AFAN - A biography

Alessandro Fantini was born in Sangro Valley, Italy. His creative inclination arose during his early childhood when he began drawing comics and writing tales influenced by gothic and decadentist horror authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Maupassant, Sheridan le Fanu, Lovecraft and Gabriele d'Annunzio. Disliking art school teachings, he learned oil painting techniques by himself and started painting his first canvases in 1993. During the nineties he developed his own visionary style blending the surrealist attitude with hyperrealism and Flemish painting methods. In 2002 he graduated with first class honours in modern literature with a thesis about the relationship between Italian culture and the PreRaphaelism.

Since 1998 he wrote, directed and produced movies and music videos digitally, composing also their soundtracks and writing lyrics for songs performed by himself. His short movies "Tiranti Transit", The Road to Shakti", "The Rain Frames" and "Nepente" were broadcasted on European Sky Channels. He wrote and illustrated the book "The Night's Veil"(2006) and the dark-fantasy novel "Endometria"(2007) both published by Liberodiscrivere and presented at the International Turin book fair. His self-portrait was published in 2004 inside the Jean Michel Jarre's "Aero" album booklet.

His artworks have been shown in several group exhibitions and solo exhibitions in Pescara, Turin and at the London Brick Lane Gallery.

In 2008 he released his first art book entitled "The Sinovial Gaze" covering more than a decade of painting activity. In September he's in Paris in order to find producers for his new ambitious original script for a biopic starring famous actress singer Rona Hartner.

In 2009 he directed and animated the music video of the international jazz musician Lorenzo Tucci's hit "The Sky". In May he attends the Cannes Film Festival, joining the premiere of the Terry Gilliam's movie "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" where he personally met the director. In August he released the novel "Cavalli marini sotto sclerotica - Seahorses under sclerotic", a neo-realistic story about two children who, after their first meeting in a small town of middle Italy, will grow up following two different life paths which will eventually coincide with the discovery of an inner truth they shared since their childhood.

In 2010 he wrote and directed the feature sci-fi/mystery movie "EDOnism" filmed in Tokyo and produced by Lorenzo Fantini. The movie premiered at Tokyo Rapport Film festival. In the same year he directed and produced the short movie "Epithell", a satirical thriller filmed in the Sangro Valley with a Full HD reflex camera.

 In 2011 he directed and animated the music video of Lorenzo Tucci's song "Hope" In the same year he released his second art book "Presque-vu, Atlas of Untold".
In 2012 he exhibited in the international group show "Green Blood" held at the Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome.
In 2013 he exhibited in the international group show "Painted Sound" held at the Flower Pepper Gallery in Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

In 2014 he directed and filmed the mystery movie "New York, a venture" between New Jersey and New York City. The movie has been screened in USA at the first edition of Dobbs Ferry "Movies4movies" film festival on February 25th, 2017.

 In 2017 his painting "Slitzweitz" has been selected as one of the winners of Mike Oldfield's contest "Ommadrawn". The Dutch actress Sylvia Hoeks featured his painting "One more for the road" on her Instagram profile in order to launch the Blu-ray release of "Blade Runner 2049". He composed and released the concept music album "Trinity of Dementia", followed by "EmPathmos", both dealing with the delusional and alienating dimension of the online world.

In 2019 he directed a segment of the international documentary "A living tree means a living planet" conceived by Khalid Mokadmine.

In 2020 he released the concept album "TORMAENTOSA" based upon the irrational relationship between crowds and power. In the same year he directed a sequence shot video for the track "Verdigris" from the "Mixing colours" album project by Roger&Brian Eno. The video is featured in "A Quiet scene" installation held at The Music Center in Los Angeles from 22nd January to 21st February 2021.

