IONO ALLEN
MARCH 15-21 2021/15-21 MARZO 2021 (ONLINE)
PARAPINA
Created by Iono Allen with Theda Tammas
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 5’ 54”, 2020. France.
Music by Dead Can Dance, “Song of the Stars” (excerpt)
DANCE IN BETWEEN
Created by Iono Allen with Theda Tammas
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 45”, 2020. France.
Music by Kevin Macleod, Shagrugge, Kosta T & Ghofra Z
CHOREOGRAPHY OF A TORTURED SOUL
Created by Iono Allen with Theda Tammas
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 28”, 2019. France.
Music by Morlita Quan
ENCOEUR
Created by Iono Allen with Theda Tammas
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 56”, 2018. France.
Music by Arvo Pärt
KOMA
Created by Iono Allen with JadeYu Fhang
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 08”, 2019. France.
Music by Morlita Quan
INTOLERANCE
Created by Iono Allen with Theda Tammas, JadeYu Fhang, and Igor Ballyhoo
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 3’ 58”, 2017. France.
Music by Morlita Quan
LALAWOOD
Created by Iono Allen
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 2’ 50”, 2019. France.
Originally filmed in Second Life for the Lalawood installation by Yoon, with assistance by Theda Tammas, JadeYu Fhang and Iono Allen, curated by Aneli Abeyante, and hosted by Vroum Short at Vegetal Planet.
THE FALL OF INSILICO
Created by Iono Allen
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 2’ 50”, 2016. France.
Music: Chris_Zabriskie, Marcel Pequel.
HAPPY
Created by Iono Allen
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 00”, 2017. France.
Music: The Easton Ellises
HOW DARE YOU?
Created by Iono Allen
machinima/digital video, color, sound, 3’ 20”, 2020. France.
Originally presented at the installation “Alertez les bébé” by Tutsy Navarathna, Elemiah Choche and Iono Allen, at Vibes Gallery in Second Life.
The guiding principle of Iono Allen’s production is absent anthropocentrism. In his works, anthropomorphic figures function as post-carnal reminiscences, evoking a body that is not there (any longer). The Other is a physical residue of a subjectivity acting in a performative space — the three-dimensional environments of Second Life — at the crossroads of presence and absence. Allen’s machinima reveal a spatial and temporal disconnect in which an apparent subject is replaced by an unexpressed, vague and indeterminate provenance. This selection features both solo works — marked by an idiosyncratic, immediately recognizable aesthetic within the endless production of Second Life-based machinima — and projects developed in collaboration with several artists and performers. As a reminder of the highly collaborative and participatory nature of virtual worlds, here Allen plays multiple roles: he is, at once, a director, an actor, an editor, and a spectator. His oeuvre is permeated by an awareness to contemporary themes, from the return of autocratic fascism to the environmental crimes of neoliberalism (Intolerance, How Dare You?), alternating an ironic detachment to the delusions of celebrity culture (Lalawood) to a somber take at the collapse of a bladerunner-esque Silicon Valley (The Fall on Insilico). (Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda, Riccardo Retez)
La produzione di Iono Allen è informata dalla nozione di antropocentrismo assente. Nelle sue opere, le figure antropomorfe agiscono come reminiscenze post-carnali, evocando un corpo che non c’è (più). L’Altro si configura come un residuo fisico di una soggettività in uno spazio performativo — gli ambienti tridimensionali di Second Life —in bilico tra presenza e assenza. I suoi machinima attestano una disgiunzione spazio-temporale nella quale l’apparente presenza del soggetto è sostituita da una provenienza inespressa, vaga, indeterminata. La selezione include opere realizzate in autonomia — caratterizzate da un’estetica idiosincratica all’interno della sterminata produzione audiovisiva in Second Life — nonché progetti sviluppati insieme ad altri artisti e performer, confermando l’approccio cooperativo degli artisti che agiscono nei mondi virtuali. Qui Allen è simultaneamente regista, montatore e spettatore. Tutte le sue opere manifestano un’attenzione ai temi pressanti del contemporaneo, dal ritorno del fascismo autocratico ai crimini ambientali del neoliberismo (Intolerance, How Dare You?) alternando l’ironia dissacrante nei confronti della celebrity culture (Lalawood) allo sguardo disincantato su una Silicon Valley che ricorda la Los Angeles di Blade Runner. (Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda, Riccardo Retez)
THE ARTIST
L’ARTISTA
Nella vita vissuta, Iono Allen (Bernard Capitaine) è un ingegnere specializzato nella progettazione di sistemi di trasporto. Nel 2007 ha fatto il suo ingresso in Second Life, collezionando, producendo ed esponendo opere d’arte nella galleria da lui fondata. Poco dopo, ha cominciato a sperimentare con il machinima, spesso in collaborazione con artisti. Cinefilo sin dalla tenera età, Allen ha trovato nel machinima una nuova forma espressiva, situata al punto di intersezione tra cinema, video arte e performance art. Allen miscela storytelling e un’estetica d’avanguardia, giustapponendo ambientazioni e personaggi realistici a situazioni astratte. Nel 2012, a chi gli chiedeva previsioni sul machinima, Allen ha risposto: “Tutto finirà per convergere e tra uno o due anni, o forse più tardi, ci sarà qualcosa di nuovo, un nuovo genere, nato dal connubio tra cinema, video e machinima. Forse si chiamerà machinima o forse no. Per me questa fase di sperimentazione è molto importante. È paragonabile all’avvento del cinema.” (Iono Allen cit. in Phyllis Johnson, Donald Pettit, Machinima. The Art and Practice of Virtual Filmmaking, 2012, p. 238). Allen vive e lavora a Parigi.
In real life, Iono Allen (née Bernard Capitaine) is a system engineer who builds transportation systems. In 2007 he created his alter ego in Second Life and began collecting, producing and exhibiting artworks in the art gallery he founded. Shortly after, he began experimenting with machinima, which he often develops in collaboration with other artists and performers. A cinephile since early age, Allen found in machinima a new artform, situated at the intersection of cinema, video art, and performance art. Allen combines storytelling with avant-garde aesthetics, juxtaposing realistic settings and characters with more abstract forms. In 2012, when asked about the future of machinima, Allen responded: “All this is going to be mixed, and there will be, in one or two years or maybe later, something with a name, which would be cinema, video and machinima. There would be something; maybe it will be called machinima or not. And for me this period is very important. For me, it is like the period when cinema was born.” (Iono Allen, quoted in Phyllis Johnson, Donald Pettit, Machinima. The Art and Practice of Virtual Filmmaking, 2012, p. 238). Allen lives and works in Paris.