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Sara Levarato

video , printen (3D) , interactief , installatie , Digitale technologie , Digitaal , Audiovisueel , Artistiek onderzoek

Sara Levarato is a media artist who makes use of a research-based approach to explore the ethical, psychological, and aesthetic implications of technological processes. Her work primarily takes the form of 3D CGI storytelling, presented through video installations and printed media. Thematically, she is particularly interested in how technological processes are internalized within the late capitalist, data-driven landscape. Her focus lies on how individuals are interpreted, labeled, and represented through datafication. Two recurring themes in my work are the construction of subjectivity in online profiling within the surveillance capitalist economy, and the mechanics of gamification in self-optimization. She is interested in how and why gamification processes are embedded in our historical context, serving as tools for individuals who willingly strive to become "the best version" of themselves. Through her projects she aims to foster reflection on the everyday processes we adopt, or are unwillingly part of, and the narratives attached to them that shape our society.

When the Eagle was Chained Between the Pillars
When the Eagle was Chained Between the Pillars - 3D printed sculptures - 2026 - When the Eagle Was Chained Between the Pillars consists in the sculptural part of the project Non Ultra Metas.
NON ULTRA METAS - Two-channel Video Installation 5’ 44” - 2025
NON ULTRA METAS - Two-channel Video Installation 5’ 44” - 2025 - Plus Ultra (Latin for "further beyond, surpassing one's limits") was the motto of Charles V, set in contrast to the mythical Non plus ultra of Hercules, which marked the impassable boundary beyond the Pillars. The motto expressed an ideology of imperial expansion, discovery, and the transcendence of human limits, and it was widely adopted in the iconography of his empire. Fast forward to the 21st century, a curious link between past and present emerges in an image published by Donald Trump in 2017 on the occasion of his inauguration. The photograph was taken at his Mar-a-Lago residence, where the President of the United States appears in a room decorated with tiles bearing the motto Plus Ultra and a statue of an eagle—creating a striking aesthetic resonance with the imperial symbols of Charles V. Through a critical reinterpretation that intertwines history, philosophy, and pop culture, I tried to deconstruct this drive toward the “beyond.” What particularly caught my attention was a striking counter-narrative: the historical episode of the 1552 Siege of Metz, in which the city's defenders mocked Charles V with a banner reading Non Ultra Metas (“not beyond Metz” and “not beyond limits”), accompanied by an image of the imperial eagle chained between the pillars. This story—from Non Plus Ultra, to Plus Ultra, to Non Ultra Metas—is narrated by the personification of History itself, seen only through a mirror that shows us their back as they rehearse the play in an empty theater.
+ 1 DAY STREAK - Video 9’ 46” - 2023
+ 1 DAY STREAK - Video 9’ 46” - 2023 - To gamify something means to apply components and mechanics used in video games to non-game settings. Gamification is not about creating a space ‘suspended from reality’ made of shared and negotiated rules, but rather an individualistic technique to create and maintain a behavioral change in order to be more productive and efficient. +1 Day Streak examines the impact of gamification on a subject who willingly adopts it for self-improvement. Gamifying one’s life can be seen as an attempt to gain self-control, self-governance, and the possibility of self-reinvention. The gamified subject takes on the connotations of an administrable object, an avatar with which one ends up identifying as well as looking from an externalized, god’s like perspective, while being the initiator and the performer of new productivity rituals.
DECOMPRESSED PRISM - CGI for Video Installation - 2021 (for Salvatore Vitale)
DECOMPRESSED PRISM - CGI for Video Installation - 2021 (for Salvatore Vitale) - This is a video installation by the artist Salvatore Vitale, in which I took part of during my period of Internship at his studio. I was involved in the project from the research to the conceptualization to the production, my main contributions are the CGI elements and animations, which are the symbols and the talking avatar. Decompressed Prism is a video installation which uses an essayistic and experimental approach, combining different languages, from the documentary to archival footages, sound design, factual data, performances, to unveil the tensions and paradoxes contained in the systemic logic of monitoring and surveillance. The work explores different applications of black box technologies, questioning the way technological mediation is shaping the way we make sense of the world and of ourselves as individuals. The story invites to speculate about counter-narratives to liberate the body, which is represented between forms of digitalism and realism.
INFORMATION NEEDED TO CREATE AN ENTIRE BODY - Book - 2022 -
INFORMATION NEEDED TO CREATE AN ENTIRE BODY - Book - 2022 - - This project is built on the creation of a visual and written story around the topic of online profiling and its processes. Each chapter analyses part of the profiling cycle: Tracking, Data Collection and Preparation, Data Mining, Behavioural Prediction, Profile Attribution and Targeted Advertising. Following these mechanics we discover that persons are positivized into data to be commodified, blurring the boundaries between producer/product/consumer. The images I produced are built on the idea of the individual as a fragmented body/object, finally assembled from the dump (big data) of our harvested data. Confined in a loop of infinite updates this profile is forced into a condition of high definition and stillness, to be then catapulted again into instability in order to improve itself and serve other companies.
A KIND OF RITUAL OF PRODUCTIVITY & CONTROL
A KIND OF RITUAL OF PRODUCTIVITY & CONTROL - Book - 2023 - Gamification was initially used as a device for retaining engagement of online users, but it is now spreading in every aspect of life, promising to turn serious tasks into playful and compelling activities. Little remains of the spontaneity of playing. To gamify something means to apply components and mechanics used in video games to non-game settings. It is not about creating a space ‘suspended from reality’ made of shared and negotiated rules, but rather an individualistic technique to create and maintain a behavioral change in order to be more productive and efficient. Real time feedback, rewards and repetitive actions are looped to reinforce the creation of new habits. In the book as well as on the first video experiments, I examined which role gamification plays on society and on the individual, which I connected visually with the creation of an avatar suggesting the conflict between the possibility of self-reinvention and self-control, and the limits of wanting to indentify with a datafied being.
Where Our Body Ends & Indium Begins - Video 5’ 00” - 2021
WHERE OUR BODY ENDS & INDIUM BEGINS - Video 5’ 00” - 2021 - Indium is a technology-critical element, primarily used in screens and touch screens production. Despite its ubiquity in our daily lives, the supply chain of this element remains opaque, and its recycling is less than 1%. What would change if we started considering it as part of our bodies? Or vice versa if Indium considered us as mere producers of data, statistical objects among other objects? Assuming the premise of technology as an extension of ourselves, I developed a narrative from the perspective of a screen, exploring in which way this medium-element is already shaping our understanding of the world through its interface, datafication process and surveillance, in spite of its invisibility.

