Tools For After is a cultural project that won the first Capitali della Creatività [Capitals of Creativity] competition, promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aimed at both the Italian Cultural Institutes and the Italian diplomatic-consular network, worldwide. The project, created by Angelo Gioè, the current director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beirut, and curated in its entirety by architect Maurizio Corrado, was presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Melbourne, the Italian Cultural Institute in Beirut (Design), and the Italian Cultural Institute in Sofia (Design), and will soon be presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrade. The initiative showcases the Italian approach to tackling the challenges of the Anthropocene.
The Anthropocene is a method of reading reality. Everything is changing: the economy, how to think and make culture, the very view of the world and the human being’s place in the cosmos. The issues, fears, needs, concepts, rules, scenarios and discourse on which our culture is based have suddenly become obsolete and unusable. The point of no return is behind us; we have entered the aftermath.
What can we do? What are the tools for the after? What scenarios await us? What issues need to be addressed? We need to imagine.
TFA is a workshop of ideas, solutions, projects, imaginings, models and tools to draw a collective map of the imaginary of the Anthropocene, a collaborative exploration of possibilities, solutions and ways to deal with everyday practice. It is a call to a utopia, to develop the imaginary, to propose ideas, and to build a survival manual for the world’s coming transformations, an atlas of solutions, a range of strategies.
After Tools for After Design at Sursock Palace this last spring, the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut, in collaboration with Metropolis Art Cinema Association, presents Tools For After Cinema, a selection of the most interesting proposals of new Italian cinematography, presented to Lebanese audience. The six days of cinema work around themes related to the Anthropocene. The selection was curated by Maurizio and Antar Corrado, along with Elisa Roncalli.
Fiction Session 2
MISE EN ABYME, by Edoardo Smerilli, 11 min
A bizarre butterfly collector is to discover that he himself is part of an even larger collection.
Year of production: 2020
DAUGHTERS OF THE STARS, by Edoardo Smerilli, 17 min
Two sisters clash over a terrible question: what to do with the body of their recently deceased mother. One sister wants to cremate her while the other one would like to deep freeze her.
Year of production: 2021
EGGSHELL, by Ryan William Harris, 13 min
Joey’s life alternates between the fantastical world of childhood and the harsh reality of Irish suburbia. After constructing a shell of fantasy to protect himself from family problems, Joey is forced to face the premature arrival of adulthood.
Distribution: Sayonara Film (Elenfant Distribution)
Year of production: 2020
48 DEGREES, by Andrea Di Iorio, 8 min
On a day when the temperature is rising relentlessly, a woman finds herself stranded in her car. Her only salvation is the air conditioning―until the car breaks down.
Distribution: Premiere Film
Production Year: 2022
PLEISTOCITY, by Green Utopia, 7 min
What is Pleistocene culture? Is it possible that what we were before sedentarization can tell us about the present?
Production year: 2015
H2O, by Roberto Marcatti e Cintya Concari, 7 min
A work on water as a resource―an asset to be safeguarded, and a universal right.
Year of production: 2023
AKKA, by Mattia De Gennaro, Academy of Fine Arts, Foggia, 16 min.
The arrival of a young couple in the ruins of a ghost town causes the latter to come to life and take on human features. Disoriented, she is soon attracted by a growing hissing sound that leads her to wander around to discover its origin. What she discovers will confront her with a truth that until then she has been unable to comprehend.
Photography: Davide d’Addato
Editing: Alessandra Quacquarelli, Davide d’Addato, Gabriele Ciavarella
Production: Academy of Fine Arts, Foggia
Year of production: 2022
SERAPH, by Andrea Marchini, NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts), Milan, 5 min.
In a world that seems desolate, Luc sets himself a challenge: to overcome the obstacles that lie before him. The goal is distant but the will to reach it is unfailing. But when what you strive for does not end in the desired result, what is left for you to do? With certainty failing and death imminent, at the very end comes the moment when Luc’s vision is flung wide open.
Production year: 2023
LA VETRINA, by Asia Allegretti, Ilaria Mantovani and Chiara Cordini, NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts) Milan, 5 min.
La Vetrina is an animated short film that reflects ironically on contemporary issues of the individual, such as the exposability of the individual’s image and the relationship between the individual and the crowd. The mirror of the shop window separates people, but reflects their appearance. Where is the viewer’s gaze positioned?
Year of production 2023
MOENA, by Daniele Caruso, Matteo Boscolo Gioachina and Matteo Carnio, NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts) Milan, 12 min.
The film is set over a night on a motor-boat from Chioggia―a night spent between boredom and anxieties, serenity and storminess, silently observing a deeply-rooted reality, a foreign world that lives parallel to our own. In the dialect of Chioggia, “moena” means the rough sea that surrounds and moves the boat, imposing nature on the daily life of the sailors.
Production year 2023
