Mantra Photo Exhibition in Schio

During a recent evening walk, I visited a photo-exhibition at the beautiful Toaldi-Capra palace of Schio. The exhibition was titled Nel Mantra (In the Mantra) and it had stills from a short film made by a film-maker from Schio, Rocco Zaupa.

Photo-Exhibition

Many of the images in the exhibition were blurred, expressing motions and emotions, though from them it was difficult to make a rational idea about the film. At the beginning of the exhibition, a note explained that the underlying theme of the exhibition (and the film) was repetition, and thus the title, Nel Mantra, because a Mantra has to be repeated many times.

The images were from a short film about a film-shooting, in which a director named Gerda is directing two actresses. He makes them do the same scene again and again, till they are too tired to go on. This day of repetitions creates a kind of deep relationship between the director Gerda and one of the actresses called Anna.

Rocco Zaupa and Aurora Verducci

I had a brief interaction with Rocco and Aurora, two members of the team associated with the short film and this exhibition.

Rocco is from Schio, while Aurora is from Tuscany. They both met at the film school in Lucca (Tuscany).

They explained the basic idea of the film about repetition and how they can lead to the discovery of deeper meanings and connections. The images presented in the exhibition have been created from the videos they had shot for the film.

Comments

I can understand the idea of repetitions, by making you think and rethink of something, can lead you to see it from different angles and understand it better. It is a tiny idea and I am curious to see how they have translated this into an understanding of the relationship between two persons.

I think that even a decade ago, making a short-film on such a "tiny-sliver" of an idea and making an exhibition out of stills made from the video, would have been much more difficult, but today the technology helps to simplify everything and it is possible to take a wisp or a whisper, and make it germinate into something more substantial.

However, I am not sure if Mantra is the right word to express the act of repetitions leading to deeper or a different understanding, since Mantras are more about the sounds and not so much about meanings.

Credits

Photography & Post-Production: Federica Galiero

Graphics & Poster: Aurora Verducci

Photo Backstage: Federico di Malta

Video footage: Same Studio

Sound designer: Leonardo Santini

Text & Direction: Rocco Zaupa

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