A recent graduate of the Interdisciplinary Arts and Media MFA program at Columbia College Chicago and an Italian in Chicago, Valentina Vella is presenting A Ride West – live.

The project began in 2012 when Valentina Vella became strangely obsessed with the idea of riding a horse across America.

The ride was attempted in the summer 2013 and it culminated in a long video piece which was first presented at the 2014 Interdisciplinary Arts MFA show at Columbia College Chicago.

While exploring the same themes – the American West as a repository of dreams and projections, the Hero’s Journey as a storytelling device, Jungian theories about the psyche, the heroic stance as an antidote to erotic longing – the work presented at Links Hall complicates the video’s narrative and is an opportunity to amplify its performative elements.

The show features a live band and live video editing and processing and it is presented in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago.