Project Description.

Luca Buvoliís project for the 52nd International Venice Biennale begins with the prediction, ìThere will be a very beautiful day after tomorrow.î  Filippo Tommaso Marinettiófounder of Futurism, the avant-garde movement that brought Italy up to speed with Modernism and into a controversial relationship with Fascismótried to reassure his daughter with these hopeful words near the end of his life.

In A Very Beautiful Day After TomorrowóUn Bellissimo Dopodomani, Buvoli uses Marinettiís message as a point of departure, creating a series of free associations relating to velocity and flightñ themes central to the artistsí recent work. This dynamic project melds personal and historical narratives with abstracted forms, yielding drawings, sculptures, installations and animated videos.

For Buvoli, the euphoria of flight is as spectacular as the danger. The projectís initial phase, Anachroheroism, explores aesthetic and well as political aspects of aeronautics. Dynamic vector lines and an idealized, mechanized flying human shape surround the viewer upon entering the Arsenale, while hand-made ìPropaganda Postersî and words rendered in mosaic and resin rise along the walls. The style of these works not only refers to myths of velocity, virility and violence, but also deflates them with hesitant language, non-heroic content, and fading colors.

The second phase of Buvoliís project, Entanglement of Modernist Myths, hangs in the cylindrical room.  The flight trails of the initial ìVectorî --large lines and beams made of resin-- soar upward and weave between a large resin marquee spelling out the project title before becoming entangled and falling to the floor. A Very Beautiful Day After Tomorrow (Un Bellissimo Dopodomani), a video inside the cylinder, begins as Vittoria Marinetti recounts her fatherís prophecy. As Vittoria fades out, the video lyrically transitions between animated segments and archival footage of political rallies and air shows.

Velocity Zero is presented in two anterooms just off the main cylinder and comprises the third phase, Aphasia, of Buvoliís project. Created with the assistance of speech-language pathologists, Buvoli recorded individuals who have aphasia or stutter reading the Manifesto of Futurism. Their slowed speech-- transformed into fragmented animated sequences-- mirror the readersí attempts to fluently capture the text. Their moving struggle deflates the Manifestoís praise of speed and aggression, and continues Buvoliís ìre-reading of Futurism from a post-utopian perspective.î

The fourth phase of Buvoliís project, Monument to Movement, a documentary/animation,"How Can This Thing Be Explained? (Come si puo' spiegare questa cosa?) lies just outside the cylinder. This two-channel video compiles selected interviews the artist made with two of Marinettiís daughters and with Futurist scholars in both Italy and the United States to examine the Futuristsí problematic attitudes towards violence as well as their conflicted views on the role of women.

A Very Beautiful Day After TomorrowóUn Bellissimo Dopodomani continues Buvoliís overall project, FlyingñPractical Training, initiated in 1997, and echoes themes from his previous project, Not-a-Superhero. The artist envisions this project as a ìFuturism without optimismî: an homage to the movement as part of his cultural heritage, as well as a memory of his nationís political history and of his own personal historyñ his father was a pilot during World War II and he grew up watching aerial exhibitions. It is an attempt to question the authoritarian and threatening side of our fascination with the future, velocity and power.