Nacelle: a video art exhibition by Marco G. Ferrari

Statement
The word “nacelle” means the streamlined car of an aircraft—from the Latin navicella, meaning “a little ship.” In the film Nacelle, Ferrari traces an idea in formation and the complexities that arise within a contained space as a vessel travels from point to point, where a movement from thought to feeling is cycled through.

The first part of a trilogy, Nacelle is about a fictional B-roll film crew stuck in the back of a moving truck that travels across five Chicagoland locations: the Byron Nuclear Generating Station; a DeKalb Wind Turbine Farm; the Cook County Department of Corrections’ Division XI Facility; Lower Wacker Drive; and Miller Beach, Indiana. As the line producer, camera operator, soundman, driver and the locations interact, the fragility of their relationships is exposed, and a reaction is triggered. Sound and vision question, concept entangles, the environment informs, and intuition drives the picture.

Filmed in digital video and 16mm film during Ferrari’s final quarter in the MFA program at the University of Chicago’s Department of Visual Arts, he worked with five artists: three as actors; one as actor/art director/production assistant; and an assistant director/camera operator. Ferrari’s previous films are rooted in the use of documentary shooting techniques combined with an exploratory method of montage that builds meaning through the assembly of images and sounds. Often working alone and without a fictional construct, as in the video D(z)iga (featured in the exhibit), in this work he reversed the approach, and explored a narrative method: writing a script, building dialog and action through rehearsals, and sharing the creative process with a cast and crew.

The exhibition juxtaposes two formal methods that explore how the tension between feeling and thought is formed by our relationship with our natural and built environments, and asks if an awareness of place can provide a resolve.

Blanc Gallery
4445 S. King Drive, Chicago, Illinois
https://blancchicago.com

Events
Opening Reception at Blanc Gallery
Saturday, February 28, 2015, 6–9 pm

Artist Talk at Blanc Gallery
Saturday, March 28, 2015, 4:30 pm

Offsite Screening of Nacelle & other works
Thursday, April 16, 2015, 7 pm
at Black Cinema House
7200 S. Kimbark, Chicago, IL 60637
blackcinemahouse.org

Closing Night Reception at Blanc Gallery
Friday, May 1, 2015, 8–11 pm
Live Audiovisual Projection Performance by
Marco G. Ferrari & Frank Orrall of Poi Dog Pondering & Thievery Corporation

Work Exhibited
– Nacelle: Installation I, February 28–May 1, 2015, one hd projector, 73” x 125” steel tubing frame, translucent pvc screen, straps, sound, 35 min. loop, Marco G. Ferrari (personal, film, installation). Projected the film “Nacelle” 2015, part of the exhibition Nacelle: a video art exhibition by Marco G. Ferrari.| projected film: https://marcogferrari.com/work/nacelle/ | installation: https://marcogferrari.com/work/nacelle-installation-i/

– D(z)iga: Installation II, February 28–May 1, 2015, high-definition video projector, 48” x 86” x 2.5” canvas, silent, 4 min. loop. Marco G. Ferrari (personal, film, installation). Projected the film “D(z)iga”, 2012, part of the exhibit “Nacelle: a video art exhibition by Marco G. Ferrari”. | projected film: https://marcogferrari.com/work/dziga/ | installation: https://marcogferrari.com/work/dziga-installation-ii/