Skype call with artists collective Alterazioni Video

Those financed by public money number over a thousand alone and are incomplete for a vast range reasons including design errors, bankruptcy, incorrect economic assessments and draining of funds. This work has produced a Manifesto that declares that Sicilian Incompletion "is the most important Italian architectural style since the post-war period". Alterazioni Video shows these "ruins of contemporaneity" in a completely new and unprecedented way. "The tension between function and form is solved, the defect of use becomes a work of art. A pool that was never a swimming pool or a stadium that is only a stadium in shape become tragic places of art and representation”. The group is made up of five artists – Paololuca Barbieri Marchi, Alberto Caffarelli, Matteo Erenbourg, Andrea Masu e Giacomo Porfiri – scattered around the world, who work with art, computer programming, video and music. For years now, the collective has also been working on a new form of cinema invented by them: the "Turbo Film". Getting them all together is impossible so we resorted to a Skype chat to find out how this group works.
GM

Let’s start by introducing ourselves so I can see who and where you all are.
PBM

Paololuca Barbieri Marchi. I’m in New York.
AC

Alberto Caffarelli. Hi, I’m in Berlin.
ME

Matteo Erenbourg. I’m in Lisbon.
AM

Andrea Masu. I’m in Lecce. I’ve just got time for a quick hello and then I have to dash.
GM

And I’m Gabriele Miccichè. Who’s missing?
PBM

Giacomo’s missing. We’ve lost Giacomo Porfiri.
ME

It’s already quite an accomplishment to have got four of us. I’d consider myself lucky if I were you.
GM

Yes, I’m very flattered.
AM

Over the past 15 years, we’ve all thought about leaving the group at least 3 or 4 times. But we always stick with it. I’ve got to go though, we’re loading the van for an event here in Lecce. It’s been nice talking! Bye guys!
GM

Bye!
PBM

Do you want to know how the group works and what our working dynamic are? Or what we do during the day when we’re not working together?
GM

How you work. You often create Manifestos, for example. Both for Incompiuto Siciliano and the Turbo Films.
PBM

Working organically with so many of us has helped us realise that to work together we need to establish guidelines, the rules of the game as it was, in order to put together a body of work. It’s perhaps a sort of marketing operation.
GM

So the rules are for you.
PBM

They are suggestions for us and they differ greatly for the Turbo Films and Incompiuto Siciliano of course. In the case of the latter, after doing some work on the topic, we identified the main points and thought that it was important to understand the stylistic features in order to understand the style.
GM

How do you operate? Is there a Marinetti and a Boccioni or are you interchangeable?
PBM

The idea is that we are interchangeable. Then, over time, we are each more interested in certain aspects of the project. But the structure works because it is horizontal in nature. Some of us have more than one skill, some of us are perhaps more versatile.
GM

Who took the photographs for Incompiuto Siciliano, for example?
PBM

Alberto, Matteo and Masu, who had to go. Giacomo too.

Over the past 15 years, we’ve all thought about leaving the group at least 3 or 4 times. But we always stick with it.

GM

Talk me through the creative process.
PBM

We are going to Russia shortly to make a new Turbo Film. We wake up in the morning and we have a chat – including other people who collaborate with us, writers, curators and artist friends – where we start to develop possible content for the film and send each other thoughts, things to read, perspectives and scenes… We develop a clear idea of the topic we want to address thanks to this brainstorming.
GM

So do you have a daily method for exchange or does it change from project to project?
PBM

At the beginning especially we are in daily contact but then it depends on the project. With Incompiuto Siciliano and this film, we have been in constant contact for months now though.
GM

In the ‘80s, a collective like yours would have been a political group. But your process is entirely artistic now. What changed?
PBM

I don’t see these as two distinct categories. In the sense that the world we operate in has changed: we are in the age of visual culture, a situation where discussion of aesthetics and the production of an image has expanded far beyond contemporary art to politics. But I don’t see a distinction between political and artistic activity. I struggle to work out which parts of the Five Star Movement and Trump are performance and which are politics.
GM

When you make sculptures, in Incompiuto Siciliano, for example, these objects…
PBM

Jack’s here! Hang on while we get Giacomo on the line. He’s the one that makes the sculptures too.
GM

The sculptures feel a bit like sucking up, but that’s not the case is it?
PBM

No, not at all. At least, not entirely, it’s another language. Giacomo has a passion for sculpture and building things, and a talent too. Like Alberto.
GP

I can see you, can you see me?
GM

Here he is. Giacomo?
GP

I’m at the Fondazione Blankenbury in Berlin.
GM

It looks like a beautiful day.
GP

Twenty-nine degrees.
GM

Fabulous. We were just talking about the sculptures, which you and Alberto make.
GP

Let’s call the sculptures are artefacts, no? We always try to bring the things we have seen with us in our work and to leave a physical trace behind.
PBM

The sculptures are born of encounters too. They are born of objects that we find throughout the creative process that represent strong elements of the project we are working on.
GM

And galleries want them too.
PBM

We don’t have a great relationship with galleries. We have sold them, if that answers your question…
GM

That’s a point. Do you live off Alterazioni Video or do you have other jobs?
PBM

God sees and provides for us all. But we are creative people, of course, so we work in different sectors such as, I don’t know, cinema, real estate, music, finance, marketing…
AC

And then there are things like setting up a bar at the Church of Saint Nympha for Manifesta and making €3000.
GM

What happened?
AC

When we went to get the keys to the church I asked the lady if we could set up a bar later, around 10 or midnight. She said we could do what we wanted as long as we didn’t have a party. And I just thought, what better location? So, we threw a party that went on until five in the morning and all of Palermo came.
GM

Yes, we definitely got Palermo talking.
AC

We thought there were 300 of us but the whole street was full, the church was full. So that was an extra bonus for us…
ME

They only invite us to the afterparties at the Biennials now.
PBM

I should say that it is fundamental for us to create situations where we meet the locals in places where we will be working and developing a project. It is crucial for us to meet them, not just us partying.

