Fluent Collab Interview | issue # 57

Interview II: Roberto Bellini

Roberto Bellini is an MFA student working in the Transmedia group at the University of Texas at Austin Department of Art and Art History. His video Landscape Theory (2005) begins with the dialogue below. You can watch the video in its entirety on Bellini’s website www.rbellini.org (look under video work, it’s third on the list). We talked to Bellini about what it was like making this work and how it has been received by audiences in the United States, Eurpoe and Bellini’s native Brazil.

Can I ask what you’re doin’?
Videotaping the birds…
You know there’s a…
…they come here on the sunset. I just wanted to get…
People are kinda, …kinda edgy about gettin’ their picture taken.
I’m sure the birds won’t mind, will they?
Huh?
The birds won’t mind.
No, but the people in this computer company right here do.
Computer company?
Yeah.
Think if I just…
Do you watch the news or anything or read the paper?
Yeah, I do. I think it’s kinda foolish though.
Well, you know, we only can be wrong one time and you see what happens.
Yeah, I know.

Do you know where I could do this without it being a problem?
Ha. No, I sure don’t.
People are kinda on edge about takin’ pictures.

…might be good: I’m interested in a number of the pieces that you’ve made in the past year, Roberto, but I was hoping to focus on your video Landscape Theory (2005) today. Describe what the conditions were like when you made that piece, if you would.

Roberto Bellini: Well, I was just beginning my work here in the Transmedia program at UT and I was still pretty confused by my new surroundings. I decided that the best way to start was to just go out and shoot some “landscapes.” I remember being amazed by the all these beautiful Texas sunsets! So the first time I put my tripod and camera down to shoot something I was approached by this security guard who then proceeded to try and convince me to stop videotaping. I later used this dialogue as the base for my video, along with the other shots I took during that day and the next.

…mbg: Where have you exhibited this piece and how have people reacted to it?

RB: This piece has been shown at the 15th Video Brasil Festival in São Paulo, the Kunst Film Biennale in Germany, and another Brazilian festival called “Imagem dos Povos” in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. It’s interesting for me to see how people from different places read this video… they seemed to understand the implications of what was being said-of just how dangerous and limiting that kind of mentality can be. But I am most fulfilled when the audience reads beyond North America’s specific situation and re-assess just how fragile some basic freedoms are.

…mbg: Have you ever starred in one of your video’s before or was this your debut?

RB: I appear in a few of my videos, but it’s usually subtle, like in Interval (2005) where I go around my hometown in Brazil drinking coffee. My hands are always in the frame, but the piece is about everything that’s behind the hands. I usually stay away from turning the camera on myself… it’s just not that interesting.

…mbg: I’ll ask the dreaded question: To what extent do you consider this piece performance and to what extent do you consider it documentary footage?

RB: I don’t consider it performance at all, although I can understand why someone might see it that way. I didn’t set out to provoke the situation, I simply reacted to it. I like to consider this work more along the lines of a poetic documentary, one that is open to a personal perspective.

…mbg: Why do you think the security guard let you keep filming for so long?

RB: Oh, I don’t think he could tell I was already videotaping! It happened really fast.

…mbg: Typically we think of cameras as tools for catching criminals, not as a criminal’s tool. What I really like about this piece is that you “incriminate” yourself with the video content, that is, your tape is evidence of your “criminal act.” At the same time, the audio portion incriminates your interrogator for an even worse “crime.” The irony is beautiful. Do you have thoughts on that?

RB: The idea that I was doing something wrong never crossed my mind. I always thought the whole incident and the video were more about the possibility of contemplation than any sort of crime. This video made me reflect on just how powerful the act of looking really is.

…mbg: There are other ways that I see the video and audio components as working separately. How do you see those components breaking apart and coming together?

RB: I take the audio part of my projects very seriously, to the point that sometimes I start out with an audio track-as was the case with Landscape Theory. Both components have their own logic, but share tangents of meaning and structure.

…mbg: Have you been back to where you shot the video?

RB: No, there’s nothing there except a mall and some car dealerships.

…mbg: What’s next? What are you working on these days?

RB: I just finished a video called Over There where I deal with war movies and fictionalized war images. I wanted to make a video where all this tradition of imagining war would clash and confront itself. Some of this happened in the very literal sense, with soldiers from different movies, from different times engaging in combat with each other, fiction against fiction. At other times I would collage different movies into the same frame, creating improbable and dysfunctional dialogues…. So I’m still looking around for my next project!

Original link: http://www.fluentcollab.org/mbg/archived/issue57.htm

Posted: December 1st, 2008 | Author: Bellini | Filed under: Textos | Link | No Comments »

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