Yuri Ancarani: Atlantide 2017–2023

Atlantide 2017–2023, the project curated by Lorenzo Balbi and conceived for MAMbo by Yuri Ancarani, is an “explosion” of the film Atlantide, which premiered in the “Orizzonti” section of the 2021 Venice Film Festival and was subsequently shown at numerous international festivals: a journey through the research process and the many materials produced, on which the artist made a selection, giving them a new formalization over the last six years, before, during and after the making of the film.

In an enveloping and immersive atmosphere, the audience can follow an external narrative that goes beyond a feature film, thanks to a series of previously unseen contents produced for the exhibition.

Although the film’s narrative, set in Venice, revolves around Daniele and other boys and girls, the lagoon city’s singularity emerges as the main character. Thus, the focus is the Venice-Atlantis the artist has recreated at MAMbo, a city difficult to define, suffocated by exploitative tourism, and under constant environmental threats that affect the entire planet yet become particularly meaningful here.

Now reduced to fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, they live suspended between the need to fight against being inundated by the lagoon, the relentless waves of tourism, and the temptation to abandon the struggle and leave the city to its fate.
At the same time, from a broader perspective, Ancarani’s Venice loses its geographical and urban connotation, becoming a symbol, an ideal representation of the decadence of capitalism, and a model depicting a global problem.

Adolescent despair, Venice’s decay, and the deterioration of the environment and human relationships are the major themes that run through Atlantide 2017–2023, that can be interpreted as a single choral work.

At the journey’s end, one realizes how these problems, these issues, concern not only Venice or Venetians but involve us all directly.

Atlantide 2017–2023 is a main project of ART CITY Bologna 2023, the institutional program of exhibitions, events, and special initiatives promoted by the Comune di Bologna and BolognaFiere on the occasion of Arte Fiera. 

The exhibition was made possible with the support of the Trust per l’Arte Contemporanea, thanks to the main sponsor Gruppo Hera, in partnership with PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea of Milan and IWONDERFULL, and in collaboration with I Wonder Pictures, Dugong Films, and Rai Cinema.

On the occasion of the show in Bologna, the previously unpublished Atlantide screenplay will be issued by Edizioni MAMbo. It was adapted by Marco Alessi and Marta Tagliavia, who created a script after the film was made without a screenplay, using extemporaneous dialogues. The publication also includes an original essay by Lorenzo Balbi, a selection of stills from the film and drawings by Alessandro Montelli.