Biography
Marco G. Ferrari is an artist based in Chicago, Illinois and Rome, Italy. He builds films, installations, digital images, sound, and video projection performances that explore our relationships with place and time, to probe how identity is shaped by tensions raised by our attachments to or de-attachments from our built and natural environments. Upholding a 'cinema of imperfection' that reveals the materiality of the image, Ferrari’s work seeks to move beyond a perceived transparent reality to a place of visual plasticity and sublime emotional experience.
His films have been installed at exhibitions such as the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale; Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea–Palazzo Forti (Verona, Italy); the Athens International Film and Video Festival (Ohio, USA); the Chicago Cultural Center; the University of Chicago in Delhi (India); Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Vibo Valentia—Castello Svevo-Normanno (Italy); and the Royal Academy of Spain (Rome, Italy). He has performed live video projections at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art–Chicago; Ravinia Festival (Illinois); the Chicago Symphony Center; Logos festival della Parola (Csoa ExSnia, Rome, Italy); and the International Journalism Festival (Perugia, Italy). Funders for projects include the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; Rebuild Foundation (Chicago, Illinois); and John Cabot University (Rome, Italy).
Ferrari received his M.F.A from the University of Chicago in Visual Arts and his B.A. from DePaul University in Communication and Italian Studies. He currently balances his studio practice as an independent curator, freelancing as a cinematographer and VJ, and as creative director of the Virginio & Marisa Ferrari Foundation, a non-for-profit arts organization that builds cultural exchanges between Chicago and Rome, Italy.
Teaching
Autumn Quarter 2024
CMST 23930: Documentary Production I
Winter Quarter 2025
CMST 23931: Documentary Production II
Spring Quarter 2025
CMST 28925/38925 Expanded Cinema