Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

"Animal" explores the concept of animation. Creating a parallel between the “uncanny valley” of the archaic tradition of puppetry and recent technological developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, the film is inspired by a series of conversations with scientists and researchers from the robotics labs at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Footage from the EPFL alternates with images from the ancient Carlo Colla & Figli Marionette Company in Milan. The structure of the film resembles both an inventory of images and an audiobook, combining the aseptic atmospheres of scientific laboratories with the archaic dimension of puppetry, weaving together these figures and punctuating them with black frames.

Riccardo Giacconi has studied fine arts at the IUAV University of Venezia. His work has been exhibited in various institutions, such as Grazer Kunstverein (Graz), ar/ge kunst (Bolzano), MAC (Belfast), WUK Kunsthalle Exnergasse (Vienna), FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (Reims), tranzitdisplay (Prague), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin). He was artist-in-residence at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne, Switzerland), Centre international d'art et du paysage (Vassivière, France), lugar a dudas (Cali, Colombia), MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome and Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen (Innsbruck, Austria). He presented his films at several festivals, including the New York Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Visions du Réel and FID Marseille, where he won the Grand Prix of the International Competition in 2015. He co-founded the collective listening festival ‘Helicotrema’ and the audio storytelling studio ‘Botafuego’. He is Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston.