The Cinema Dynamo is happy to present three short films from the series “Trilogy of Incommunicability” by the Italian artists duo, MASBEDO: Theorem Of Incompleteness(2008), Ionesco Suite (2013) and Todestriebe(2014).

Theorem of Incompleteness is touching on the strained relationship between men and women, a recurring theme in Masbedo’s works. The videos tell us about the destruction of the sacred intimacy of a couple and the desperate struggle of manipulation, a metaphorical battle between a man and a woman who are abandoned in a desolated land, amongst ice, water and black lava sand.

Ionesco Suite evokes one of the principal themes running through Masbedo’s creative work: sublime and powerful, or the hostile and primordial nature as a focal point for reflection on the human condition. In this short film, the same table reappears laid with crystal vases, which may be interpreted symbolically as elements of perfection and pureness. A shower of confetti falls on the table, followed by cakes, sweets and sugared almonds. Finally a violent flow of cement destroys and invades the entire environment.

Todestriebe is a video made from a performance. It stages a couple, which has a cruel and dramatic relationship of alternate aggressions and passivity. Sitting in front of a screen, a group of men watches what the artists refer to as “the cinema of pleasure”, while live visuals and sounds surround them, recalling, together with the macro images of a female body and a female mantis, an obscure nature.

Nicolò Massazza (1973) and Iacopo Bedogni (1970) have been working together as MASBEDO since 1999. They live and work in Milan. They work with video, but also theatre, installation, photography and more recently cinema.