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DA VINCI

“Da Vinci”: a name evocative of masterpieces in the history of art, but also a remotely manipulated medical robot allowing surgeons to perform operations. Yuri Ancarani, filmmaker and artist, with this film gives us access to the interior of a human body, in shades of blue evoking the “grotta azzura”, a mythical maritime cave in Capri. Here is observed the dance of the machines, a sign not of a dehumanized environment, but on the contrary of a human intelligence at work.

Ad lib
The sound sculpture Ad lib. combines a medical machine for automatic pulmonary ventilation with a few organ pipes that play a musical chord to the constant rhythm of the mechanical breath, creating an artificial organ that is metaphorically a mechanical requiem that sounds incessantly. The title of the work Ad lib., an abbreviation of the Latin expression “ad libitum”, is a musical caption that gives the performer discretion of interpretation, allowing for instance to repeat “at will” certain bars of the score. The sculpture aims to refer to the situation in which people, who suffer from critical health conditions, see their survival tied to a breathing machine and, therefore, to the discretion of those who are taking care of them.