Upside Down

Philosophy:

The quantity of elements that compose our planet is incredible but sometimes it seems that we can’t grasp or fully appreciate them due to our inability to push our mind beyond. If we could only free ourselves from any block or limitation and deviate our perception in a mental dimension, maybe we would expand our horizons and extend our perceived impressions, enjoying life extensively.

Art helps us reaching this dimension by teaching us how to pick different aspects, even the banalest ones of our everyday life which we generally neglect but which can be the most interesting and surprising.

As Chagall used to claim through the characters, the animals and the objects which populate his landscapes, the artist challenges the laws of gravity, he makes us visitors with an unusual perspective; “I dive into my reflections and I fly above the world” he writes, telling about his paintings.

It’s an upside-down world, “ a man walking needs to mirror himself into his opposite to underline his movement” exactly as “ there isn’t a vertical vase, it is necessary for it to fall in order to prove its stability” the artist would write.

We can perceive in the same way “L’Ortolano o Ortaggi in una ciotola” by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the painting demonstrates how turning an image upside down puts up a whole different picture. To look at this image, on the contrary, we need to imitate the subject of the painting “the world upside-down” by Chagall: bend your head upside-down and enjoy your perceptions.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Marc Chagall

Project:

The video aims to be a philosophical interpretation of the way we see things inspired by art and its greatest interpreters.

Due to the infinite number of perceptions that can be caught in our lives, we focus on our personal reinterpretation of Chagall and Arcimboldo.

We shoot these videos in our hometown (Cremona, Italy) and we wanted to highlight that everyone can reach a high level of creativity, perceiving a world parallel to ours, made of pictures and generated by reflections and shadows.

The video is matched with a set of unusual sounds that bring us into a different dimension, the dimension of mental subconsciousness, a process that takes place inside our minds.

The ambiguity of the falling vase that falls multiple times but never breaks is also a reference to Chagall quotes: “ a vertical vase does not exist, it is necessary for it to fall in order to prove its stability”. And if it does not break that’s because we are in a different dimension in which we don’t know which is the right way and that’s exactly the reason why the vase cannot break. Who observes the flow of images could have its own free and personal interpretation.