Marinella Pirelli + Ute Aurand

Cultural spaces serve as havens where people can freely engage with complex or challenging films and topics. In a world where this freedom increasingly is being restricted, we invite guests who are hosts in such spaces. Beatrice Zerbato is currently a fellow at the Harun Farocki Residency. In Palermo, she and artist-filmmaker Beatrice Gibson run Nuova Orfeo, an independent experimental film and music program that focuses on non-commercial, forgotten or lesser known works from a feminist perspective. 
Beatrice Zerbato presents a screening followed by a conversation with both experimental filmmaker and curator Ute Aurand and cultural theorist Clio Nicastro (Harun Farocki Institut). The programme includes a selection of films from the Marinella Pirelli Archive (Fondazione Home Movies, Bologna) and Zu Hause + Oh! Die Vier Jahreszeiten by Ute Aurand. In the spirit of Making Space, Beatrice Zerbato invited Aurand to engage with the films of Marinella Pirelli, whose multifaceted body of work remains largely unexplored, and to enter into a conversation about experimental practices and the creation of spaces for the circulation of women’s cinema. Clio Nicastro will offer a reflection on Carla Lonzi’s connection with Pirelli, focusing on Lonzi´s book Autoritratto and her ideas about feminist spaces and cultural production. 
Marinella Pirelli (1925–2009), was an Italian artist and filmmaker who created a unique body of work spanning painting, light installations and experimental film. Her interest in perception and duration led her to experiment with film in the early 1960s, exploring new ways of representing light, the body and the natural environment through the camera. A retrospective of Pirelli’s work was previously presented in Palermo as part of Nuova Orfeo programme co-curated with Lucia Aspesi (curator at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan). 
Ute Aurand is an experimental filmmaker and a key figure in Berlin’s alternative film culture since the 1980s. Alongside her 16mm filmmaking practice, she has curated numerous programmes dedicated to women’s cinema, including Filmarbeiterinnen-Abend (Women Film Workers’ Evenings), held at Arsenal Kino between 1990 and 1995 and Sie zum Beispiel (She, for Example, 1995–1996, Arsenal Kino and Babylon Mitte). These programmes created spaces for the circulation and discovery of films, some of which were shown in Germany for the first time and later became part of the Arsenal collection. 

Films:
Il Lago, soggettivo-oggettivo Marinella Pirelli 1964-65 DCP 14 min.
Narciso, film esperienza Marinella Pirelli 1966-67 DCP 11 min.
Indumenti Marinella Pirelli 1966 DCP 2 min. 
Sole Sole Sole Marinella Pirelli 1973 DCP 9 min. 
Zu Hause Ute Aurand 1998 16 mm 2 min.
Oh! Die vier Jahreszeiten Ute Aurand, Ulrike Pfeiffer 1988 16 mm 20 min.