Nothing is something: on The Disappearing of Vincent Gambini

This article describes and examines a recent film about acancelled theatre-magic show, with reference to a few significant artistsworking in visual art and cinema. The film in question, The Disappearing ofVincent Gambini (2021) by Augusto Corrieri and Hugo Glendinning, came about in responseto the closure of UK theatres at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Thearticle, written by one of the film’s makers, details the process that led tothe collaborative work; it then focuses on two key scenes from the film, anddiscusses these in relation to the works of 20thand 21st century artists,including Chantal Akerman, Tacita Dean and Robert Rauschenberg. What emerges isan understanding of how artistic processes can embrace and work withdisappearance and erasure; the essay concludes by proposing that amazement andwonder might lie less in the execution of successful magic, but rather in amode of perception attuned to the present, whatever it may hold.