The video installation “My only crime is seeing clearly in the night” – commissioned by the Biennale d'Image/Mouvement curated by Andrea Bellini and Andrea Lissoni – is the result of an artistic project conceived by the director herself with Viola Invernizzi which involved a working group on censorship in Italian cinema from the post-war period to 1998, the year in which censorship was abolished.
In Italy, the first law introducing censorship on screenings dates back to 1913, with the aim of eliminating parts deemed unsuitable for the public. This gave rise to a preventive censorship system that required a permit for the public screening of films and their export abroad.
In addition to total censorship, from the 1930s to the 1990s, another form of censorship was in vogue in Italy: targeted cuts, which involved the elimination of parts of the film that were not wanted to be shown, while still allowing the mutilated film to be shown.
The research conducted by the working group led to the analysis of over seventy censored films and the selection of scenes to be included in the film, according to four main themes subject to censorship: violence, religion, politics, sexuality.
The project is a rewriting of the deleted scenes through a process of analysis and elaboration to bring them back to life; the scenes are the same ones that were cut, but removed from their original filmic context, they acquire a new light and new points of discussion.
