Commissioned for the exhibition “Casa Balla - From the house to the universe and back” at MAXXI museum in Rome, Italy, Bêka & Lemoine’s have released their latest film OSLAVIA. The cave of the past future, a tour inside the house-atelier where Giacomo Balla, prominent Futurist painter and major figure of the avant-garde of the early 20th century lived. The Futurist house where the artist lived and worked from 1929 until his death will be open to the public for the first time during the time of the exhibition.
“OSLAVIA. The cave of the past future” takes viewers on a tour inside a house of "inestimable historical value". The apartment is an are piece of its own, with floors and ceilings entirely painted, transformed, and personalized by the artist and his two daughters, Elica and Luce. The space has been untouched since the artist's death in 1958.
Bêka & Lemoine were invited by the curatorial team of the MAXXI in Rome to enter the space and document its unique art features. The film is an archeological journey that reconstructs the silent space and its emerging memory with flashlights, sounds, and colors. Along with Bêka & Lemoine, international artists and creatives Carlo Benvenuto, Alex Cecchetti, Emiliano Maggi, Leonardo Sonnoli, Space Popular, and Cassina with Patricia Urquiola were also invited to investigate Casa Balla, through different media and techniques.
Video-artists, filmmakers, and producers, Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine have been working together for the past 15 years mainly focusing their research on experimenting new narrative and cinematographic forms in relation to contemporary architecture and urban environment. Recently, ArchDaily had the opportunity to talk to Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine about the importance of the cities and the ordinary aspects of life in their works. The duo's portfolio casts light on the everyday life of different cities around the world, revealing an attentive gaze to the most trivial aspects of human existence in the urban realm.
