MARCO
BRAMBILLA
By Emily Siegfried
Biography
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Born in Milan, Lombardy, Italy in
1960
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Raised in Toronto, Canada
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Currently lives and works in both
New York City, New York and
Berlin, Germany
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First experienced his love for
videography after creating his
own movie at age 16
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Attended Ryerson University in
Toronto, where he studied film
Early Career
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Began his career in by working on commercials and feature films in Hollywood
and New York City for a brief period of time
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Demolition Man (1993)
 Brambilla’s directorial debut came when he was only 28 years old
 Film stars Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, who play a police officer and a criminal
who are cryogenically frozen in 1996 and restored to life in 2032 where the world as they
knew it changed completely
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Excess Baggage (1997)
 One of Brambilla’s final Hollywood blockbusters before shifting his artistic focus
 Plot of the movie revolves around a spoiled girl played by Alicia Silverstone who is so
desperate for her absent father’s attention that she fakes her own kidnapping, but ends
up getting kidnapped for real
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In 1998, Brambilla broke away from big films and went back to the art world
 “I just had a sense that it wasn’t really fulfilling for me creatively and I went back to
making things that were more personal and that I was more passionate about. I didn’t
feel like it was a filmmaker’s medium anymore in 1993. It was becoming much more of a
producer’s medium.”
Visual and Installation Artistry
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After leaving the major scene, Brambilla shifted his focus to creating his
own independent artworks
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Preferred medium is videography and is most known for his recontextualizations of found imagery
 Vanity Fair described his work as “masterpieces of visual overload”
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Implements new technologies such as 3D, LiDAR computer mapping,
and photo-realistic computer simulations to further enhance his work
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Brambilla has had his work shown all across the globe
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Recipient of the Colbert Foundation Award (2000) and the Tiffany
Comfort Foundation Award (2002)
 Had works shown in exhibitions in Sweden, South Korea, New York, China,
Toronto, and Turkey
 Currently has permanent collections in the Guggenheim Museum (NYC) and
the Corcoran Gallery of Art (DC)
Wall of Death (2001)
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Playing off of the popular circus act,
which typically involves motorcyclist
driving on a vertical surface and
performing stunts while relying on
centrifugal force and gravity to keep
them from crashing
•
Footage was taken and later edited to
loop
 The looping motions shorten as the clip
continues, which creates the effect of
constant motion
•
Brambilla revealed that the clip was
shot from a mounted camera in the
center and one that was on the rotating
motorcyclist
•
Utilizes methods not unlike a zoetrope!
HalfLife (2002)
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A multi-channel video installation that
explores the relationship between real
life and fiction
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Juxtaposes gamers at their computers
and the game they are playing
 As the characters are killed off in the game
on the right, the player controlling them on
the left is replaced
 “A virtual cycle of life” is depicted
•
Possibly one of Brambilla’s most
gruesome and eye-opening works
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Demonstrates the effect that video
games have the power to create
 The players are like zombies, while their
characters are firing weapons and
sprinting from place to place
Megaplex Series
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3-part video series that takes
place in an alternate universe
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Combines various movie scenes
that the general public is easily
able to identify (but it sometimes
takes patience to find within the
collage)
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While he was no longer directing
feature films, Brambilla’s new age
of art incorporates famous movies
Civilization (2008)
Artistic goal is for the works to be
seen as “more satirical, more
critical of commercialism”
Creation (2012)
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Evolution (2010)
Power (2010)
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Kanye West commissioned Marco Brambilla to
direct the music video for his song, Power
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Demonstrates continuous camera movement that
begins with a close up of Kanye’s face and then
zooms out to reveal more of the scene
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Characters and various creatures surround him
and move in slow-motion, which creates a
framing effect
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Video draws inspiration from Michelangelo's
Sistine Chapel paintings
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Brambilla describes the video as “depicting a
faux historical moment – an empire on the brink
of collapse from its own excess, decadence and
corruption” and “apocalyptic in nature, stating
that the video exaggerated the message of the
song”
RPM (2011)
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Ferrari commissioned Marco Brambilla
to create a video advertising their brand
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Contains a variety of video clips which
results in a 3D kaleidoscopic-esque film
 Majority were filmed at the Italian
Formula One Grand Prix in Monza, Italy
 Layered photos and footage from Ferrari
archives and broadcasts
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The video is presented from the
perspective of a racer’s point-of-view
during a race
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Oftentimes, the video is labeled as “a
hyper-sensory psychological portrait”
Questions
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Can you understand Marco Brambilla’s decision to leave feature
films behind to pursue his own creative passion?
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HalfLife was made at the beginning of the Internet age, but does the
message of how technology effects us remain the same? Or has it
changed with the creation of new media?
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What do you think about Marco Brambilla’s recent, more commercial
works for big names such as Kanye West and Ferrari?
Sources
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http://www.marcobrambilla.com/bio/
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http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0104193/
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http://www.ganzomag.com/marco-brambilla-the-dark-lining-santa-monica-museum-of-art.html
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106697/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk1
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119086/
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http://the-talks.com/interviews/marco-brambilla/
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http://www.marcobrambilla.com/work/
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http://www.marcobrambilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ART-in-AMERICA.pdf
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http://www.marcobrambilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/LATimes-3.jpg