Marco Brambilla (born 25 September 1960) is an Italian-born Canadian contemporary artist and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, known for directing Demolition Man and Dinotopia as well as re-contextualizations of popular and found imagery, and use of 3D imaging technologies in public installations and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

. His work is in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York;

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul; the

Museum of the Moving Image The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Am ...

, New York; Metronóm Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Barcelona, Spain and the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art is a former art museum in Washington, D.C., that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Founded in 1869 by philanthropist William Wilson Corco ...

, Washington D.C.

Career

Style and themes

Pop culture as spectacle

Jumping off from his experience in Hollywood filmmaking, Brambilla's work explores the history and influence of pop culture through the lens of

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...

's "

spectacle In general, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Middle English from c. 1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from Old French ''spectacle'', itself a reflection of the ...

," or how images commodify human experiences by oversaturation. In an interview with ''

032c ''032c'' magazine is a bi-annual, English-language contemporary culture magazine that covers art, fashion, and politics. It was founded in 2001 by Joerg Koch and Sandra von Mayer-Myrtenhain and is published in Berlin. History The magazine was fo ...

'', Brambilla discussed how Hollywood film has "largely become an exercise in spectacle," hyper-saturating the media landscape with pop-culture imagery. In doing so, his work comments on "our ability to absorb images, our ability to be distracted, our ability to be entertained - our ability to be confronted with all those things simultaneously." While the theme of pop culture as spectacle is particularly prominent in his ''Megaplex'' series — using scenes, characters and images from films to create elaborate "video collages" — his work broadly deals with "transition, our culture's constant acceleration and emotional connection and disconnection through technology." In this respect, Brambilla satirizes mass media, which "can be interpreted as apocalyptic or Utopian in nature."

Metaverse

Marco Brambilla has explored the concept of the

Metaverse The metaverse is a loosely defined term referring to virtual worlds in which users represented by avatars interact, usually in 3D and focused on social and economic connection. The term ''metaverse'' originated in the 1992 science fiction ...

, whose term was coined by

Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathemati ...

in ''

Snow Crash ''Snow Crash'' is a science fiction novel by the American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's novels, its themes include history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryp ...

''. Brambilla's work, ''Halflife'', juxtaposes gamers in cyber-cafés with their virtual

Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games, in which opposing teams attempt to complete various objectives. The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, '' Counte ...

world, referencing concepts from Stephenson and

Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard (, ; ; – 6 March 2007) was a French sociology, sociologist and philosopher with an interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as hi ...

hyperreality Hyperreality is a concept in post-structuralism that refers to the process of the evolution of notions of reality, leading to a cultural state of confusion between signs and symbols invented to stand in for reality, and direct perceptions of co ...

. In 2016, he adapted part of his ''Megaplex'' series into virtual reality (VR), emphasizing it as a medium of immersive, emotional experience. Another VR adaptation was ''Heaven's Gate'', presented at the

Pérez Art Museum Miami Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Maurice A. Ferré Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Cent ...

in 2021. Brambilla has likened the Metaverse to the disruptive

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an anti-establishment art movement that developed in 1915 in the context of the Great War and the earlier anti-art movement. Early centers for dadaism included Zürich and Berlin. Within a few years, the movement had s ...

movement, and in 2021 curated an NFT collection by Simon Denny, Rachel Rossin, and

Willem de Rooij Willem de Rooij (born 1969 in Beverwijk, Netherlands) is an artist and educator working in a variety of media, including film and installation. He investigates the production, contextualization and interpretation of images. Appropriations and collab ...

, combining

Sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, VR, and

Blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

technology.

Artwork

''Megaplex'' series

Brambilla's ''Megaplex'' is his first series of virtual reality artworks, set between the birth and death of the universe and all that pop culture created during its existence. Each piece explores with the idea of hyper-saturation in media and film as a spectacle. In May 2011, Brambilla's ''Megaplex'' series was part of his first major retrospective at the

Santa Monica Museum of Art The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA; formerly known as the Santa Monica Museum of Art) is a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States. As an independent and non-collecting art museum (or kunsthalle), it e ...

, featuring eight other works produced since 1999.

= ''Civilization'' (2008)

= ''Civilization'' (2008) depicts hundreds of characters and scenes sampled from Hollywood cinema, populating a vertical scroll depicting an endlessly ascending journey from hell to heaven. This religious-themed tableau contains three distinct visual environments offering a pop-culture reinvention of the volcanic landscape of Hades and the lofty clouds of Heaven. ''Civilization'' was presented at

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

and the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland. It was a permanent installation at The Standard in New York City until 2021 when it was replaced with ''Heaven's Gate,'' the latest of Brambilla's ''Megaplex'' series.

= ''Evolution'' (2010)

= ''Evolution'' illustrates the history of humankind in a vast side-scrolling video mural depicting the spectacle of human conflict across time through the lens of cinema. ''Evolution'' was part of the "Official Selection" at the

68th Venice International Film Festival The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August and 10 September 2011, at Venice Lido in Italy. American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actre ...

in 2011 and the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in 2012.

