We are proud to present a SAVEME OH’S retrospective as part of the 2020 MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL.
The first of the three IN FOCUS sections of the Contemporary Exhibition Hall, this retrospective includes short films produced between 2012 and 2020. SaveMe Oh is just one of the several virtual alter-egos created by Oscar Wagenmans, a Dutch theatre director and actor. An eclectic figure inside and outside the virtual space, Wagenmans began his career as an actor in 1983 performing with youth theatre groups, subsequently as a comedian in solo shows and finally as part of the collective De Pinokkio's and Wagenmans and Strikker. Since 1991, he has been the artistic director of the Kamak Theatre, a theatre group of actors with learning disabilities, in Hengelo, Holland. Besides the Kamak project, Wagenmans works with amateur companies and musicians. His alter-ego SaveMe Oh was created in Second Life in 2007, where he appears as an irreverent, sensual performer with Asian roots, whose practice consists in creating sardonic plays on a variety of themes, including the artworld and current events. Mixing a variety of aesthetics (machinima, digital images, video, 3D animation), Wagenmans uses the character of SaveMe Oh to explore the creative challenges and limitations offered by Second Life, trying to disrupt the rules and real-world etiquette that users project onto the lives of their digital personas. His subversive tactics aimed at deconstructing and exposing the nonsense of the mechanisms governing politics and contemporary society, along with its fears and fetishes, provides a remarkable depiction the absurdity and grotesquery of human life.
As Gemma Fantacci writes,
The virtual alter-ego of Oscar Wagenmans - a Dutch theatre director and actor - SaveMe Oh is an infamous character in Second Life, where she is often labelled as a troll, griefer and even virus. The artistic community of Linden Lab’s virtual world is terrified by the idea that SaveMe Oh could show up unannounced during a vernissage, creating havoc. In the attempt to prevent a possible raid, the sims (or rather her haters) have been trying to protect themselves by banning her since 2007, when Wagenmans first appeared online. SaveMe Oh’s interventions in Second Life disrupt both the social conventions and shared rules of the real world, which are replicated online. Why do people feel obliged to act in Second Life as if they were in IRL, instead of realizing their full creative potential? This is the key question posed by SaveMe Oh. This retrospective includes a series of absurd, irreverent, often grotesque machinima starring SaveMe Oh produced between 2012-2019.
Siamo orgogliosi di presentare una retrospettiva dedicata a SAVEME OH nell’ambito del MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2020.
La prima delle tre sezioni IN FOCUS della Contemporary Exhibition Hall, la selezione include opere cortometraggi prodotti tra il 2012 e il 2020. SaveMe Oh è uno dei tanti alter ego virtuali creati da Oscar Wagenmans, regista teatrale e attore olandese. Artista dalla personalità eclettica dentro e fuori dal mondo virtuale, Wagenmans inizia la sua carriera come attore nel 1983 esibendosi insieme a gruppi teatrali, poi come comico e infine nel duo De Pinokkio's e in Wagenmans e Strikker. Dal 1991 è direttore artistico del Theatre Kamak, gruppo teatrale di attori con difficoltà d’apprendimento, a Hengelo in Olanda. Oltre al progetto Kamak, Wagenmans lavora con compagnie amatoriali e gruppi musicali. SaveMe Oh nasce ufficialmente nel 2007 in Second Life, dove assume le sembianze di una camaleontica performer di origine asiatica, la cui pratica consiste in performance e rappresentazioni teatrali dai toni irriverenti e persino anarchici. Adottando svariati tipi di linguaggi visivi (machinima, immagini digitali, video, artefatti 3D), Wagenmans utilizza la figura di SaveMe Oh per esplorare le sfide creative e le limitazioni offerte da Second Life, cercando di abbattere le regole e le sovrastrutture appartenenti al mondo reale traslate dagli utenti nella vita dei loro alter ego digitali. Le sue tattiche sovversive sono rivolte alla destrutturazione e alla messa a nudo del nonsense dei meccanismi che regolano l’etichetta e la società contemporanea, insieme alle sue paure e ai suoi feticismi, riassunti in un grande affresco dell’assurdo e del grottesco umano.
Come scrive Gemma Fantacci:
SaveMe Oh, l'alter-ego virtuale di Oscar Wagenmans, regista e attore teatrale olandese, è un personaggio controverso all’interno di Second Life, dove viene spesso etichettata come troll, guastafeste e persino virus. La comunità artistica del mondo virtuale di Linden Lab è terrorizzata dall'idea che SaveMe Oh si presenti all'inaugurazione di una mostra creando scompiglio. Nel tentativo di prevenire un possibile raid, i sims (o, meglio, gli odiatori) si proteggono bandendola sistematicamente dal 2007, quando Wagenmans è apparso per la prima volta online. Gli interventi di SaveMe Oh in Second Life sconvolgono sia le convenzioni sociali che le regole condivise del mondo reale, spesso replicate online. Perché le persone si sentono obbligate ad agire in Second Life come IRL, anziché realizzare il loro potenziale creativo? Questa è la domanda chiave posta da SaveMe Oh. Questa selezione di machinima assurdi, irriverenti, spesso grotteschi sono stati prodotti tra il 2012 e il 2019
TRAILER
LOCATION/TIMES
Tuesday March 10 2020/Martedì 10 marzo 2020
Contemporary Exhibition Hall (IULM OPEN SPACE)
09:00 - 19:00 Free entry
LINE-UP/PROGRAMMA
ALL OF ME
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 3’ 36”, 2019. The Netherlands.
SAVE GENEROSA
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 6’ 30”, 2019. The Netherlands.
MORE FOR ALMOST NOTHING
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 2’ 28”, 2019. The Netherlands.
THE PARADE
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 31”, 2018. The Netherlands.
SHOW ME WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 3’ 28”, 2018. The Netherlands.
COME SAVEME AND GO SAVEME
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 3’ 28”, 2017. The Netherlands.
MUSEO DE ME
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 5’ 25”, 2014. The Netherlands.
I BELIEVE I AM THE GODDESS
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 5’ 25”, 2019. The Netherlands.
PAIN
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 45”, 2014. The Netherlands.
GODWINS LAW UBER ALLES
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 3’ 39”, 2016. The Netherlands.
NOTHING’S GONNA CHANGE MY WORLD
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 16”, 2017. The Netherlands.
DO-PRESSION
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 45”, 2016. The Netherlands.
OCCUPY FREEDOM
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 29”, 2016. The Netherlands.
PLAY IN ME
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 3’ 47”, 2012. The Netherlands.
