"The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins"  at the ICA

Today and tomorrow, the ICA screens Pietra Brettkelly's documentary on Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft, "The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins." Beecroft, best known for her performance pieces involving multitudes of unclothed lethargic models, is the art world's equivalent of Sylvia Plath. Girls embrace her as conflicted teenagers, abandon their fascination in college, as her femininity and raw insecurity seem embarrassingly naive, but by late twenties, they revisit her work and discover its complexities. But even fans of her work will have trouble interpreting Beecroft's visit to Sudan as anything other than narcissism. The Washington Post explains, "she was interested in the plight of Darfur, though she concedes that she didn't know exactly where Darfur was, and never did get there."

There she met the documentary filmmaker who captured her struggles in attempting to adopt twin orphans. Beecroft, who had a child just before the journey, nursed malnourished baby twins, at the urging of local a charity worker. She later (unsuccessfully) tried to adopt the children. Bizarrely absent of self-awareness, unaware of the subtle nuances of race relations, and nearly devoid of empathy, Beecroft described this experience as, "not just fetishization of the blacks... It will be a beginning of a relationship with that country." Even her husband wondered if she wanted to be Angelina Jolie the celebrity, rather than the mother. The film is playing at 1:30 today and tomorrow. Trailer on YouTube. More information at the ICA website. Image courtesy of the filmmakers.