Francesco Pedraglio
The starting point for my work – being performance, sculpture, prints, films – is writing. A curious detail, an overheard rumour, a banal incident, anything could spark some telling. And it is in the movement from written text to live action, from live action to staged situation that the exploration of language and power occurs. – Francesco Pedraglio
Francesco Pedraglio was born in Como (Italy) in 1981. Recent exhibitions: Piano Nobile, Geneva (2015); Norma Mangione Gallery, Turin (2015); The Physics Room, New Zealand (2015); Kunsthalle Wien (2015); DropCity, Newcastle (2015); MAZ-Museo de Zapopan, Mexico (2014); CCA Glasgow (2014); Hayward Gallery, London (2014); Rowing, London (2013); Jeu de Paume (2013), Kunsthalle Basel (2012); ICA (2012); Galerie Kamm, Berlin (2012); The National Portrait Gallery (2011); Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2011). His novel, A man in a room spray painting a fly, was published by Book Works in 2014. The novella, The Object Lessons, was published by Mousse in 2012.
The Protagonist | UK 2015 | HD | 17 min 39s
Loosely constructed from a collage of literary references, filmic vocabulary, broken-up narratives and improvisations, The Protagonistis a work where the construction of a main character for a film is treated as an event for camera, a happening that becomes the film itself. Shot in two different interiors (an empty cinema and a house-party turning into a karaoke night) and constructed through six interconnected scenes, the film uses the tropes normally associated with the basic shaping of a narrative persona – looks, behaviours, personal details, surroundings etc. – and turns them all into the only available storyline to be followed.