BolognaFiere and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Opera House on

BolognaFiere and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Opera House on the occasion of the 40th anniversary
of Arte Fiera announce the national premier of the remarkable work by Mathew Barney, River of
Fundament, an international art event that brings together cinema, music, performance and theatre
in a great opera.
Following its preview at the Manchester International Festival the film River of Fundament has enjoyed
success in London, Munich and Los Angeles. Now set to premiere in Italy in the city of the Two Towers,
this special event will celebrate
the 40th edition of the International Fair for Modern and Contemporary Art.
River of Fundament will be projected on the 29th January at 5.30pm at the Teatro Comunale Opera
House. Tickets will be available for 500 visitors of Arte Fiera at a special price.
A unique event will celebrate 40 years of Arte Fiera, which is due to take place in Bologna from the 29th January
to the 1st February 2016. Thanks to a collaboration between the International Fair for Modern and Contemporary
Art and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Foundation, the city will host the Italian premier of the River of
Fundament (2014), which will be shown on the 29th January at 5.30pm at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and
open to 500 visitors to Arte Fiera. Tickets can be purchased online from the 7th January at www.artefiera.it
The feature length production, which has already been shown at some of the world’s leading avant-garde
venues - as was underlined by Nicola Sani at the opening conference - including the Bayerische Staatsoper in
Munich, Ruhrtriennale in Essen, the Center for the Art of Performance in Los Angeles, English National Opera’s
London Coliseum and the IFC Center in New York, represents a combination of arts that brings together cinema,
music and theatre in a single great opera. The film was written and directed by Mathew Barney with music by
Jonathan Bepler and produced by Mathew Barney and the Laurenz Foundation. Following the preview of River
of Fundament at the Manchester International Festival the artists are now presenting the work all over the world.
The event was announced today at the Teatro Comunale. In attendance was Duccio Campagnoli, President of
BolognaFiere, Nicola Sani, Superintendent of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Davide Conte, Bologna City
Council Assessor for Culture and Relationships with the University, Lorenzo Sassoli De Bianchi, President of the
Institution of Bologna Museums and Paul Clay, Executive Producer of Manchester International Festival.
This represents an “extraordinary initiative for the special 40th edition of Arte Fiera,” explains President
Campagnoli. “We are extremely pleased that it has originated from the collaboration between BolognaFiere, Arte
Fiera and the Teatro Comunale, where the showing will take place on the day of the opening of the event, the
29th January. When it was first proposed to me to bring to Italy, for the 40th anniversary of ArteFiera, such an
important work, my discussions with the artistic directors concluded that this could be the best possible present
that ArteFiera could give to its home city: presenting the work of an outstanding protagonist of the international
art scene with an event that will also be a national premiere, not a film but a genuine work of audio-visual art of
communication and experimentation. This surprise ‘gift’ for this important anniversary has resulted from the
commitment, imagination and cultural authority of the Teatro Comunale and of the President of the Institution of
Bologna Museums and will be incorporated into the circuit of events of Art City that we are creating as part of the
important collaboration with the Bologna City Council”.
“The film,” explained Sassoli de Bianchi, “was conceived as an opera and it forms part of a wider project that
includes also an exhibition of 85 sculptures on display in Los Angeles. Mathew Barney has worked more as a
sculpture than as a director, using a spirit that can be defined as baroque. The real protagonist is the music with
the images constructed like a musical score”.
Form its origins in diverse experiments inspired by Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings, Mathew Barney
and Jonathan Bepler created the film project in seven parts entitled River of Fundament, combining traditional
cinematic narrative instruments with elements of live performance, sculpture and opera, in such a way as to
enable the presentation of the work in opera houses and theatres in an evening divided into two parts. Set in
pre-Christian Egypt, Mailer’s plot describes in detail the seven stages of the soul between death and rebirth
according to Egyptian mythology. The film takes in the participation of a wide range of guests, both real - from
Mailer’s intellectual circle in the US - to the imaginary, such as some that derive from the world of Cremaster,
and it has incorporated ‘site specific’ representations held over the years in important cities in the USA, such as
Los Angeles, Detroit and New York. The result is a fresco that is simultaneously violent, erotic, imbued with dark
humour and deeply rooted in the modern American imagination.
The event is part of the fourth edition of ART CITY Bologna, the institutional programme of exhibitions, events
and special initiatives promoted by the Bologna Council in collaboration with BolognaFiere that between the 29th
and 31st January 2016 will accompany the 40th edition of Arte Fiera with a rich calendar of over 50 appointments
for an increasingly advanced interdisciplinary blend of different forms of artistic expressions.
The special offer price of 25 euros incudes access to Arte Fiera together with a seat in the Teatro Comunale for
the showing of River of Fundament.
Matthew Barney
Born in 1967 in San Francisco, Mathew Barney lives and works in New York and Reykjavik. On graduating from
Yale in 1989 the artist made an immediate impact on the world art scene, exhibiting at the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art (1991, 1996 and 2000), then Documenta 9 (1992), Tate Britain (1995) and the
Guggenheim (2002). In 1994 Mathew Barney launched the cycle Cremaster, his most complex work, which
consists of five feature length films that he wrote, directed and in which he also performs. The cycle explores the
creation of gender and sexuality, constructing its own mythology. For each film Mathew Barney created
sculptures, produced photographic work and created drawings of the inherent themes and images of the cycle.
An exhibition of the entire cycle was exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York in 2002.
The series Drawing Restraint explores resistance and creativity, in particular how the body responds to the
strengthening of resistance. Drawing Restraint 9, probably the key to the entire series, is a 143 Minute film shot
in digital and transferred onto 35mm film, in which Barney also performs. The film blends Japanese history and
culture with Mathew Barney’s interests to create a metamorphosis and the states of passage.
Jonathan Bepler
Born in Philadelphia, Bepler was already self-taught in many musical instruments when he enrolled at
Bennington College in 1982. He went on to specialize in Composition with Louis Calabro, Improvisation with Bill
Dixon, Percussion with Milford Graves and Performance with diverse artists and choreographers, including Lisa
Nelson and Min Tanaka. His interest for blending disciplines continued in New York, where his work often saw
him bring together seemingly disparate elements, urged on by his love for chaos and a desire for reconciliation.
Among the choreographers to have worked with him are John Jasperse, Sasha Waltz, Jennifer Lacey and Wally
Cardona. As a multi-instrumentalist he led ensembles both with improvised works and those following music
scores, performing often in New York and Europe.
Among the notable commissions assigned to him are those for l’Ensemble Modern, the Glenn Branca Ensemble
and the Basel Synfonietta. He has also worked with the artist Ann-Sofi Siden for the Royal Dramatic Theatre of
Sweden and his work has been seen and heard in Stockholm and Berlin.
His collaboration with Mathew Barney began twenty years ago and has included 7 films and 9 performances.
Jonathan Bepler lives and works in Berlin.
Entrance to the film “River of Fundament” is not permitted to those under 18 years of age.
Press Material for River of Fundament available for download from the following link:
http://bit.ly/riverof
Press Material for Arte Fiera available for download from the following link:
http://bit.ly/ARTEFIERA2016.
INFO
www.artefiera.it
Press Office
Arte Fiera
Arthemisia Group
Adele Della Sala | [email protected] | M. +39 345 7503572
Nicolas Ballario I [email protected] | M. +39 346 0243694
BolognaFiere
Gregory Picco | [email protected] | T. +39 051 282862 | M. +39 334 6012743