ALPINE from GARDENS: A SPACE OPERA (Long Version of Episode 1)

CREDITS.

Music by MANUEL CHIEREGATO.

Original concept by TIZIANA COMIS.

Visual design & cinematography by VITTORIO GAZZERA.

A SPECIAL THANKS to Duccio Demetrio, who with his book, DI CHE GIARDINO SEI? CONOSCERSI ATTRAVERSO UN SIMBOLO, inspires a long musical series and this space opera.

ALPINE.

ALPINE is a world of wool, cold and desolate, placed at the limits of the galaxy.

Exploring the ruins of an abandoned colony, one can feel the influence of a mysterious energy, forgotten for decades, that seems to call to itself the wayfarer eager to unveil its mystery.

ALPINE was conceived as a video for art exhibitions or as a kind of ANIMATED PAINTING WITH MUSIC, to hang on the wall of one's own home with a flat-screen television just like any traditional oil on canvas, or even as a video for waiting or relaxation rooms or for any other place where it is necessary to create a meditative and / or similar atmosphere.

ALPINE's story is inspired by the 13th Symbolic Garden, described by the philosopher Duccio Demetrio in his 2000's book DI CHE GIARDINO SEI? CONOSCERSI ATTRAVERSO UN SIMBOLO, and by the first version of ALPINE GARDEN 1 - OVERTURE, meditation composed by Manuel Chieregato within his GARDENS PROJECT and inspired by the same Demetrio's book.

ALPINE from GARDENS: A SPACE OPERA is presented here in its long version, in which the 4 original cinematic sequences, lasting about 13 minutes, are repeated 4 times to illustrate all 16 parts of the overture, originally conceived by Manuel Chieregato in form of antiphonal chant.

ALPINE, first leg of this thrilling sensory journey, is a planet of wool.

Abandoned and cold, it gravitates around the fascination of a forgotten past, that still has much to say and teach.

ALPINE, a sci-fi film, set in several dimensions of the past, from the most recent of rural life in the villages to the more remote one of the archaeological excavations; all to talk about the present, of the reality in which we live.

ALPINE, realistic and surreal film not only for the coexistence of more temporal dimensions, but also for the dreamlike transfiguration, which pervades the images.

Each planet is characterized by its own element, which conditions the oneiric distortion of the film: the identifying element of the planet ALPINE is the wool.

GARDENS - A SPACE OPERA.

In a galaxy, whose planets are hard to reach due to the vast distances that separate them, it is founded LIBRA, an space travel agency, which is committed to keeping communications between one planet and the other efficient, even through virtual reality.

Following a cosmic cataclysm, about which it is difficult to obtain precise news, communications are interrupted and therefore LIBRA sends exploratory probes.

To reach each planet, the probes must travel about ten years.

Every time they reach a planet, they send images to the mother house.

GARDENS - A SPACE OPERA is an epic audiovisual saga in the form of a sci-fi documentary reportage divided into 28 episodes, each of which is inspired by one of the Symbolic Gardens described in the book by Duccio Demetrio, DI CHE GIARDINO SEI? CONOSCERSI ATTRAVERSO UN SIMBOLO / WHAT'S YOUR GARDEN? SELF-KNOWLEDGE THROUGH A SYMBOL.

Each planet is a world in itself, abandoned to itself, that is wandering in space, waiting for someone to come back to listen to its history, to recover its memory and cultural heritage, rich and intact, but neglected and forgotten.

28 abandoned planets, 28 lives, 28 biographies, lost but not irremediably; 28 autobiographies trashed by those same authors, who now try anxiously to tear them away from definitive degradation and oblivion.

LIBRA - SPACE TRAVEL AGENCY.

LIBRA - SPACE TRAVEL AGENCY is not only one of the narrative elements of this science fiction saga, but even earlier is the name of the artistic collective, which is creating this audiovisual artwork.

Libra, the Latin name of the Zodiac sign that means weighing scales, symbolizes the constant search for balance in personal and intrapersonal relationships.

The myth of Tiresias, son of the noble Theban Everes and of the nymph Chariclo, is linked to the sign of Libra.

One day, Tiresias saw two snakes mated.

Tiresias hit the female snake and was immediately transformed into a woman.

After seven years as a woman, he again saw two coupled snakes; he hit the male snake and became a man again.

Later, Tiresias was made blind by Hera, but Zeus gave him clairvoyance and a seven generations long life.

In ancient times, in fact, blindness is often associated with prophetic gifts and profound wisdom.

Libra is therefore the union of opposites, the harmony of what would otherwise clash without mutual understanding.

Libra indicates a precise stylistic choice, which wants to combine in every sequence of GARDENS - A SPACE OPERA realism and surrealism, narration and poetry, fiction and documentarism, future and archeology, tradition and experimentation, in addition of course to faithfully translate into images the union of musical opposites that characterizes every score page by Manuel Chieregato for the GARDENS PROJECT.

Libra indicates the need to know both polarities, which coexist in each human being.

Libra is the inner journey, in search of the deepest and most unexpressed reality of oneself.

Libra is the self-knowledge.