EVENT: ANTONIO MARIA ABATE (AUGUST 29—SEPTEMBER 11 2025, ONLINE)
Orezification
digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 64’ 05”, 2025, Italy
created by Antonio Maria Abate
World premiere
Orezification is a speculative machinima loosely inspired by Dissipatio H.G., the posthumously published novel by Guido Morselli (1977). At its centre is an unnamed protagonist, an AI engineer employed by one of the most prominent firms in the field, who undergoes a radical ontological rupture. On the night he attempts to end his life, something else ends instead: the rest of humanity disappears. The work unfolds as an investigation into this vanishing, less concerned with survival than with causality. Is he truly the last human being, or merely the last to know? What systemic conditions, technical mediations, or metaphysical implosions might have precipitated this mass erasure? Composed as an interior monologue veering between lucid rationality and oneiric fugue, Orezification stages a philosophical inquiry into presence and absence, memory and speculation. The machinima ultimately inverts the classic detective plot: the question is not who committed the crime, but who—or what—was the victim.
Antonio Maria Abate began writing about video games in 2008 for Gamesblog, later expanding into film criticism with Blogo and Cineblog, covering major European festivals such as Berlin, Cannes, and Venice. Alongside this work, Abate began experimenting with machinima, directing How Did I End Up Here? (2017) and That Trash Is Going To Blow Up (2019). In 2020, he completed their first live-action film, Ginola, available on Vidiverse, the streaming platform launched by Alex Proyas. This was followed by Il libro di Lello (2022), based on a story by Giovanni Papini. Since 2020, Abate has explored the roleplay ecosystems of Grand Theft Auto V via FiveM, deepening their interest in virtual worlds and immersive media. In 2023, he completed a multimedia design course supported by Regione Lombardia. The following year, he self-published La fine delle cose. He writes irregularly on his website, Niqsi.com. Abate lives and works in Milan.