I'm gonna live anyhow until I die, 2012, is a video work, set in Rome, that has it’s origins in a project to mark the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, co-commissioned by the MAC, Belfast and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin during 2010-2012.

The protagonists of I'm gonna live anyhow until I die are five children who seem to perform time travel as their inquisitiveness takes them on a journey around the streets of Rome, seemingly doing what they like, having abandoned their parents at the restaurant, “Al Biondo Tevere” [i]. After running through the park of the Roman Aqueduct, a courtyard in the 1930s working class district of Testaccio, and Ostia's Seadrome, the children finally arrive in an empty school in the centre of Rome, where time seems to have stood still. The old classroom has been turned into storage, here they begin to play around with the obsolete pedagogical tools and technological instruments that they find, as if they are trying to understand what to do with them or what they could be used for. Little by little, each child begins to compose black blots on sheets of drawing paper folded in half, creating blots that resemble those of the Rorschach test.

Harnessing her research methods, Billing used her exploratory approach to identify place and event in Rome, Lazio that she used as source material, and the work came to draw inspiration from a mix of traditions such as Italian Neorealism, documentary filmmaking, improvisation and pedagogical as well as psycho analytical workshop techniques. Visiting Rome during the demonstrations against University reforms in autumn 2010, Billing focuses the work on the future of the younger generation and the populist political will which has been undermining the education system. The work is at the same time haunted by the daily life and death of Pier Paolo Pasolini who expressed a series of thoughts about Italy, anticipating the social and cultural changes that would sweep the country at the end of the 1970s, and parts of the scenes in the video are situated in his locality. The project is in some ways also a loving tribute to pedagogical heroes such as Bruno Munari and his tactile workshops for kids, as well as championing the early tradition of Italian filmmakers, who in their often biographical films about the 40s and 50s, focused on the freedom of children exploring their city as a way to reflect upon historical and the societal changes.

The accompanying musical soundtrack, featuring a Romany violin, upright bass and whistling, include improvised interpretations of the songs Cariocinesi and Mechanics, (originally written by the Italian progressive experimentalist Franco Battiato), and here arranged by Billing, serve as a homage to Battiato and his classic concept album Foetus from 1972. And during this 16 minute imaginary musical journey that moves freely in between genres, time and place, the use of the indefinite loop – which has come to characterize the openness of the structure in Billing’s practice - always brings both protagonists and viewers into the present and “real” again. The final result, is as with many of Billing’s films, a product of an editing process, created with meticulous care, that puts equal focus on the visual material as on the sound recordings and gives special attention to details of physical movements and gestures and the activities taking place not only around the centre of the action.

1 Al Biondo Tevere is a restaurant frequented by known cultural figures and where Pasolini had his last meal before he died.

Johanna Billing was born in 1973 in Jönkoping, Sweden. She attended Konstfack, International College of Arts, Crafts and Design, in Stockholm where she has lived and worked since graduating in 1999. Recent major solo exhibitions include "I’m gonna live anyhow until I die”, The Mac, Belfast, (2012), “I'm Lost without your Rhythm", Modern Art Oxford, ”Moving In, Five films”, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, (2010), ”Tiny Movements, ACCA, Melbourne, ”I’m lost without your rhythm, Camden Art Centre (2009), ”Taking Turns”, Kemper Museum, Kansas City; ”This is How We Walk On The[i] Moon”, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2008); ”Forever Changes”, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel and ”Keep on Doing”, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2007). She has participated in survey shows such as 4th Auckland Triennial, ”Last ride in a hot balloon”, Auckland (2010), Documenta 12, Kassel (2007); Singapore Biennale (2006), 9th Istanbul Biennial; 1st Moscow Biennale (2005) and 50th Venice Biennale (2003).