Marco Brambilla
ARTIST MARCO BRAMBILLA COMMISSIONED BY KANYE WEST TO PRODUCE VIDEO TABLEAU TO ACCOMPANY WEST’S NEW SINGLE “POWER”Kanye West has commissioned a video work by critically acclaimed artist, Marco Brambilla, to accompany the release of his new single “Power” from his upcoming album.
Power is a neo-classical video tableau, a single continuous camera move from an extreme close up of Mr. West gradually revealing an epic composition showing characters and creatures surrounding him in an abstract environment – all moving in extreme slow motion. Inspired by Michelangelo’s frescos in the Sistine Chapel, the piece depicts a faux historical moment – an empire on the brink of collapse from its own excess, decadence and corruption.
Brambilla explains, “my aim was to set the Sistine Chapel frescos in motion and populate it with characters symbolizing power in all its forms.” The mostly-nude icons (including models Diandra Forrest, Jessica White, and Irina Shayk) reference imagery from almost every historical era, surrounding Kanye in an orgy of decadence and destruction. Mr. West’s place at the center of the universe seems to be in a precarious state in Brambilla’s video work. “Nihilism is part of the message Kanye wanted to convey and a theme that is strongly present in his music and lyrics, so I made that feeling larger-than life using a familiar composition and borrowing heavily from the old masters.”
In making Power, Mr. Brambilla has evolved the video collage technique he created for his epic 2009 video installation, Civilization (commissioned by hotelier André Balazs for The Standard, New York). The imagery for Power was shot specifically for the piece and has been layered to create compelling new narratives and stunning visual mosaics. With exquisite technical production and seamless editing, Brambilla’s multi-layered tableaux of interconnecting images and looped video blend into an expansive landscape that forms his hallmark style.
Marco Brambilla is a Milan-born New York based video artist whose work has been exhibited in major private and public collections including the Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum Museum of Modern Art, and the New Museum of Contemporary art. His 2008 installation, “Cathedral” was showcased during the Toronto International Film festival. In 2007, his work on “Destricted” was screened at the Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals. In 2009 he was commissioned to create video works for Sixth Sense parfums and Muse magazine and his most recent major work, “Civilization” is on permanent view at The Standard Hotel in New York as well as several institutions in Europe.
Mr. Brambilla is currently working on a video work and feature film accompanying the release of Kanye West’s new album, “Dark Twisted Fantasy” and several new video works for his first major retrospective in 2011 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art.
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Art, Installation, Kanye West, Marco Bramibilla, Power, Video
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