= ''Creation'' (2012)

= Set between the birth and death of the universe, Creation presents an abstract cycle of life, depicted within spiraling DNA strands in the form of a cosmic pull back. The big bang is followed by embryonic inception, an idyllic Garden of Eden, then decadent urban sprawls eventually giving way to a landscape of annihilation before reconstituting itself as the spiral loops back to the moment of origin. ''Creation'' was presented at Fondation Beyeler in 2015,

SITE Site most often refers to: * Archaeological site * Campsite, a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area * Construction site * Location, a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere * Website, a set of related web pages, typical ...

in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as inside St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York City.

= ''Heaven's Gate'' (2021)

= The title alludes to Michael Cimino’s 1980 film of the same name, whose extravagant production costs bankrupted United Artists, opening the path for a new and lasting era of studio domination of the medium, which has continued to prevail. In May 2021, ''Heaven's Gate'' premiered at The Shed, Hudson Yards, New York City. ''Heaven's Gate'' was a major exhibition at the

, which opened in June 2021. In October 2021, ''Heaven's Gate'' replaced the permanent installation of Civilization (Megaplex) at The Standard in New York City.

Public installations

In 2001, Brambilla was commissioned by Creative Time to present on the Jumbotron screen in

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

, New York City, titled ''Superstar''. Inspired by

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein wa ...

’s photograph ''Leap into the Void'' (1960), ''Superstar'' presents a subject appearing perpetually frozen in time while the document of the moment itself slowly descends. Filmed in a pre-''

Matrix Matrix (: matrices or matrixes) or MATRIX may refer to: Science and mathematics * Matrix (mathematics), a rectangular array of numbers, symbols or expressions * Matrix (logic), part of a formula in prenex normal form * Matrix (biology), the m ...

'' era, the performance in ''Superstar'' was captured with 180 cameras mounted in a 360-degree ring that show a 1/500 second wedge of time. In 2013, as part of the

Art Production Fund Art Production Fund (APF) is a non-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, U.S. tax code that presents public art throughout the United States. It was founded in 2000 by Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen. ...

, Brambilla presented his site-specific video installation at

Time Warner Center Deutsche Bank Center (also known as One Columbus Circle and formerly Time Warner Center) is a mixed-use building on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building occupies the western side of Columbus Circle and strad ...

titled ''Anthropocene,'' which uses LiDAR scanning technologies to track the terrain from the southwest corner to the northeast corner of New York's Central Park, displayed on two intersecting cinematic channels. In March 2015, he presented ''Apollo XVIII'' at Times Square – a video-installation of countdown to a fictitious flight to the Moon using archival footage from real NASA missions and computer-generated imagery. In 2019, Creative Time and Art Production Fund commissioned Brambilla to create ''Nude Descending a Staircase No.3,'' which was screened at World Trade Center station. ''Nude Descending a Staircase No.3'' reimagines the iconic

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

painting, '' Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2'', into the dimension of time using machine-learning technology. The installation was also at the Biennale Némo in Paris, France, as well as the Maison Margiela stores in SoHo, New York, and Miami, Florida. In the same year, Brambilla created an art-video backdrop for the opera ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' by

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

at the Opera Vlaanderen – a collaborative performance piece with artists

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...

, Damien Jalet, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and

Iris van Herpen Iris van Herpen (born June 5, 1984) is a Dutch fashion designer known for fusing technology with traditional haute couture craftsmanship. Van Herpen opened her own label ''Iris van Herpen'' in 2007. In 2011, the Dutch designer became a guest-mem ...

. The backdrop was created using archival footage from NASA to "create a 'symbolist' journey through the cosmos which unfolds onstage." In 2020, Brambilla also produced the "visual intermezzos" for Abramović's opera 7 ''Deaths of Maria Callas.'' Inspired by cloud tank photography used in films like ''

Kwaidan is a Japanese word consisting of two kanji: 怪 (''kai'') meaning "strange, mysterious, rare, or bewitching apparition" and 談 (''dan'') meaning "talk" or "recited narrative". Overall meaning and usage In its broadest sense, ''kaidan'' refer ...

'', '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' and ''

Breaking The Waves ''Breaking the Waves'' is a 1996 psychological romantic melodrama film directed and co-written by Lars von Trier and starring Emily Watson in her feature film acting debut, and with Stellan Skarsgård, a frequent collaborator with von Trier. ...

'', Brambilla employed particle simulations to create impressionistic yet hyper-realistic skies that "set the tone for aria Callas’ psychological condition, or her characters in the seven different operas she played in. Each intermezzo represented a specific state of mind as she reached the end of her life."

