Auto Italia, London, 26 June 2010, 19:00 — 20:00
Renato de Maria
Il Trasloco (Moving Out of the Future), 2010, Renato de Maria. Courtesy of the artist.

Il Trasloco (Moving Out of the Future) is a 1991 independent documentary directed by Renato de Maria, now screened for the first time in the UK with English subtitles. Set in Bologna, Italy, and looking at one of the key places where the Autonomia movement took place during the 1970s, the film is a surprisingly personal and heartbreaking recollection of the emptying of a household and the ending of an era, one that was possibly already dead.

Initially, the protagonist of the documentary appears to be philosopher Franco Berardi, aka Bifo, who narrates the story of the Autonomia movement, which was by its nature deeply intertwined with the intimate and personal lives of those who made it happen. However, the real protagonists of this film are the increasingly empty rooms of the flat in 19 Via Marsili, Bologna. The silent walls speak through the voices of Bifo and many other ex-dwellers about the simple story of the rise and fall of a different now almost incredible way of life.

One of the most influential workerist social movements to emerge in Italy in the 1960s, the terms Autonomia and the refusal of work have now become somewhat overused shorthand. However, what becomes clear watching this film is that they refer to a practical methodology of life rather than to the sterility of what remains in their theoretisation. This first ever screening of Il Trasloco to an English-speaking audience was made possible through the collaboration of Auto Italia and Through Europe.

Auto Italia

Franco Berardi introduces Il Trasloco (Moving Out of the Future)

ICA

Artists’ Film Club: Il Trasloco (Moving Out of the Future)

Arnolfini

Il Trasloco (Moving Out of the Future) at Film Exercise, Arnolfini

Piet Zwarte Institute

Il Trasloco (Moving Out of the Future) at The Life of an Artist Symposium, Piet Zwarte Institute, Rotterdam