Strange Days, Laznia Center, Gdansk

Title

Strange Days, Laznia Center, Gdansk

Curation

Curated by Agnieszka Kulazińska

Year

2021

Works

NYsferatu - Symphony of a Century

Featured in

Contemporary Lynx_01/07/2021

Notes

The exhibition in CSW Łaźnia was the first show entirely dedicate to Mastrovito's two feature-films: “I am not legend” and “NYsferatu - Symphony of a Century”. They were inspired by two horror films: “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” and “Night of the Living Dead”.

“Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror”, which was directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, was made in 1922. It is a classic work of German expressionism and the first film in the horror genre as well as the beginning of movie tales about vampires. The film created an iconography of the ghostly character which was applied for many years: an archetypal stranger who threatens the existing order, a revolting figure whose differentness is fascinating at the same time. “Night of the Living Dead” is an American horror film from 1968 directed by George Romer. The film brought the figure of a zombie into pop culture. Earlier, it was mainly associated with the Haitian voodoo practice.

In his films, Andrea Mastrovito has created animated remakes of the two horrors. He adopted different artistic strategies with each of them. When “NYsferatu. Symphony of a Century” was being made, about 35 thousand drawings were prepared and then animated. In “I am not legend” the artist erased some elements of the printed film frames.

When remaking these films, Andrea Mastrovito created a real culture remix, abundant in quotations and references to the present time. The story in “NYsferatu. Symphony of a Century” takes place in New York. We will find references to the Syrian war in the film. The title vampire speaks Chinese, Spanish and Russian which maps only some places from which immigrants come to the USA. Andrea Mastrovito used the horror film genre in his work to confront us with the question why we like to fear and what traumas we hide behind the figures of vampires and zombies.

(From Laznia Center's website)

Details

Strange Days, Entrance

Strange Days, installation view of NYsferatu - Symphony of a Century original drawings

Strange Days, installation view of NYsferatu - Symphony of a Century and I Am Not Legend original drawings

Strange Days, one of I Am Not Legend original drawings

Two original drawings for NYsferatu - Symphony of a Century's posters

Strange Days, installation view of four extra-sized I Am Not Legend original framestills, 2021, acrylic paint on paper, 70 x 100 cm each

Strange Days, installation view of two extra-sized I Am Not Legend original framestills, 2021, acrylic paint on paper, 70 x 100 cm each

Strange Days, screening of I Am Not Legend

Strange Days, screening of NYsferatu - Symphony of a Century