Varda, the Cinema

29 November 2022

University of Genoa, Italy

Varda, Photography, Art, Words

21 April 2023

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Deadline: September 5, 2022

Curated by Luca Malavasi and Anna Masecchia

Scientific Committee

• Delphine Bénézet (Queen Mary, University of London), Marco Bertozzi (IUAV University of Venice),
• Elisa Bricco (University of Genoa), Laura Busetta (University of Messina), Daniele Dottorini
• (University of Calabria), Sandra Lischi (University of Pisa) Luca Malavasi (University of Genoa), Anna
• Masecchia (University of Naples Federico II), Rosamaria Salvatore (University of Padua), Chiara
• Tognolotti (University of Pisa), Federica Villa (University of Pavia), Emma Wilson (University ofCambridge).

Organisation

School of Humanities-University of Genoa, DIRAAS-Department of Italian Studies, Romanities,

Antiquities, Arts and Performing Arts-University of Genoa, Department of Humanities-University of Naples Federico II.

Under the patronage of the Consulta Universitaria del Cinema.

Keynote Speakers

Delphine Bénézet (Queen Mary, University of London) | Genoa

Emma Wilson (University of Cambridge) | Naples

Photographer, director, writer, designer, spectator, thinker… more simply: artist. It is difficult to sum up in a single definition the career of Agnès Varda (1928-2019), a key figure in contemporary culture, a tireless storyteller who knew how to use all forms of audiovisual communication in an always personal and often surprising way, beginning at the end of the 1940s with photography (after studying art history) and then, past the age of seventy, inaugurating a successful career as a visual artist. In between, a lot of cinema, both fiction and documentary, from the 1950s, when she made her feature film debut with La Pointe courte (1955), defined by André Bazin as "a true miracle", until the year of her death, when she presented Varda par Agnès (2019) at the Berlin Film Festival, a personal journey in her own adventure as a filmmaker, the ideal closure of an autobiographical journey that occupied the last part of her career.

The “nouvelle vague” success of Cléo from 5 to 7 (1961) is only the first stage of a six-decade-long journey, during which Varda has known very different seasons, marked by important technological, cultural and linguistic changes, always intuiting the most fruitful way to cross them and to continue and, at the same time, renew her own artistic path. And, above all, without ever losing that astonishment for life, reality, places and people that constantly marks her production.

The two conference days ideally take their cue from the book Pianeta Varda (edited by Luca Malavasi and Anna Masecchia, Edizioni ETS, 2022), the first attempt to take stock – without any pretense of “caging” Varda in a series of definitions – of the protean work of an artist still little studied in Italy.

The aim of this conference is to examine Varda’s work in its totality and complexity, directing reflection, on one hand, towards an analysis of her film production, considered in itself and in its relationship with the great aesthetic, technological and cultural junctures of the 20th century, with which she often dialogued in a crucial way (during the Genoese day); on the other hand, during the Neapolitan day, the reflection will be more oriented towards visual production (artistic and photographic, in the first place) but also literary (think, for example, of the central role of the words in her work) and television (for example, Agnès de ci de là Varda). A distinction, the one suggested by the two days, of perspective, in the full awareness that the quality of Varda’s work lies above all in its compactness and richness of dialogues and interweavings – often surprising – between different forms, genres and media.

Deadlines and Information

We invite abstract submissions for 20-minute papers. Abstracts should indicate clearly the focus (cinema, visual art, photography etc.) and should be between 1000 and 1500 characters long and accompanied by a short CV.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 5th September 2022. Acceptance will be notified by 19th September 2022. The conference languages are Italian and English.

Abstracts should be sent to: pianetavarda@gmail.com.

The proceedings of the conference will be published in 2023.