In the Project Room, an exhibition area devoted to the rediscovery of the most intriguing and innovative artistic realities, arisen in Bologna and in the whole region, MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna presents VHS + video/animation/television and/or independence/technical training/production control 1995/2000.
The exhibition, stemming from an idea by Saul Saguatti (Basmati Film) and Lucio Apolito (Opificio Ciclope), curated by Silvia Grandi and organized in conjunction with the Art department of the Bologna University, is designed as an audio-visual beat tool resulting from the cross-breeding among several languages, formats and practices of video communication experimented in Italy between 1995 and 2000.
VHS ruled for twenty years and twenty years have passed since that period during which took simultaneously place several mixed technique productions with a constant inflow of performances, video graphics and mixed media. Among those piles of now obsolete tapes, are can be found, not only evergreen movies like the Bellissimi of Rete 4, the football matches of the 1990 World Cup in Italy, tape freebies coming with the L’Unità newspaper, but also original contents, the electronic dream of a season trapped in the transition between analogue and digital.
Video editing telling production techniques, aesthetic outcomes, collective low-resolution utopian visions, low fidelity through toy technologies; they all show how it was possible to work with now extinct hardware and primitive software, starting a difficult dialogue among neighbours and also with the TV so almighty dominating at that time.
Productions of that time went far beyond the borders of individual authors levelling up to a collective dimension, developing into independent media-cultural research groups that turned into real brands like Opificio Ciclope, Fluid Video Crew, Ogino Knauss, Otolab and Sun Wu Kung of which the exhibition shows the special expressive approaches. In a world still without chats, social media and YouTube, these pioneering labs have materially built screens in their respective residences - Link Project in Bologna, Forte Prenestino in Rome, CPA ExLonginotti in Florence, Garigliano and Pergola in Milano – developing a creative forge in tune with the most advanced European experiments of that time.

Opening: October 12, 2018 h 6.00 pm. Download invitation

The MAMbo exhibition project has its on-line extension on the web site www.vhsplus.it where can be found several additional materials, including archive files, to go in greater depth.
Eurovideo, that supplied the necessary technical equipment for the audio-visual installation, is the technical sponsor of the exhibition.