Marlene Redux Francesco Vezzoli

Vezzoli made his international breakthrough in 2005 at the Biennale in Venice with a fictitious remake of the Penthouse production of Caligula by Gore Vidal. Since then his name has been associated with parodies of showbiz and the hype surrounding the world of the rich and beautiful. In his film Marlene Redux: A True Hollywood Story! (2006), Vezzoli stages an homage to the diva of the Golden Twenties, and presents his autobiography in which he narrates his own rise and fall as an artist and director, and describes the preparations for Marlene Redux. The viewer is confused: what does Vezzoli have to do with Hollywood? What is true of his stories? Vezzoli skillfully transfers the marketing strategies of the film industry to his own artist biography, and creates a discrepancy between imaginary fictionalization and banal reality. Published to accompany the exhibition at Kunsthalle Vienna project space, November ndash; December 2009. English and German text.