignon Festival. In 1993 Flavia Mastrella exhibits Implosions (sculptures relating the feelings of the Lattonauti, a nomadic population) in Roma at the Cultural Centre of the Image “Il Fotogramma” and Autopathy (Emotions behind the wheel) in Calcata’s Porta Rossa gallery.The duo starts working with Filippo D’Angelo’s Vitagraph.They shoot the short films Confusus (Golden Seagull at Bellaria) and International Torpor. In 1994 they shoot and act in the short films De Civitate Rei (winner of the first prize for cinematography at Castrocaro) and The Guard/The Great Cry (first prize at the Turin Film Festival section “Young Cinema”) The following year they produce and act in the short film Schizo-pathy, and in an infinite series of micro lengthfilms broadcast on RAI 3 “Blob” and “Fuori orario”. In 1996 they shoot Escoriandoli, a full-length film which was shown at the Venice Film Festival. In 1997 Escoriandoli is shown in Moscow as part of a festival dedicated to Italian cinema. In 1998, thanks to Elisabetta Sgarbi, Antonio Rezza’s novel of many pretences Non cogito ergo digito, is published by Bompiani. In the summer of 1999, I is performed in Ostia Antica’s theatre. Antonio Rezza’s second novel, Ti squamo, is published by Bompiani. In the same year Flavia Mastrella exhibits a selection of sculptures from The Emotion Made Sound at Zürich’s Kongresshaus and exhibits the video installation Angels in the eyes of Alberto at Rome’s “Il Fotogramma”. The year 2000 sees the duo filming another nine monographic episodes of Troppolitani, once again for RAI. The editing is by Lorenzo Michelazzi. In the summer of the same year they shoot the film Murder on the River Po edited by Eugenio Smith. In the autumn of 2000, Enrico Ghezzi dedicates an evening of RAI 3’s “Fuori Orario” to the duo. In 2008 Antonio Rezza started filming the film Hypothesis of films about the dead Christ. Rezza wins the Feronia award with the novel I Believe in a Single Oblivion. In 2009, the duo starts collaborating with the Fondazione Teatro Piemonte Europa. F. Mastrella exhibits a video installation of Autopatia in Rome’s Palazzo dei Congressi. In the same year, Artissima holds an abridged version of the project From the Pocket-Sculptures to Bahamuth in Turin. In January of 2010, Rezza/Mastrella introduced, in Madrid and in Palencia, Pitecus in Spanish and carried out at Milan’s Smeraldo theatre. In June of 2011 they introduce 7-14-21-28 in Paris, at Théatre de la Ville during the Festival Face à Face. Then, they create inside the Napoli Teather Festival Italia at the ex Asilo Filangeri Performance Art as part of A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man – curated by Lorenzo Gleijeses. In April 2012, published by Barbes book “La noia incarnita” – the theater involuntary Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza by Rossella Bonito Oliva. In November of the same year he made his debut in Turin and Rome the last show Fratto_X, in coproduction with TPE Foundation of Turin and La Fabbrica dell’Attore – Vascello Theatre of Rome. In May 2013 they are assigned the Prix Hystrio-Other Muse “Where performance intertwines with contemporary art, improvisation with meticulous scenic-dramaturgical work, provocation with the ability to speak to people, laughter with horror. And this in the theater as in the cinema, on bookshelves, even on the small screen”. In January 2014 Mastrella exhibited at the Mambo – The Museum of Modern Art of Bologna directed by Gianfranco Maraniello, the exhibition “Sculture in tasca. L’esaltazione dell’insignificante”. In Matera, within Materadio Rai3, they present Fratto_X on the radio, commented off the pitch by F.Mastrella and Laura Palmieri. In November 2014, published by Il Saggiatore book “Clamori al vento” – Clamori al vento. L’arte, la vita, i miracoli di Flavia Mastrella e Antonio Rezza. In November 2015 they presented the last show Anelante in Turin Teather Astra. June 2016, they are awarded the Naples Prize “the first and only Italian award given to personalities who stand out for their contribution to language and culture regardless of eminently literary production”. In October of the same year Pitecus was represented in New York at La MaMa Experimental Theater. In December, the film Milano, Via Padova, edited by Barbara Faonio and released with the help of Alessandro Massi and the Gaetano Bertini Margarini’s no-profit Fondation, was released with an independent distribution: Rezza/Mastrella; the work is presented in independent circuits throughout Italy and in March 2017 in New York as part of the Segal Center Film Festival on Theater and Performance. In 2018 they created the television program “La tegola e il caso” edited by Barbara Faonio, for RAI 3. In 2019, La Milanesiana awarded them the Golden Rose Award. In 2020 they realized the short movies Molossi, Deserto – Non tempo e Autoritratto, the latter presented at the Turin book fair and the feature film Samp selected in the SPECIAL EVENTS section of the 17th edition of Giornate degli Autori within the Venice Film Festival.They have been collaborating for several years with La Fabbrica dell’Attore Teatro Vascello.
For Whom
The work is intended for a very wide audience. Since this is a virtual realization epseribile in webvr, it does not even require an application to function, but simply the local Internet connection. As the latter is one of the infrastructural priorities of countries around the world, it allows Euforia Carogna to fly over national borders and be experienced all over European soil, and potentially anywhere the web can be accessed.
This allows anyone to experience the work, and to navigate the virtual museum.
Euphoria Carrion is, moreover, a cross-device technology. This means that it can be viewed via smartphones, personal computers, and potentially viewers. Such hardware also allows content to be viewed by those who would otherwise be limited by physical disabilities. It is therefore a technology devoted to the greatest possible accessibility.
Spore License
EUFORIACAROGNA will adhere, as it sees fit, to the Spore license.