When the Eagle was Chained Between the Pillars

Datum:
Locatie: The Crooked Studio, Rotterdam
In samenwerking met: CBK (Practical contribution)

Solo exhibition

https://www.thecrookedstudio.nl/program/sara-levarato

The New Current, Rotterdam Art Week 2026

Datum:
Locatie: Rotterdam Zuid

Loop City Screen, Loop Festival

Datum:
Locatie: Cimiento, Barcelona
In samenwerking met: Recontemporary, Alberto Anhaus
https://loop-barcelona.com/city-screen-2025/

Paratissima, Art week

Datum:
Locatie: Ital Design, Turin

Do not Feed the Animals

Datum:
Locatie: Emma Distric & Galleries, Eindhoven
In samenwerking met: Dutch Design Week

Blinking Signals

Datum:
Locatie: Bratislava Design Week
In samenwerking met: Cinema Parentesi

Accelerazioni

Datum:
Locatie: Recontemporary, Turin
In samenwerking met: Recontemporary

Accelerazioni is my first solo exhibition, by winning the 2025 Recontemporary Prize. The exhibition showcases two of my video installions: +1 Day Streak, my MA degree project, alongside my new production Non Ultra Metas. Two works engage in dialogue as if they were two moments of the same trajectory: that of a subject pushed, urged, or compelled to continuously improve, leading the viewer to a profound reflection on the desire – or the condemnation – to constantly surpass one’s own limits.

https://recontemporary.com/en/mostre/non-ultra-metas-sara-levarato-2/

I don’t Know How to Respond To That

Datum:
Locatie: PhMuseum Days 2023, Bologna
In Between the Pillars
Sara Levarato In Between the Pillars