Détour

Détour is a 16 mm film directed by Nicola Pietromarchi and Filippo Castellano produced by Olympìque. It takes Marcello Jacopo Biffi’s Alphabets 1–8 as a starting point to lead the viewer on a journey through landscapes of letters. It’s a dreamy experience: the alphabets are blown out of proportion, each letter transforms into an abstract surface losing its conventional meaning. The eye follows the hands, which run through a maze of mysterious graphic signs: shapes blend one into the other, engendering a yin-yang like dualism. The paper sheets interact with each other generating three-dimensional architectural sculptures. The score, entirely made of pre-verbal sounds by Mara Miccichè, assists the deconstruction of the alphabet building a new elemental language. The film titles are set in Imago Bold, printed on paper and then filmed (the lowercase u has been replaced with its small caps version throughout).

Credits
Directors: Nicola Pietromarchi & Filippo Castellano
Production: Olympìque
Director of photography: Gianluca Oliva
Sound design: Mara Miccichè
Set design: Stella Porta
Hands model: Lucrezia Cuccagna
Gaffer: Paolo Pastaccini
Assistant camera: Michele Porcari
Editing: Filippo Castellano
Colorist: Leonardo Masoero
Title design: Marcello Jacopo Biffi
Location: Marsèll Paradise
Print: Tipografia Valdostana

Détour is part of the exhibition A is A is A at Marsèll Paradise, a project by Marcello Jacopo Biffi. See also the posts about the exhibition design and the exhibition catalog and booklet.