In the early decades of the 20th century, Italian film pioneer Luca Comerio (1876-1940) travelled the world as a film reporter, from the North Pole to the equator, becoming increasingly fascinated by colonialism and fascism.

He shot footage of soldiers on horseback, missionary schools in Africa, hunters shooting polar bears, zebras and lions, and Italian Alpine troops in the trenches of the First World War.

In 1982, Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi discovered that Comerio's abandoned laboratory in Milan was about to be dismantled. His films were lying in the basement, decaying, and were soon to be burned. Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi edited the found film material into their own work, after re-photographing, printing and colouring the images using traditional film techniques.

By slowing down the images, they unravel the imperialist and colonial ideology written on – and between – each image. They use the old to create the new, revealing hidden meanings from the past.