We cordially invite you to a solo exhibition of new work by artist Rossella Biscotti (born Molfetta, Italy 1978, lives and works in Rotterdam).
The exhibition will feature her latest production: The Undercover Man, a film based on the firsthand testimony of special FBI agent Joseph Pistone (a.k.a the real Donnie Brasco.)
The opening will take place on Sunday 19 October from 1:00 pm till 3:00 pm.
We would be very pleased if you could join us on this special occasion.
The exhibition will run from October 23 until November 22.
Gallery hours are: Thursday – Saturday 1:00 – 6:00 pm and by appointment.
For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery; office@wilfriedlentz.com or +31 (0)10 4126459.
The title of the exhibition is taken from the title of Biscotti’s latest work, The Undercover Man (2008) – a film based on firsthand testimony of former special FBI agent Joseph Pistone. During the years 1976 to 1981 Pistone successfully infiltrated the New York City mafia, under the guise and moniker of a jewel thief named Donnie Brasco. His personal testimony provided key evidence that led to the conviction of several members of the Bonanno crime family in the trials against the New York Mafia that began in the early 1980’s.
The extraordinary events of his life have been immortalized and reproduced in numerous books. But to mainstream audiences, Joseph Pistone’s biography is most closely associated with that of his on-screen persona, played by Johnny Depp in the Tristar Pictures release, Donnie Brasco.
In The Undercover Man Biscotti stages an interrogation between herself and Joseph Pistone. The resulting film interweaves Pistone’s responses to questions inspired by the transcript of a 1982 trial against two notorious gangsters (Dominick Napolitano a.k.a. Sonny Black and Benjamin Ruggiero a.k.a. Lefty Guns,) with actual footage from FBI surveillance tapes – on loan from Mr. Pistone’s personal archive. Pacing through a specially constructed set, we are able to watch the movements of a man that moves between two worlds.
Biscotti’s film is stylistically reminiscent of American noir films of the 1940’s. Extended close-ups on various objects within the room – including a clock, a nagra tape recorder (like that used in Pistone’s undercover work), and a bare light bulb – work to create a complex relationship between memory and time, in which the delivery of cold hard facts, is veiled by the voice of the man delivering them. Original music by FRAME provides a sonic element that alludes to all that remains hidden and unspoken. The exhibition also includes archival FBI-photographs with notations by Pistone.
In the tradition of her earlier films, Biscotti gives insight to an extraordinary story, in which truth is teased out through layers of re-telling, and investigative research. Often times, Biscotti appears as a character in her films, and makes use of film’s sinewy status in popular culture as a reference point for what is “real”.
Recent solo and group exhibitions include: ‘You have to be focused’, prometeogallery, Luca (IT),‘Peripheral vision and collective body’, Museion in Bolzano/Bozen(IT), ‘Cabinet of Imagination’,Netwerk in Aalst(B), Gstaadfilm (1st Prize – Golden Cow), Gstaad (CH), ‘Looking for the Border’, Cultuurcentrum Strombeek/De Garage Mechelen (B), ‘Dal tempo al tempo’ at the Palazzo Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Guarene(IT), 12th Biennal of Moving Images (1st Prize), Centre pour l’image contemporaine, Geneva (CH), Adam, Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (NL)
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