The austrian, Amsterdam based visual artist Margret Wibmer invited me to design the artist book Relay, ‘an investigation into possibilities of re-activating a performance through the printed media’. We have worked in close collaboration on this project. The book features stills from the video work ‘Relay’ by Margret Wibmer and texts by Magdalena Kröner and Marianna Maruyama. It is published by VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst. First presented during Margret Wibmer solo-exhibition ‘Le visible et l’invisible’, curated by Sofie Crabbé at Bradwolff Projects Amsterdam. Distribution by Books on the move.
Softcover with metallic foil, 84 pages, video via QR code, German / English
For the collectors edition of Relay,a limited edition of 12, we have created a handmade box that contains the book and an original, signed fine art print (available on request).
Album pour la collection ‘SOunds of the Young Avant-Garde’, une collaboration Unsounds records et Gaudeamus. Ob-literate, Zeno vd Broek et Gagi Petrovic
experimental documentary / dance film. Video (2019) 26 min. / Language no problem.
A film by Isabelle Vigier and Valentina Campora, based on a dance piece by Valentina Campora, with music by Andy Moor and the participation of Elio Campora Moor.
Safe Piece originated in choreographer Valentina Campora’s personal experience of trying to combine her artistic work with being a mother. Having to care for a baby and at the same time trying to continue creating new work posed a personal challenge. As an experiment, she began exploring the possibilities of dancing with her baby. In the course of four years Campora has created eight performances, all of them including herself, her young son and his father, Campora’s partner Andy Moor, a musician himself, playing for a small audience. Each performance was filmed by visual artist Isabelle Vigier. Vigier used the video material to create the fim ‘Safe Piece’, and later the installation of the same name.
In the film we see how displacing a family from the home onto the stage allows for the emergence of new alleys of communication and play. Multi-faceted, evolving relationships occur between parents and child within the realm of music and dance. The film proposes an image of the passing of time as a positive, profoundly generative force: seeing a little boy growing up provides both a pace and an emotional frame to the film. The concepts of potential, loss, and realization are embedded in it.
Safe Piece publicly addresses private questions which are deeply relevant because they deal with fundamentals: the right to work, and the right to raise the future members of our society – in a social space where having children is often experienced as a limitation in terms of professional development. Safe Piece is an investigation into passion for making art and making a family.
THE MAKERS
Valentina Campora, an Italian performer and choreographer based in Amsterdam, NL, initiated the project and formed the team around it. She formulated the original concept and produced the live performances. She has developed the concept in close collaboration with Isabelle Vigier — culminating in the film and the installation of the same name.
Andy Moor (The Ex) is a well known musician improviser and composer of film music. He has worked in various projects with Campora as a live musician, composer, and often an advisor (for example ‘Clessidra, One to One’, ‘Identicality’ and in ‘A Divine Threesome’ by Gabriella Maiorino). Moor is Campora’s partner, and the father of their son. He is also responsible for the soundtrack of the installation version of ‘Safe Piece’.
Elio Chaly Campora Moor is Valentina Campora and Andy Moor’s child. He was seven month old at the beginning of the project.
Isabelle Vigier is the author of the film (2019) and the installation (2020), in close dialogue with Campora and Moor. Vigier and Moor have worked together on many projects in the past, including the live performance ‘Le Journaliste’, but also through the music label Unsounds, of which they are co-founders. Vigier and Campora started their collaboration with Safe Piece and have gone on to work on more projects together.
SAFE PIECE public presentations
Safe Piece (installation)
Movement Exposed Gallery Space, Utrecht, NL, sept/oct 2020
Safe Piece (film)
Rogue Dancer Festival, Vancouver, Canada, January 2021
Official Selection InShadow Festival, Lisbon December 20 Nov/13 Dec 2020
Premiére, Music dance Performance Festival, OT301, Amsterdam, june 2019
(Work in progress and performance) Teatro Akropolis Dance Festival Genova, IT, November 2018
(Work in progress) Performing arts Festival, Theater Frascati, Amsterdam, NL, 2018
(Work in progress ) Why Not Festival, Amsterdam, NL, 2017
FILM CREDITS
a film by Isabelle Vigier and Valentina Campora
Réalisation: Isabelle Vigier
Based on the performance ‘Safe Piece’ by Valentina Campora
Performers: Valentina Campora and Andy Moor with Elio Campora Moor
Music: Andy Moor
Cameras: Isabelle Vigier, Hanneke Kuijpers
Editing: Isabelle Vigier
Color calibration: Sergio Gridelli
Sound mastering: Andy Moor
Additional music: Temusewo Mukasa Uganda Harp ‘Okwagala omulungi kwesengereza’
Filmed on location in Amsterdam (NL): OT301, Leine&Roebana Studio, Zaal 100, De Balie, Plantage Dok, De Roode Biooscop and at Le Theatre de St. Nazaire (FR)
Production: Valentina Campora
Made with support by AFK Amsterdam Funds for the Arts, Theatre De Roode Biooscop and cultural center OT301, Amsterdam
Re:voir the label that publishes experimental cinema has invited me to design the edition on DVD of the films by American film maker Robert Kramer. Each volume presents a selection of films complemented with original texts, archive material, and photos from the Robert Kramer archive. 10 volumes are in the planning, we started with Guns (vol.04) in 2019. A collaboration with Re:voir, Keja Kramer and Cyril Beghin.
A collection of ten inch records between music and photography. This is a collaboration with music curator and label owner Philippe Delvosalle, (Okraïna records, By the Bluest of Seas records) and photographer Beata Szparagowska. Design of the labels’ identity and of each album, with a focus on editing of the photo series with the photographer.
