Giovanna PUGGIONI

(1950-2015)
Nationality: Italian

Born in 1950 in Genoa into a modest family - her father works on the port and her mother does housework - Giovanna Puggioni quickly became passionate about art. In 1972 she completed her PhD in History of Medieval Art, while taking courses at the School of Fine Arts in Genoa, where she practices serigraphy.

In 1974, returning from a trip to Istanbul with a group of friends, she meets Christian Lebrat on the train that takes her back to Genoa. They married the following year, and share their lives between France and Italy. In 1975, they together make TROIS PETITS TOURS ET PUIS S'EN VONT, the first trial filmed on the steps of the sanctuary leading to the basilica of San Luca (Bologna).

In 1976, she made her first solo film IN/CONTRO/LUCE, a long panoramic black and white film in the forest of Saint-Germain en Laye.
OLTREMARE introduces its editing style directly in the camera. Made in the summer of 1985 in the light of Filicoudi, the film exalts the intensity of bodies and objects. In 1999, with QUATTRO STAGIONI, she superimposes on the same film the passage of time and seasons captured by the window of the apartment where she lived in Paris for nearly twenty years. In 2006, with FUOCO, the first opus of an anthology of matter (fire, water and earth) that will be interrupted by disease, she interweaves several fireworks that she punctuates holes made on the film with a needle.
In 2024, two montage-camera films are rediscovered in the archives left after her death and complete his filmography. LE DEJEUNER SUR L'HERBE, filmed in Camoglie in 1992 with her students, then IRIS, filmed with her daughter in 1997 in the medieval village of Triora.

First video opus, ROYAL GALA (2005), calls for the testimony of several friends and relatives of Maurice Lemaître, in an exercise of admiration both for the man and for his work. Several other video essays remain unpublished and his filmography ends with V4 (IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU), a video made in 2009-2010 with Christian Lebrat.

In 1983, she created with Christian Lebrat and the film historian Prosper Hillairet, the association then the publishing house Paris Expérimental, of which she was a constant support throughout her life.
In 1982, Tonino de Bernardi dedicated a whole section to him in his film DONNE.

9 MOVIES IN DISTRIBUTION

  V4 (IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU)
2009-2010 / color / sound / single screen / 11' 30 / 54 €
distribution: Digital file on server
ANTOLOGIA DELLA MATERIA: FUOCO
2006-2007 / 16mm / color / silent / single screen / 3' 30 / 28 €
distribution: 16mm
ROYAL GALA - pour Maurice Lemaître
2005 / Mini DV / color / sound / single screen / 14' 00 / 57 €
distribution: Digital file on server
  QUATTRO STAGIONI
1999 / 16mm / color / silent / single screen / 3' 30 / 28 €
distribution: 16mm or Digital file on server
IRIS (TRIORA)
1997 / 16mm / color / silent / single screen / 7' 30 / 40 €
distribution: Digital file on server
LE DEJEUNER SUR L'HERBE
1992 / 16mm / color / silent / single screen / 4' 00 / 30 €
distribution: Digital file on server
  OLTREMARE
1985 / color / silent / single screen / 9' 00 / 40 €
distribution: 16mm
IN/CONTRO/LUCE
1976 / 16mm / b&w / silent / single screen / 9' 00 / 40 €
distribution: 16mm
TROIS PETITS TOURS ET PUIS S’EN VONT
1975 / color-b&w / silent / 16' 00
distribution: Digital file on server