On the occasion of her exhibition in the Level 2 Gallery, Rosa Barba has put together a screening programme of her single-channel film works followed by a conversation with curator Ben Borthwick. Informed by a social and cultural research, her films and subjects are constructions of peculiar monuments in society, re-interpreted and translated into another reality by adding fictional elements and distillations of filmic forms. These fictional places are constructed by researching phenomena of the past of a certain place and relocating them into a possible future or by observing a yet unknown community.
Rosa Barba sees the physical and mental locations she uses as ‘documentary maps’ into which she places her fictions. The physical locations also carry traces of history as in They Shine, while sometimes the inner landscapes are carried by the protagonists as in Panzano. The community in this film is separated from its original context and placed into a new setting to reveal unexplored aspects of its existence. These authentic persons are not actors and merge their real life experiences with the fiction and thus add new their own perspectives and interpretations.
Supported by the Italian Cultural Institute, London