 

Shortmovies

“Egeria” 45 min. 1998 VHS

“Il Dittico delle Delizie” 15 min. 2003 DV

“Azimut” 22 min. 2003 DV

“I Mystai” 18 min. 2003 DV

“A Glance Beyond” 25 min. 2003 DV

“Venere Grave” 18 min. 2003 DV

“Login Praeneste” 38 min. 2004 DV

“Daimon” 22 min. 2004 DV

“MDMA” 22 min. 2005 DV

“TIRANTI TRANSIT” 22 min. 2005 DV

“Le cornici della pioggia” 30 min. 2006 DV

“La Strada per Shakti” 24 min. 2007 DV

“aVoid” 11 min. 2007 DV

“Colostro” 25 min. 2008 DV

"NEPENTE" 48 min. 2009 DV

"Epithell" 21 min. 2011 HDV

 "Iconosfera" web serial 2011-2012 HDV

"NoMen" 17 min. 2013 HDV

"Bryant's ode" 15 min. 2013 HDV

"New York, a venture" 34 min. 2014 HDV 

"Malorda" (web-series) 2015-2021 HDV 

"Draw in", 8 min. 2018, HDV

"Androfonos", 14 min. 2020, HDV

Feature movies

"EDOnism" 65 min. 2010 HDV

"New York, a venture" 70 min. 2014 HDV

Documentaries

“Looking for Enueg” 40 min. 2000 VHS

“L’ombra zenitale” 23 min. 2003 DV

“Fantini on Fantini” 10 min. 2003 DV

Music video

“Timeless Itch” 7 min. 2002-03 DV

“Florebit” 5 min. 2004 DV

“Amnihollow” 6 min, 2005 DV

“Romanaclef” 6 min. 2006 DV

“Apocalypse in pills” 6 min. 2007

"J.M. Jarre - Oxygene 1976-2007" 1:24 min. 2007 DV

“Bjork -Innocence” 4 min. 2007 DV

“Body Locked” 6 min. 2008 DV

"Lorenzo Tucci - The Sky" 3:37 min. 2009 DV

"Nothing but a fragment" 5:10 min. 2010 HDV

"Enigma Social song - MMX" 5 min. 2011 HDV

"Time lash" 3:50 min. 2012 HDV

"A Cyst of Gems" 4:22 min. 2013 HDV

"Nyctalopia" 4:15 min. 2014 HDV

"Vespers" 4:00 min. 2015 HDV 

"The Corion Parade" 4:10 min. 2015 HDV

"J. M. Jarre - The Heart of Noise part 2" 4:10 min. 2016 HDV

"Ignorancid" 3:43 min. 2018 HDV

 

Commercial

“Endometria” 5 min. 2007 DV

“Blending the breaths of time” 30 sec. 2008 DV

"The Sinovial Gaze" 1 min. 2008 DV

"Discover, taste, enjoy, learn - Learn Italy" 5:48 min 2014 HDV

"Buyonz store" 1:30 min. 2014 HDV

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Fortuna dei Preraffaelliti in Italia, (Art History book) 2002, released on Tesionline.it

- Il genio dei secoli (poem) published in the anthology of poetry "Una poesia per emergere" - Il Tempo, 2006, Giulio Perrone editore

- Il Velo della Notte (tale) published in the tales anthology "Il Velo della Notte", 2006, Liberodiscrivere

-Endometria - il seme della carne (novel), 2007, Liberodiscrivere

- L’ululato di Callimaco (tale) published in the tales anthology "La donna vista da lei e vista da lui", 2008, Giulio Perrone editore

- Il Varco Semilunare (art book), 2008, Lulu press

- Amorgue – Racconti dal Profondo Eros (tales anthology), 2008, Lulu press

-The Sinovial Gaze – The Art of Alessandro Fantini (art book), 2008 Lulu press

- Terzo Testamento (novel), 2008, Lulu press

- Precambiano con vista sul mare (anthology of poetry), 2009, Lulu press

- Cavalli marini sotto sclerotica (novel), 2009 Lulu press

- Sylphie – Storie di Deliri, Delizie e Deiezioni, (tales anthology), 2010, Lulu press

- Presque vu - Atlas of Untold (art book) 2011, Lulu press

- Endometria - second edition (novel) 2012, Lulu press

- Anno d'Inverno - Winter year (tales anthology) 2012, Lulu press

-Le Perle di Mechelen (essays) 2013, Lulu press

- Piercing d'autunno (novel) 2014, Lulu press

- Canti dell'Enema (poetry) 2015, Lulu press

- Nell'Alba dell'Estuario (novel), 2015, Lulu press

- Balia Bufera (novel), 2017, Lulu press