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Christian Niccoli interviewed by Lisa Mazza (Office Manager, Manifesta 7, Trentino-Alto Adige), published in Works - art in progress by Galleria Civica d'Arte Contemporanea di Trento, nr. 20, 2007
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Lisa Mazza: Human Interactions are the centre of your artistic production. Your artworks are a self-analysis and at the same time a critical observation of society. How do you develop your ideas?
Christian Niccoli: It’s difficult to say what inspires me. Mine are not ideas, rather intuitions, sparks that lead me to focus on a problem (mine or of others) for a long time. What’s more, an intuition, to work, has to grow in time, it must be seen to be really valid and necessary. The main image of the film I have just shot, for example, came about while I was cycling around in Berlin of an evening of the winter 2002-03.
L.M.: Can you describe the process that, from an initial spark, develops in your mind and than takes form?
C.N.: This spark is generally a problem, a dilemma that I take with me, and that I also find through friends and acquaintances. When I have an intuition, a spark as a matter of fact, it generally has also an aesthetic connotation, it is therefore an image. Every time I find myself in front of the same dilemma, of the same problem (also in my daily life), that precise image comes back to me. With time I try to understand if it is actually important, if it truly has value and strength. The transposition process from an image to a film is generally dictated by practical factors. Since my movies are generally an abstract and metaphorical representation of reality, it is necessary to see what can actually be translated into film terms.
L.M.: The theme of the family and the theme of your interpersonal relationships are very present in your videos. You have been living in Berlin for five years now. Could you describe in which way your South Tyrolean roots influence you when you think of these themes, or do you hold that your origin does not influence your work?
C.N.: It is not much a thematic question, rather a way of observing reality. I have the impression that one of the factors that marked my youth and adolescence was the influence that religion and laws have on society, their importance in ruling over your life between private space (home) and public space (outside world). I was struck by my contact with the world of farmers (of the Badia valley) that under certain aspects is very simple and essential, but also very direct. A banal example: in 2005 I did a project in Istanbul. During my stay I walked through the very poor quarters of the city. I remember I saw one day some kids at the bus stop. Their faces, the way they moved, reminded me of the native village of my mother, in the Badia Valley, and the young people gathered in front of the church after mass.
L.M.: What projects have you been working on lately and what would you like to make in the near future?
C.N.: In this period I am working on a cycle of two films and a sculpture entitled Das Problem der Freiheit. Through this series I wish to reflect on the conflict experienced by young Berliners, who on one hand must be and want to be free and flexible, and on the other need to be secure and safe. In my first work, coproduced by the Institut für Neue Medien in Rostock and by the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen of Potsdam, you can see about a hundred people of an age between twenty-five and thirty-eight who float in the open sea, each with their own life preserver. Among the "castaways" a game of glances starts that in part is soaked in envy and contempt towards the others.
As form my future, I would like to work on a project on the re-definition of the concept of "Heimat" (motherland) in South Tyrol, meaning how globalization is changing the points of reference that grant cultural identity in South Tyrol.
We, South Tyroleans, for hundreds of years have had great difficulties in moving, even from one valley to the other. Through this bondage we have however long maintained a geographically and culturally well-defined sense of belonging. Now that the coordinates are radically changing (migration, climate, tourism, mobility, etc.), will it be necessary to redefine the points of reference and if so, what will they be?
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