by Vivien Bittencourt e Vincent Katz, USA/Italy 2006, 44'
In the 1980s, Kiki Smith revolutionized methods of depicting the female body in sculpture by fragmenting and breaking down the hierarchy of internal organs and external body parts. The film reveals the individuality of her work, following the American artist as she prepares the highly personal exhibit Homespun Tales: Story of Domestic Occupation for the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice during the 2005 Biennale.
At work in her home in New York, among drawings and plaster, clay and ceramic sculpture, the artist keeps circling around the same objects, years later, questioning the form of the representing the body, that vessel of experience, trauma and memory. The ideal exposition space, then, becomes the private one at home, where things flower, and the second half of the film documents the period of mounting the show and the invasion of the ancient Venetian palace
Vivien Bittencourt
Born in 1962 in Sao Paolo (Brazil), Vivien Bittencourt has lived in New York since 1987, where she works as a photographer. In 1988, with Vincent Katz, she made a documentary series about contemporary artist and poets.
Vincent Katz
Poet, Rranslator, editor, art critic and curator, he has published critical works on Francesco Clemente, Jim Dine, Kiki Smith, Philip Taafe, Cy Twombly. Since 1998 he has worked with Vivien Bittencourt on making art documentaries.