Azul no Azul (English title: Blue in Blue) is a short Portuguese experimental film created by Italian filmmaker Gianmarco Donaggio and Portuguese painter Nelson Ferreira. The film was produced and distributed in collaboration with the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Portugal, and it premiered at the museum on the 28th of July 2022, after which it was exhibited in the cinema of the museum from the 29th of July until the 15th of September 2022.[1][2][3] A second version was created for Soares dos Reis National Museum to celebrate the 150 years of the sculpture ‘The Exiled’ by António Soares dos Reis and screened at the museum from the 10th of December 2022 until 19 March 2023.[4][5][6][7][8] The city of Lucca projected it on a loop for a week. Art critic Simona Frigerio compared this film to Derek Jarman's last masterpiece Blue.[1]

Azul no Azul
Directed byGianmarco Donaggio
Produced byGianmarco Donaggio Nelson Ferreira
CinematographyGianmarco Donaggio
Edited byGianmarco Donaggio
Release date
  • 28 July 2022 (2022-07-28)
Running time
6 min
CountryPortugal
Languagesilent

Description edit

Azul no Azul was ideated by the two artists as an experiment in which Donaggio was translating in cinematic form the painting process of Ferreira's blue series, a collection of paintings that the artist completed over his stay as an artist in residency at MNAC in Lisbon.[9] As the museum curator stated: "In this cycle of contemporary works Nelson's reverence for the great classical masters and academic tradition is attested."[9] As a consequence, in the make of Azul no Azul, Donaggio was called to the task of adapting the act of filming to both the effect and the process of challenging painting techniques such as of alla prima - painted directly looking at the subject, and the classic statuary tradition of the subjects depicted. The result is a film experience of blue shapes taking the form of the classical sculptures of the museum sculpture garden, and vice versa, the sculptures melting into blue informal elements.[2][10][11]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "short film 'Azul no Azul' (Blue in Blue)". MUSEU NACIONAL DE ARTE CONTEMPORÂNEA DO CHIADO. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  2. ^ a b Bordino, Margherita (2022-08-11). "Azul no Azul: il corto dedicato al Museo MNAC di Lisbona" (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  3. ^ CMP (2022-12-09). "Exposição | "Azul no Azul"- 150 anos de "O Desterrado"". www.porto.pt (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  4. ^ "Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis assinala 150 anos de "O Desterrado"". www.dn.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-12-08.
  5. ^ "Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis assinala 150 anos de "O Desterrado"". Jornal Expresso (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-12-08.
  6. ^ Frigerio, Simona (2023-11-24). "Anima Mundi Pax". IN THE NET (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  7. ^ Lusa, Agência. "Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis assinala 150 anos de "O Desterrado"". Observador (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  8. ^ "Azul no Azul". Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  9. ^ a b "Painting rarefied the spirit". MUSEU NACIONAL DE ARTE CONTEMPORÂNEA DO CHIADO. Archived from the original on 2022-10-16. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  10. ^ "Azul no Azul, a Lisbona il nuovo lavoro del regista varesino Gianmarco Donaggio". VareseNews (in Italian). 2022-07-19. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  11. ^ "Jovem da Maceira convidado a pintar quadros para príncipe saudita". Jornal de Leiria (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-16.