The Artist looks at paradoxes of contemporary art
The Artist [+see also:
trailer
film profile], an Italian/Argentinean co-production directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastòn Duprat and a hit in the official selection of last year’s Rome International Film Festival, uses subtle irony to explore the world of contemporary art. It tells the story of Jorge Ramirez, a nursing home nurse who appropriates the art of one of his patients and thereby turns the mechanism of the art upside down, revealing its subtle games.
The Artist thus reflects upon a theme central to art: that the artist’s creative genius is countered by market strategies, the needs of curators and the pretences of gallery owners and the public.
The cast includes Alberto Laiseca, Sergio Pangaro and León Ferrari. The low-budget film was produced by Eduardo Costantini and Alfredo Federico for Costa Films and Fernando Sokolowicz for Aleph Media, in association with Ferrari, Gianluigi Gardani and Tore Sansonetti for Barter Films.
The Artist boasts collaborators renowned in the modern art world: screenwriter Andrés Duprat is a curator, manager of cultural programmes and architect while Ferrari is an internationally celebrated artist.
The film is being released today in Italy by Cinecittà Luce on 21 screens.
(Translated from Italian)
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