visual artist & filmmaker
ciucioflorinda@gmail.com
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Florinda Ciucio (Antwerp, 1993) is a visual artist and film-
maker from Belgium. She holds a Master’s degree in Film
Directing from LUCA School of Arts Brussels. After directing
short documentaries, she expanded her practice into video
art and installation.
Working with moving image, CGI, archival material, photo-
graphy and sound, her practice explores how technology and
images shape our perception of reality. Her works often fo-
cus on landscapes, memory and digital media, questioning
the distance between what is real and what is constructed,
projected or imagined.
Her work has been supported by the Flanders Department
of Culture and Arts, VOCATIO and the Flanders Film Fund,
and developed through residencies at Viafarini Milan and
Cité Internationale des Arts Paris. Her work has been pre-
sented internationally, including at LOOP Barcelona, Noor-
derlicht Biennale, IDFA, DOK Leipzig, Castel Belasi and Espace
Vanderborght Brussels.
FLORINDA CIUCIOTHE VESSEL
THE VESSEL
2021, 1H loop, 3-channel video installation
in the frame of an artist residency at Het Bos Art center, Antwerp
selected project as a laureate in Artcontest 2021
project support by BREEDBEELD
DESCRIPTION
‘THE VESSEL’ features three video projections paired with a pink-noise soundscape. Visitors enter a pitch-dark black-box room. The projections consist of selected fragments of old Super 8 films shot by my maternal grandparents, inland shipmen traveling in the 1970s.
The video projections are selected fragments of old Super 8 film material from my grandparents, who were inland shipmen between Holland, Belgium and Germany throughout the 70’s. The fragments contain passing landscapes, moving water and snapshots of life on deck.
The three projections are one and the same loop, but they all start at a different time, thus creating three different projections at any given moment, but still familiar to the audience. The images are projected at eye level, in a size in resemblance of a window. This way the viewer can imagine standing in the cabin of the ship, but because of the dark surroundings, the nostalgic images and the meditative soundscape more like in a dreamlike state, than trying to mimic reality.
Pink noise mimics sound signals of biological systems through the cyclical sounds of nature, such as rain, wind, rustling leaves or as in this case: water. Although this noise is purely synthesized, as soon as it gets combined with the video images situated on the ship, showing water in almost every frame, the brain automatically makes us believe we are listening to real water.
There are different layers of waves in the soundscape, varying in speed and intensity, and sometimes a far away ship/foghorn is added into the mix, supporting the overall hypnotic ambience of the installation. Seagull sounds are added to reinforce the nostalgic feeling and are an almost classic sound to stir a memory.
Pink noise has the quality to filter out all other sounds around us, helping people fall asleep or keep them longer in a deep state of relaxation. Combining these qualities with the imagery in a blackbox, a meditative exercise is created for visitors.
Thus the intention is for the viewer to be immersed in his or her inner world of memories through this meditation, meticulously crafted out of other’s memories.