The world we operate in has changed: we are in the age of visual culture, a situation where discussion of aesthetics and the production of an image has expanded far beyond contemporary art to politics.

GM

What about Moscow?
AC

We prepared in two weeks. We were asked to do a show in Milan and we thought why don’t we use the fee to make another Turbo Film? We hadn’t made one for years. So, we thought about where to go and just stuck a finger onto a map of the world. OK, let’s do Moscow first.
GM

Unbelievable!
ME

We also want to see some of our old Russian artist pals, who we haven’t seen for ages.
PBM

See? There are different points of view but the same intention.
GM

How did the idea come about?
AC

Matteo needed to vaccinate his kids so he was doing some online research about the right vaccinations to get and he came across a load of fake news. That’s where the theme of fake Russian news came from.
GM

I see. So, who’s producing it? Where is the financing coming from?
PBM

It will be financed by the Milan Film Festival.
GM

And why aren’t you going, Giacomo?
GP

I’ve got some things on at work and also because my music studio is here. We have some musician friends that I’m already collaborating with, so we will work over the airwaves. And we’ll decide how to develop the soundtrack on the basis of the scenes they film.
GM

So you will still be collaborating live, with the music?
GP

The music is an important part of the Turbo Films, it helps to create a link between the various scenes, especially as we have limited time to film in. So we can use the lyrics of the songs and the musical styles to go even more in depth as well as creating situations.
PBM

We’ll edit the film live as a performance so we thought it was best to have the music ready.
GM

And where will this performance be held?
PBM

At the Litta Theatre or Anteo in Milan.
GP

You wonder why we throw parties – it is also a chance to blow off some steam. You never know, on occasions like this, what the finished product will be like. So, there is always a bit of tension around seeing it completed as well as actually making it.
GM

So there’s always a bit of improvisation.
PBM

You might say that it’s part of our process. Right?
GM

Yes, I like that
PBM

Improvisation is also a way of opening up to the people we meet. We were looking for a donkey at the market in Ethiopia and we met two twin dwarves so we did a scene with them.
AC

You might say that the things that happen around the Turbo Films are more interesting than the finished product itself.
GM

You are also net artists, in a certain sense. The roots of your projects were born online.
PBM

We only shower online.
ME

And trim our beards on the webcam.
GM

Alright, no artistic or political definitions. But in the horrible but necessary definition of the “art world”, where do you see yourselves?
PBM

Outside.
GP

As gatecrashers!
PBM

That’s it, we’re gatecrashers!
GP

I think this is the thing about us: people like us for 10 minutes ad then realise that we are bastards and isolate us.
ME

That’s how we get anywhere. Not one of us finished Art School and some of us didn’t even start.
PBM

I’ve got a PhD.
AC

You’re the only person who paid for their PhD.
PBM

But you’re right, we didn’t finish Art School. Not even me.
GP

But, apart from being very self-deprecating, it has to be said that when we want to do something, we try and do it in some way.
PBM

We prefer to work in a way that frees us, that allows us free to choose. Masu was right – we’ve all thought about jacking it all in. But if you work it’s because you want to.

Improvisation is also a way of opening up to the people we meet. We were looking for a donkey at the market in Ethiopia and we met two twin dwarves so we did a scene with them.

GM

So, between two extremes such as the party in the church and the Biennial, is the curator your point of mediation?
PBM

It was Robert Storr himself who came to see our work at the Venice Biennial and said that he liked our label, our production, everything and wanted to include it in the Biennial. And that’s why he was there with us at Manifesta, working with us over the week of production.
GM

OK, so you have a constant network of relationships…
PBM

Of encounters. With all the value that an encounter between two people can bring.
GM

So your global distribution is also strategic. Even though it probably happened accidentally.
PBM

More accidental than strategic. The way we are trying to use it is strategic.
GM

Right. But at the end of the day, you are more friends than colleagues?
GP

Well, that’s another story. I think we should all go on holiday together. We’ve never found ourselves on the beach under an umbrella all together, not all five of us at least.
AC

Because we’d never do it. It would be too boring.
PBM

I’m not sharing an umbrella with you lot.
GM

You’ve been more disciplined than I expected, I must say. Serious too. It’s been a pleasure. Perhaps not for you.
PBM

We can still spout some nonsense to finish off.
AC

Anyway, last bit of news. I don’t know if we’re allowed to say this but we’ll say it anyway. We have been invited to Parliament by the Five Star Movement next month.
GM

Why?
AC

To discuss what to do with the incomplete works. Basically, we are now in phase 2 of Incompiuto Siciliano, where after 10 years of analysing the situation we want to do something about it. It’s hilarious, we left a copy of the book in a bar near Blufi, a village bar in Sicily, and it fell into the hand of a “grillino” [a supporter of Beppe Grillo, Ed.] who happened to be the brother-in-law of the secretary to the President of the Chamber of Deputies. He was fascinated by the project and the political party invited us to discuss what can be done with these works… basically what we had been waiting for.

Basically, we are now in phase 2 of Incompiuto Siciliano, where after 10 years of analysing the situation we want to do something about it.

GM

So you’re going to Parliament.
PBM

It’s not the first time.
GM

What do you mean? Have you already been?
AC

Yes, but the Ethiopian Parliament.
GM

What were the circumstances? A prize or something?
AC

We were invited there.
ME

If you have any friends in Moscow to introduce us to, perhaps journalists out there…
GM

I’m afraid not. At least, not such good friends that I could introduce you lot!