The
film was shot in 8mm cassette in January 2005 in a remote location
of Italy's western Alps. A first version, with different editing,
was screened in April 2005 at The Sage Gateshead, Newcastle (UK)
during a My Cat Is An Alien's live performance. The final editing
was made in 2008, adding an original soundtrack by My Cat Is An
Alien. This version has been published in a CD/DVD set in 2009 by
American label Atavistic and presented at Netwerk Center for Contemporary
Art in Aalst (Belgium) in March 2009, at Octubre CCC (Centre de
Cultura Contemporània) in Valencia (Spain) in April 2009,
at Netmage.10 International Live-Media Festival at Palazzo Re Enzo,
Bologna (Italy) in January 2010, and at other international art
spaces and multimedia festivals.
For
the film Roberto Opalio made a two-meter-tall alien figure in iron
wire, one of the main features inhabiting his own artistic imaginary,
and symbol of the transfiguration of the existential vision of the
last human being on Earth. The Alien is the character of Light_Earth_Blue_Silver.
This film shows the Alien's physical and existential voyage along
a mountain track, where snow, rocks, white birches and pinetrees
mark out its way to heaven. As all Opalio's works, the film has
multiple levels of interpretation
"[..]
Light_Earth_Blue_Silver,
a 35 minute 'dual film' shot in 8mm by Roberto using a handheld
cine camera in the Western Alps, communicates this sense of immediacy
with great concentration and power. Its sole protagonist is a large
wire model of the Alien icon Roberto has been featuring in paitings
and drawings over many years. A stick figure with widely extended
arms and legs, its head is a single sharply elliptical eye, permanently
open and staring out at the universe that surrounds it. In a series
of raw ritual gestures, the Alien is dragged and pushed through
a rough winter landscape: shown across two screens, the twitching
of the wire limbs makes it appear as if the Alien were writhing
and crawling over the snow-covered rocks and brown, bare earth.
To MCIAA's intense soundtrack, the Alien becomes entangled with
branches, twigs and lichen until at the movie's climax, he is seen
moving upright against a blue Alpine sky.[..]" -
Ken Hollings (from 'A Homemade Universe', The Wire #331 cover article,
September 2011).
The
film is available through ATAVISTIC
WORLDWIDE in the CD/DVD set 'Through the Magnifying Glass of
Tomorrow' _____________________________________________________________________________________________
ALIEN BLOOD
a film by Roberto Opalio
soundtrack by My Cat Is An Alien
2008 | 41 minutes | 4:3 | color | stereo
proudly filmed in 8mm
This film
has been selected by New York group Sonic Youth as part of the SONIC
YOUTH etc.: SENSATIONAL FIX
touring exhibition, and was shown at several European museums of
contemporary arts from 2008 to 2010:
LiFE museum - St Nazaire, France (June-Sept 2008)
Museion - Bolzano, Italy (Oct 2008-Jan 2009)
Kunsthalle - Dusseldorf, Germany (Jan 31-Apr 26, 2009)
Konsthall - Malmo, Sweden (May 29-Sept 20, 2009)
CA2M - Madrid, Spain (Jan 29-May 2, 2010)
Still
images of Roberto Opalio's film 'Alien Blood'
appears in the exhibition's official art catalog: VVAA -
SONIC YOUTH etc.: SENSATIONAL FIX(2009)
Published
by: Walther König
Format: Hbk, 7.25 x 7.25 in. / 720 pgs / 700 color / two 7-inch
records.
Edited by Roland Groenenboom
The publication is available in English, French, German and Italian
My Cat Is An Alien's
original soundtrack to the film has been published as a private press vinyl-only
art edition on Opax Records in 2008.
In 2011 a digital version of the soundtrack has been included in
My Cat Is An Alien 'ALIENOLOGY:
Selected Works 1998-2008' 10 CD
Box Set
published by Elliptical Noise (CAN).
This film has been
used as official video to
My Cat Is An Alien's track taken from 'What
Space Is Made For' 3CD BOX (Elliptical Noise, Canada, 2011),
selected for The Wire magazine's Tapper CD Compilation (March 2011).
Filmed on March 21st,
2006, the video represents a visionary, introspective view of the
empty spaces over the city, Torino. Through a unique, hand-manipulated
shot made in real-time, Roberto Opalio's poetic fragmentation and
distortion of real objects recalls early film experiments by Man
Ray, as well as a certain Warholian psychedelia in the use of filtered
light as a main principle of creation / perception of one's own
reality. The soundtrack, recorded the same day appositely, leads
to a further estrangement with the use of Opalio's looped wordless
vocals and electronics merging into a heavy, ecstatic stream of
sounds.
Both film and music
were recorded by Roberto Opalio at home in Torino, Italy on November
1st, 2005; the artist set his 8mm camera on the balcony and filmed
his own glass art creation entitled 'The Angel of Glass' animated
by the soft light of a candle under a blackened sky.
