THE LACK

2014, 76”, produced by In Between Art Film in association with Vivo Film

MASBEDO

Nicolò Massazza (1973) and Iacopo Bedogni (1970) began working together in 1999 as MASBEDO, focusing on video art and installations. Their artistic research has focused on the theme of incommunicability both on a personal level, between couples, and on a larger scale, highlighting the paradox of society of communication. This has led them to produce very intimate pieces alongside work with a greater anthropological, social, and political feel.

They express themselves through the language of video, in different forms such as performance, theater, installation, photography and recently cinema. In Italy they are recognized among the most important video artists and innovators in the field of contemporary art. Thanks to their unique feature of re-union of different arts the multiplicity of languages becomes a single chorus. MASBEDO’s aesthetic approach is pictorial. They strive to engage their audience by using the moving image as an immersive installation. The work is a synthesis of theatre, performance, architecture, and video.

MASBEDO’s film The Lack (2014) features six female protagonists who individually search for meaning to fill the inner void in their lives. Played by Lea Mornar (Eve), Xin Wang (Xiu), Giorgia Sinicorni (Anja), Ginevra Bulgari (Nour), Emanuela Villagrossi (Greta) and Cinzia Brugnola (Sarah), each of these women is immersed in a singularly silent and primitive nature; no one else appears, no one interrupts their solitude. In the first story, Eve must work through the pain of abandonment and the obsession of love that turns into a violent, yet ultimately cathartic struggle. Xiu embarks on a symbolic, dreamlike journey in the second section, while in the third story Greta and Anja face the difficult, yet necessary process of detachment that ultimately transforms into the possibility of hope, brought by the young Nour.

In the final chapter, Sarah embarks on an inner journey through the recurring visions she experiences during an on-screen psychoanalysis session. Set outside of conventional time, these concurrent narratives are set against the backdrop of a roaring nature, with its harsh landscapes that are at once apocalyptic and regenerative.

The film was presented in 2014 at the Giornate Degli Autori section of the 71st Venice Film Festival.