SCHEDULE WINNERS FOREWORD
VIDEO.it, an International festival of videos by artists, is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The results achieved have been satisfying and at the same the stakes are being raised: with the renewal of the promise that presentations are intended to increasingly explore scenarios in the full, effervescent transformation taking place in the vast geography of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Starting with this new edition, the festival intends to present itself in a new guise, not simply as a showcase for a qualitatively outstanding selection, but also as a platform making it possible to encounter the multiform experiences that comprise the vast panorama of expressive means and artistic practice found in videos. The independent, innovative, and often also experimental energy involved in video creation (now reinforced by an ever greater and more pervasive influence from digital technology), as well as its relation to and exchange with the cinema and visual arts (not forgetting those with live performances of contemporary dance) have surely served to provide a fertile ground for the development not only of a format but also of a methodology.
The ability to observe, visual synthesis and originality in style are not merely abstract categories in the opinions and in the points of view of the works selected from the curators invited to participate in this first renewed edition of Video.it. Our sincerest thanks go to Roger Bouvet, Francesca di Nardo, Sergio Edelsztein, Reem Fadda, Marina Fokidis and Basak Senova: without their commitment and intellectual curiosity, much of this year’s programme would not have come into existence. The three-evening time span is fundamentally only a brief moment, especially if the evenings are seen in relation to the longer times that went into the cultural production on which they are based, and in relation to the efforts and hard work of many young artists and artists seeking new avenues of expression, but it is an occasion of this sort that represents the materialization of an idea, that window – “the window on the world” – which only through direct contact between artists and the public can be given concrete, valid manifestation. With this renewed opportunity for encounter and reciprocal awareness, VIDEO.it and its organizing team are particularly happy to have been able to contribute to making possible another small step towards the far larger and more significant objective of encounter and circulation of learning. It is especially the extraordinary possibility of being hosted in what has probably become the most suggestive and extraordinary space devoted to contemporary artwork in Torino that is undoubtedly another reason we are both particularly proud and openly grateful. We are confident that it will be possible to obtain similar recognition as new and exciting discoveries are made, and in closing we turn to the public, impatient to hear their reactions and comments.
Francesco Poli, Francesco Bernardelli, Mario Gorni, Paola Nicita e Cristiana Perrella
VIDEO.it, an International festival of videos by artists, is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The results achieved have been satisfying and at the same the stakes are being raised: with the renewal of the promise that presentations are intended to increasingly explore scenarios in the full, effervescent transformation taking place in the vast geography of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Starting with this new edition, the festival intends to present itself in a new guise, not simply as a showcase for a qualitatively outstanding selection, but also as a platform making it possible to encounter the multiform experiences that comprise the vast panorama of expressive means and artistic practice found in videos. The independent, innovative, and often also experimental energy involved in video creation (now reinforced by an ever greater and more pervasive influence from digital technology), as well as its relation to and exchange with the cinema and visual arts (not forgetting those with live performances of contemporary dance) have surely served to provide a fertile ground for the development not only of a format but also of a methodology.
The ability to observe, visual synthesis and originality in style are not merely abstract categories in the opinions and in the points of view of the works selected from the curators invited to participate in this first renewed edition of Video.it. Our sincerest thanks go to Roger Bouvet, Francesca di Nardo, Sergio Edelsztein, Reem Fadda, Marina Fokidis and Basak Senova: without their commitment and intellectual curiosity, much of this year’s programme would not have come into existence. The three-evening time span is fundamentally only a brief moment, especially if the evenings are seen in relation to the longer times that went into the cultural production on which they are based, and in relation to the efforts and hard work of many young artists and artists seeking new avenues of expression, but it is an occasion of this sort that represents the materialization of an idea, that window – “the window on the world” – which only through direct contact between artists and the public can be given concrete, valid manifestation. With this renewed opportunity for encounter and reciprocal awareness, VIDEO.it and its organizing team are particularly happy to have been able to contribute to making possible another small step towards the far larger and more significant objective of encounter and circulation of learning. It is especially the extraordinary possibility of being hosted in what has probably become the most suggestive and extraordinary space devoted to contemporary artwork in Torino that is undoubtedly another reason we are both particularly proud and openly grateful. We are confident that it will be possible to obtain similar recognition as new and exciting discoveries are made, and in closing we turn to the public, impatient to hear their reactions and comments.
Francesco Poli, Francesco Bernardelli, Mario Gorni, Paola Nicita e Cristiana Perrella