I reread Due Venezie by Sandro Penna from my phone as a guide to this Venetian weekend, while the night vaporetto takes me to Giardini, where I meet Amalia Ulman, lying on a bench, upside down. She tastes her first Spritz and guides me around the city that she already knows better than me. The next day I find myself asking for information in English. An hard rain surprises us and we miss the chance to take some photos as I had thought;but the photographic studio set up in a room, perhaps separates us from the Venice of Biennale,
of pigeons, of San Marco, and allows us to speak only of Amalia’s new films.

She talks to me about theater and cinema and how she looks up to Kay Francis and Buster Keaton today, even when she shoots her films with a selfie stick or iPhone default filters (There Then, 2019 is on view at Ordet Milano until September 14th). She tells me she “recently discovered” Leonard Cohen. I am reminded of Carmelo Bene, his “depensamento”, to “make one’s own language stutter”. I’m going back to Milano and Amalia is going to Yoga now, and I ask her if she’s aware of Neti Neti practices. Her answer “I don’t but I do”.

Interviewed and Ph Luca Massaro