Arte Povera: A Film by Sergio Ariotti & Beatrice Merz [Italia] [DVD]

This DVD reintroduces the essential 2000 VHS video documentary Arte Povera by Sergio Ariotti and Beatrice Merz, a complete, chronological overview of the radical--and defiantly unglamorous--Italian "poor art" movement that arose in the late 1960s to contest the separation of art and everyday life. It presents ample archival material from all the significant group exhibitions--from the three-day event "Arte Povera + Azioni Povere at Amalfi" of 1968 to the Venice Biennale of 1997--along with footage of recent solo exhibitions and interview clips with founding member and art historian Germano Celant, and a range of other artists, critics and gallery directors. Arte Povera presents the movement in all its complexity, and includes such participants as Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Gilberto Zorio.