Francesco Jodice: American Recordings

The 20th century seen as the American century is the theme Francesco Jodice has conceived for the Museum’s New Media project.

For the Multimedia Hall of the Manica Lunga – which can display synchronized and non-synchronized screenings at the same time on five megascreens – the artist has created the installation American Recordings (2015) a true symphony through images thanks to which Francesco Jodice covers the 20th century, a century of Made in USA myths and heroes who forged the collective imaginary of generations not only back then. From President Eisenhower’s farewell speech to a nation facing the arms race and nuclear experiments; from the widespread power of information told in Network, a film by Sidney Lumet; from the birth of the horror genre with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a movie by Tobe Hooper, to Society (1989) directed by Brian Yuzna; from the readings of the free thinker Gore Vidal in The United States of Amnesia by Nicholas Wrathall to End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, a film-documentary on the punk band, The Ramones, and the rise of television, the American historic-imaginary myth foreseeing today’s society. The artist has created a work that, by using archive material, offers an engaging vision that fascinates for its powerful images and allows us to reflect on the profound influence of myths and the imaginary in cultural processes.
Rounding off the event is the film Atlante (2015) screened in the Multipurpose Hall.