Other projects

In 2010, Brambilla was commissioned by

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

to direct his music video for 'Power'. In an interview with ''Vulture'', he described the work as a "video portrait of Kanye," depicted in a reinvention of a neoclassical painting. During the same year, he directed a trailer for the third-person shooter '' Spec Ops: The Line'', developed by Yager Development. In 2020, Brambilla created ''The Four Temperaments'' where

Cate Blanchett Catherine Élise Blanchett ( ; born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actor and producer. Regarded as one of the best performers of her generation, she is recognised for Cate Blanchett on screen and stage, her versatile work across stage and scre ...

performs four sets of distinct character types divided according to a personality classification first defined by the Greek philosopher, Galen. In November 2021, ''The Four Temperaments'' was part of a group exhibition on augmented reality at the Phi Centre in Montreal, Quebec. During the same year, he also participated in the group-show ''Terminal'' in City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand, with his video installation ''Approach'' (1999). Filmed at John F. Kennedy Airport, passengers arriving from long-haul flights enter the terminal looking for contact with someone familiar. The footage was shot on camcorders equipped with telephoto lenses and slowed down to emphasize the moment of transition that each subject experiences as they arrive. Similarly to ''Approach'', ''Transit,'' a collection of photographs Brambilla took in and around airports, was published by Booth-Clibborn Editions in 2000.

Film

''"Sync,"'' ''Destricted''

His short film ''Sync'' (2005) was screened at the

2006 Cannes Film Festival The 59th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 2006. Chinese filmmaker Wong Kar-wai served as jury president for the main competition, the first Chinese to preside over the jury. English filmmaker Ken Loach won the Palme d'Or for th ...

and at the

as part of film anthology '' Destricted''. ''Sync'' is Brambilla’s first sampled video work and is a reflection of the rising threshold to graphic sex and brutality in contemporary popular culture and film.

''Demolition Man''

Brambilla made his directorial debut with the futuristic action film '' Demolition Man,'' premiered October 8, 1993, starring

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone (; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a Sylvester Stallone filmography, film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received List of awards and nominations received by Syl ...

Wesley Snipes Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor and martial artist. In a film career spanning more than thirty years, Snipes has appeared in a variety of genres, such as numerous thrillers, dramatic feature films, and comedies, th ...

and

Sandra Bullock Sandra Annette Bullock (; born July 26, 1964) is an American actress and film producer. The List of highest-paid film actors, highest-paid actress of 2010 and 2014, Sandra Bullock filmography, Bullock's filmography spans both comedy and drama, ...

. The film debuted at No. 1 on the box office. and grossed $58,055,768 by the end of its box office run in North America and $159,055,768 worldwide.

Awards and recognition

Brambilla received the Tiffany Comfort Foundation Award for Film and Video in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

and the Colbert Foundation award in 2000.

Selected projects

*''Heaven's Gate'', 2021, single-channel 8K video installation *''Creation (Megaplex)'', 2020, single-channel high-definition video installation *"The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas", 2020, visual intermezzos for Marina Abramović's opera *"Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)", 2019 *''Nude Descending A Staircase No. 3'', 2019, 3-channel high-definition video installation *''The Master Builder'', 2019, single-channel 3-D video installation *''Lunar Atlas'', 2016, multi-channel high-definition video installation *''Crystal Observatory'', 2015, high-definition video installation *''Constellation'', 2015, high-definition video projection *''Apollo XVII'', 2015, 4K ultra-high definition, dual-screen video tile display in custom enclosure *''Echo'', 2014, ultra high-definition video installation *''Anthropocene'', 2013, 3-channel video installation *''Creation (Megaplex)'', 2012, single-channel high-definition video installation. Collection Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul *''Civilization (Megaplex) 3-D'', 2011, single-channel high-definition video installation. Collection Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul *''Evolution (Megaplex) 3-D'', 2010, single-channel high-definition video installation. Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo and Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul *''Civilization'' ''(Megaplex)'', 2008, single-channel high-definition video installation *"Power", 2010, music video performed by

. Collection Museum of Moving Image, New York *''Cathedral'', 2007, single-channel

high-definition video High-definition video (HD video) is video of higher resolution and quality than standard-definition. While there is no standardized meaning for ''high-definition'', generally any video image with considerably more than 480 vertical scan lines ( ...

installation *''Sync'', 2005, 3-channel video installation *''Half-Life'', 2002, 3-channel video installation *''Wall of Death'', 2001, single-channel video installation. Collection Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York *''Approach'', 1999, 4-channel video installation suspended in custom enclosures with ceiling mounts. Collection Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. *''Getaway'', 1999, single-channel video installation *''Cyclorama'', 1999, 9-channel video installation. Collection San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

Filmography

* '' Demolition Man'' (1993) * '' Destricted'' (segment "Sync") (2006)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brambilla, Marco Living people 1960 births Film people from Milan Italian film directors Canadian film directors Italian photographers Canadian photographers Toronto Metropolitan University alumni Italian emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada