Das projekt familie
(The family project)
2000, video, 5:20, DV-pal
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Christian Niccoli
Make up and styling: Priska Wojnar
Best boys: Marco Martignone, Tanja Cassitti
Realized with the support of Amt für Audiovisuelle Medien, Bolzano, Italy
Description:
In this video a young family is sitting on a triangular piece of fabric suspended above the ground in a central street of Bolzano. During the video first the father, than the mother, and finally the child, who gets initiated in this practice by the mother, are threading a string around the triangular structure, in order to confer stability to it.
In this work learning to shoulder each other and to take on collective responsibility – all at the same time – are shown metaphorically. Through the pulling of the strings one takes care of stability, but at the same time defines self- referentiality.
Educazione come socializzazione
(Education as socialization)
2001, video, 1:34, DV-pal
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Christian Niccoli
Set coordinator: Jacopo Candotti
Best boy: Pablo Perra
Realized with the support of Amt für Audiovisuelle Medien, Bolzano, Italy
Description:
It is almost like a cage: Three children, two girls and one boy aged between 6 and 9 are "socializing" by playing with a single toy inside an unusual triangular sandpit with 1 m high walls. Through its height and shape, the function of the sandpit as a place of socialization in the social context of each individual is represented metaphorically. In that way the behaviour of the child during the socialization process, when - according to age - opportunistic and possessive instincts have precedence, is underlined. However, the main figures of the scene are the mothers, who, from above, give instructions to their own child on how to relate with the other kids. It is evident that each mother fears for the social integration of her own child.
Die Umarmung
(The embrace)
2003, Two-channel-videoinstallation, 1:20, 2 videobeamers, 2 DVD-players, 2 screens, 5.1 Dolby Surround speakers, synchronizer
Installation view: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Assistent: Pietro Mele
Cast: Cecile Engelen, Panagiotis Gliatas
Description:
A young couple is sitting on a bench in a park. The scene has been photographed from two perspectives, in order that the observer, entering the space, catches sight of two different but identical perspectives of the same subject. Despite the physical closeness and the almost idyllic setting; although everything is perfect or maybe exactly because of that, both youngsters reaches unexpectedly for a remote control and switches off the other.
Escalating perception / the gaze
2004, DV-PAL
Two versions:
- Two-channel video installation (7:33)
- Two-in-one-channel video (7:33)
Realized with support of Deutsche Bahn
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Rudolf Germann
Light: Max Kähni
Sound: Danjiel Sitnica - Lang
Set photographer: Jens Jöster
Cast: David Arterberry, Julia De Boor, Stephan Bürgi, Bettina Kaiser, Eva Kölling, Franziska Krumwiede, Cuni Ploner, Thomas Müller, Gerda Müller, Edgar Wintersberger
Best boys: Raimund Kompatscher, Pietro Mele, Konstantin Vogas
Description:
In this work an escalator within the metro station Potsdamer Platz in Berlin transforms into a location for a research of a partner. My attempt was to put in scene a flirt between adults carried up and down by an escalator and the observer. Unexpectedly, while they are moving up and down, the protagonists start addressing to the observer short sentences about themselves and their expectations of a new relationship, as if inviting the him/her to a confrontation with their real necessities and wishes. These sentences are derived from interviews with Berlin-based women and men aged between 30 and 40, who, after a separation, started to perceive themselves once again as potential partners in a future relationship.
Escalating perception / the path
2005, video, 5:34, DV-PAL
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera/sound: Rudolph Germann
Cast: Katharina Karrenberg, Thomas B. Müller
Realized with the support of:
Videographe, Montreal (CA)
Werkleitz Gesellschaft - Zentrum für Medienkunst, Halle/Saale (DE)
Production grant, Autonome Provinz Südtirol - Amt für Deutsche Kultur (IT)
Description:
Shot on location near Montreal, this video shows – split on two linguistic layers - two aspects of thread in meeting an unknown on an escalator: a physical and a visual thread.
The visual thread shows how we perceive each other as a thread for our own psychological stability, based on a confrontation between “symbols of luck and happiness”. Symbols, such as beauty, social position and happiness in relationship and family. This thread is experienced on a very mental and intimate way, and is represented in the video by excerpts of audio interviews with two Francophone man and one Anglophone woman from Montreal about their way to experience visual confrontation.
The physical thread, expressed through a meeting between two people in a desolate landscape, shows the human necessity to valuate the unknown’s physical attributes in order to guarantee one’s own safety. Niccoli has decided to substitute the escalator with a hiking trail, a “Path”, in order to underline the archaic and human aspect of self-protection.
Planschen
2008, 16mm reversed on DV-PAL
Two formats:
- single channel video, 5:05
- 7-channel video installation, 1:25
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Andreas Steffan
Camera assistant: Andreas Hartmann
Editing: Susanne Krauß
Sound design: Roman Strack
Compositing: Rudolph Germann
Cast: Anja Barth, Gaia Bartolini, Steffi Leon, Thomas Lichtenstein, Christian Meier, Michel Schüler
Realized in collaboration with:
Institute for New Media, Rostock (DE)
HFF – Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen “Konrad Wolf”, Potsdam (DE)
Supported by:
Kodak Deutschland (DE)
TV Synchron, Berlin (DE)
Description
The video „Planschen“ metaphorically embodies the lack of anchor points we experience in our time and is represented through a mass of people swimming around in the middle of the ocean; each one supported by his own tyre-tube. The protagonists are 3 women and 3 men floating next to each other. During the 5-minutes video they start gazing each other, sometimes with looks filled with jealousy, sometimes filled with deep sarcasm.
Untitled#1
2009, HD High speed video, 2:50
Installation view: Media Façade, Museion - Museum für Moderne und Zeitgenössische Kunst, Bozen (IT), Photo: David Duzzi
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Andreas Steffan
Technical assistant: Christoph Skofic
Music composed and performed by Aritape a.k.a. Arik Hayut
Cast: Christoph Steinicke
Realized with the supported of:
Production grant, Autonome Provinz Südtirol - Amt für Deutsche Kultur (IT)
Weisscam Hispeed Technologies, Munich (DE)
Municipality of Forst-Lausitz (DE)
Description:
The video shows a young man's fall. The exact starting point and the exact end of the fall are not clear. The falling is bedded in a lack of context which on one hand suggests absolute freedom and boundlessness but on the other hand instability and forlornness.
Ohne Titel
(Untitled)
2011, 0:45 loop, HD
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Andreas Steffan
Sound: Roman Strack
Make-up and styling: Daniela-Carolin Bähr
Set photographer: Loredana Mondora
Set design: Christian Allkämper
Assistance: Stefan Andres
Catering: Konstantin Vogas
Circus artists: Katharina Huber, Jakob Nickels, Marie Oldenbourg, Malte Strunk, Ihor Yakymenko
Realized with the support of Staatliche Artistenschule, Berlin (DE)
Description:
This video investigates the complexity of building on each other. This is shown metaphorically through a group of five people balancing on an rola-bola, a balance tool commonly known from the circus. In order to stand on it without collapsing, the group has to perfectly coordinate. Everyone is responsible in his movements for the entire group.
Die kollektive Last
(The collective weight)
2011, 1-channel video installation, HD, 2:30
Installation view: Franckesche Stiftungen zu Halle, Halle/Saale (DE), Photo: Uwe Frauendorf (Detail)
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Andreas Steffan
Sound: Roman Strack
Setdesign: Peter Hansen
Assistants: Augusto Buzzegoli, Valentina Ferrandes
Cast: Alexander Abramyan, Julia Glasewald, Marielena Krewer, Mathieu Pelletier, Hanna Friederike Stange, Belinde Ruth Stieve
Description:
The installation forces the observer to look upwards to watch the film. The attempt is to physically and emotionally involve him into the heaviness of the weight.
Ohne Titel
(Untitled)
2013, 1-channel video, HD, 4:10
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Andreas Steffan
Sound: Roman Strack
Executive producer: Arne Duppler
Postproduction: Rudolf Germann
Dramaturgical editing advisor: Susanne Krauß
Stunt: Icestunts (IS)
(Stuntman: Haraldur Einarsson, Stunt coordinators: Vilhjálmur Thór Gunnarsson, Ágúst Ingi Kjartansson)
Helicopter service: Reykjavík Helicopters, Reykjavík (IS)
(Pilot: Reynir Freyr Pétursson)
Realized with support of:
Production grant, Autonome Provinz Südtirol - Amt für Deutsche Kultur (IT)
Premio Terna per l`Arte Contemporanea (IT)
Sponsored by Rotor Film Babelsberg, Potsdam (DE)
Description:
The film metaphorically narrates the radical moment of been-thrown-into-the-world, of entering the nakedness of being.
Der mittlere Weg
(The average way)
2015, 2-channel video installation, 4:00
Concept and direction: Christian Niccoli
Camera: Andreas Steffan
Sound: Roman Strack
Assistance: Isabelle Meiffert
Choir: Kantorei der Passionskirche, Berlin, Germany
Produced by Center for contemporary Art - The Ancient Bath, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
