My films are experimental, I work very much with animation, but I often mix two-dimensional successions of drawings and three-dimensional settings (animated using the “stop motion” technique) with real life shots. I like crossing over layers of different bits of film that were created with these different techniques. A lot of time based images in my films are abstract. I do not use narrative, action or talking, and the narration is for me what happens through the succession of images and places that appear on the screen one after the other with their elements moving into and out of the frame. Very often, I include figurative elements to the scenes that I construct: they could be objects created with clay carefully put in the right pace to signify a particular concept, real human beings moving and conveying particular emotions, or falling plants and water to give to the viewer the sense that a change is in progress. I think the most important thing in a movie is the shape of objects or their colors that alone can express a mood or send a message without the needs for words.
It is useful for me to stop for some time working with the camera, and start dealing with materials like paper, water, glue, canvas and clay: my video work is very much connected to the making of art. I think more like a sculptor or a photographer; I am much more a marker of shapes that when interlaced with time and sound make things happen, than a story teller.
The Tower Trilogy, 2005 – 10:00 mins
Barbara Agreste was born in Pescara. Very early in her life she showed a passion for drawing, and her parents agreed to let her train at the art school in her city, a period in which she also took dancing classes and and trained as an actress at a regional Academy of Performing Arts. Later she moved to Milan to attend a course in Theatrical Design at Brera Academy of Arts, and soon after she moved to London where she continued her studies of contemporary dance, soon starting to work as a performer for Rawhead Dance Theatre Company. After her experience with theatre and live performance, Barbara returned to devote herself to the visual arts enrolling in Kent Institute of Art & Design where she learned the techniques of Film & Video Production, and deepened her knowledge of psychoanalysis, philosophy, gender studies, and film theory. Barbara graduated from KIAD in Visual Communication with First Class Honours, and returning to London achieved a Masters degree in Fine Art at Central St. Martins College of Art & Design (University of the Arts). Since then Barbara has continued producing film, music, photographs, and paintings, exhibiting and attending film festivals all around the world. Barbara lives and works in London although her visits to Italy are very frequent.
Barbara Agreste – London United Kingdom | Pescara Italy