Chiara Sbarigia and Vanessa Beecroft present VB93 Performance Documentary. Filmed in and around Cinecittà’s Studio 5 over the course of three days, VB 93 is the first filmed document of the process Vanessa Beecroft has devised to create her famed VB performances over three decades.
Developed specifically for the purposes of this documentary, VB93 will be the ninety-third Vanessa Beecroft performance. In it, Beecroft challenges assumptions critics have made about her work and its motivations, and about the complex, changing relation between artist and performers, performers and audience, and the performers themselves.
This 90-minute documentary will provide rare insight into the artist’s process, and the unexpected synergies that arise when performers, artist, crew, and technicians come together for the first time to create a singular work over the course of three days.
On October 1st, 2022, A small, invited audience will enter the space and watch VB93, the performance, unfold over its 3-hour duration, in real time, without stopping. After the performance, Beecroft and crew will venture outside Studio 5 and shoot ambient footage that may be cut into the final film.
VB93 Performance Documentary is supported by Cinecittà and Archivio Luce, Produced by Mauro Calevi of Masifilm Srl with the collaboration of Vanessa Beecroft Studio.
VANESSA BEECROFT, Artist & Director
Born in Genoa, Italy, in 1969. Lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Vanessa Beecroft’s work has been shown internationally since 1993, and since then has shaped performance art, the representation of the female body, and socio-political discussions of art. Beecroft’s performances (titled VB, followed by the number), which have been an ongoing practice for over twenty-five years, have been presented in many of the world’s preeminent museums and major contemporary events. The performances often highlight the tensions between nakedness and clothing, constraint, and freedom, the collective and the individual, and human strength and weakness.
Vanessa Beecroft was one of the first artists to collaborate with fashion brands, starting in the 1990s, and since 2009 has collaborated extensively with musician and producer Kanye West. Now belonging to popular culture as well as the contemporary art canon, her work also manifests a deep dialogue with the history of art and traditions of representation in Europe and of many of the world’s cultures. She is also a keen practitioner of photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture, using each medium to present perspectives on the body, as she brings Renaissance influences together with modern forms of representation. Her art is a passionate field of experimentation, rooted in history, evolving according to its own rules, and expanding into the world where it takes on many philosophical and political tones to question the significance of our existence as human beings.
According to gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, “Vanessa Beecroft is one of the rare artists who invented a new way to make a work of art. Ninety-nine percent of artists are treading ground that’s already well established, they are making small innovations, and then there are very rare artists who come up with a whole new concept of how to make a work of art and expand our sense of what a work of art can be. Vanessa Beecroft has done that.”
Selected Exhibitions and Performances:
Glasstress, Fondazione Berengo Art Space, Murano (2022); Marble, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Alborg, Alborg, Denmark (2022); Canova: Innocence and Sin, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rovereto, Italy (2022); Simon De Pury Virtual Exhibition (2021); Vanessa Beecroft, Pio Pico, Los Angeles (2021); Sized Exhibition, Los Angeles (2021); Vanessa Beecroft, Four Seasons Hotel, Milano (2021) Extraordinaire, Lausanne, Switzerland (2020); L.A. Wilding Cran, Los Angeles (2020); Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles (2020); Mary Opera, collaboration with Kanye West, Lincoln Center, New York (2019); Mary Opera, collaboration with Kanye West, Art Basel, Miami (2019); Vanessa Beecroft, Illustrated Editorial, Vogue Italia (2019); Nebuchadnezzar Opera, collaboration with Kanye West, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles (2019); VB88, Kappa, Lot 11 Skatepark, Miami (2019); VB87, Moncler, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milan (2019); Vanessa Beecroft, Pio Pico, Los Angeles (2019); Fundacion de artistas, Merida, Mexico (2019); People,
Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles. (2019); Eco e Narciso, MAXXI National Museum of 21-Century Arts, Rome (2014); Vanessa Beecroft, Pio Pico, Los Angeles (2017); VB84, Firenze Suona Contemporanea, Uffizi Gallery Museum, Florence (2017); VB83, Firenze Suona Contemporanea, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (2017); VB82, Certosa di San Lorenzo, Padula, Italy (2017); Vanessa Beecroft Polaroids 1993 – 2016, Photo Vogue Festival, Palazzo Reale, Milan (2016); VB79, The New York Academy of Arts, New York (2016); VB78, PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2016); VB77, Yeezy 3, collaboration with Kanye West, Madison Square Garden, New York (2016); 56th Venice Biennale (2015); Expo 2015, Milan (2015); Art Basel, Miami (2014); VB74, MAXXI National Museum of 21-Century Arts, Rome (2014); VB72, Art Basel, Miami (2013); VB70, Galleria Lia Rumma, Milan (2011); VB68, MMK, Frankfurt (2010); VB66, Mercato Ittico, Naples (2010); VB65, PAC, Milan (2009); VB62, Spasimo, Palermo, Italy (2008); VB61, Pescheria di Rialto, Venice (2007); VB60, Gana Art Gallery, Seoul (2007); VB59, The National Gallery, London (2006); VB55, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2005); VB56, LVMH, Louis Vuitton Store, Champs-Elysees, Paris (2005); VB54, Terminal 5, JFK International Airport, New York; VB52, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy (2003); VB50, 25a Biennial de São Paulo (2002); VB48, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa (2001); VB47, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2001); VB46, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills (2001); VB42, Whitney Biennial, New York (2000); VB35, 391; Guggenheim Museum, New York (1998); VB33, ICA London (1997); VB28, 47th Venice Biennale (1997); VB26, Lia Rumma, Naples (1997); VB23, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (1996); VB19, The Renaissance Society, Chicago (1996); VB17, Deste Foundation, Athens (1996); VB16, Deitch Projects, New York (1996); VB11, Galerie Analix, Geneva (1995); VB09, Schipper & Krome, Cologne (1994); VB08, MoMA P.S.1, Long Island City (1994); VB07, Andrea Rosen, New York (1994); VB03, Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan (1994); VB01, Galleria Inga-Pin, Milan (1993).
