Perceptions of a real event: Tensions between the seen and the unseen in performance and its video documentation

Shemilt, Emile

Abstract

The early international history of video art remains contested and most narratives focus upon a fragment. The narrative in Italy was by its nature international, and holds up a mirror to the development of video across the world. Italy was a vibrant centre of video art production and exhibition throughout the 1970s and 1980s. This early experimentation attracted artists from all over the world and laid the foundation for video art. However since then, early Italian video art has received only scant international exposure. Its contribution to the history of video as an art form has for too long escaped the recognition that it so unequivocally deserves.

Edited by Laura Leuzzi and Stephen Partridge, 'REWINDItalia Early Video Art in Italy' aims to bring the Italian, seminal, early video experimentation back into the international spotlight and provide a unique resource for research and study. This book is the main output of the REWINDItalia project, funded by the AHRC, and is the culmination of archival research, interviews with artists, seminal essays, translated for the first time into English, plus newly commissioned texts by leading scholars and artists, and a wide selection of video stills and other images.

Authors include: Renato Barilli, Maria Gloria Bicocchi, Lola Bonora, Silvia Bordini, Paolo Cardazzo, Cinzia Cremona, Sean Cubitt, Bruno Di Marino, Simonetta Fadda, Vittorio Fagone, Marco Maria Gazzano, Luciano Giaccari, Mirco Infanti, Laura Leuzzi, Sandra Lischi, Adam Lockhart, Stephen Partridge, Cosetta G. Saba, Emile Shemilt, Studio Azzurro, Valentina Valentini, Grahame Weinbren.

Foreword by Don Foresta; introduction by Stephen Partridge; the volume closes with The Chronology of Video Art in Italy (1952–1992), by Valentino Catricalà and Laura Leuzzi. Translation by Simona Manca.

Citation

Shemilt, E. (2015). Perceptions of a real event: Tensions between the seen and the unseen in performance and its video documentation. In L. Leuzzi, & S. Partridge (Eds.), Rewind Italia: Early Video Art in Italy / I primi anni della videoarte in Italia (291-301). John Libbey Publishing

• Online Publication Date: Jun 1, 2016
• Publication Date: 2015
• Deposit Date: Jan 27, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 291-301
• Book Title: Rewind Italia: Early Video Art in Italy / I primi anni della videoarte in Italia
• ISBN: 9780861967216
• Keywords: video art; art history; media studies; film studies; Italian art history
• Publisher URL: https://rewind.ac.uk/publications/rewinditalia-early-video-art-in-italy-i-primi-anni-della-videoarte-in-italia/