RITRACCIA [2025]

Dual-channel digital video | 00:10:51 | Colour / Black-&-white | Stereo | 32:9

Co-created with Cathy Lee Crane​

 

VIEW:

​

RITRACCIA (retrace) is inspired by the spectre of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. Two discrete single-channel works are presented together as a dual-screen work.

 

Cathy Lee Crane’s Adrift [right screen] follows a woman who has come to Rome to die. On her journey through the city, she encounters a young girl who taunts her with visions of lost innocence. This film follows the protagonist as she retraces and redraws a new trajectory through the locations of Pasolini’s films.

 

John Di Stefano’s Murmurations (Rome) [left screen] retraces paths at two historical sites in Rome, reanimating their political and ideological significance: the Foro Italico, an example of Italian Fascist architecture; and the Fosse Ardeatine, a Roman catacomb where, during World War II, 330 Italian civilians were massacred by German occupation troops as a reprisal for a partisan attack.
 

The work is narrated by Pasolini who reads excerpts from his poem, The Ashes of Gramsci (1957).

.

SHOWN

Pasolini: Durations, Casa Italiana - Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, New York, US (2025)