Lo schermo dell’arte presents the ninth edition of VISIO-European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images, a research and residency project dedicated to artists who use moving images in their artistic practice.
VISIO consists of an exhibition and a series of seminars, round tables and meetings. By encouraging international dialogue and mobility, VISIO has fostered the development of a wide network of institutions, artists and professionals who work with moving images, creating a significant archive that maps a new generation of artists based in Europe. Over 800 visual artists have applied to participate in the first seven editions of the Programme.
The project, curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, will be held in Florence in conjunction with the 13th Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival. The participants will be twelve young European artists who work with moving images; they will be selected through an open call organized in collaboration with some of Europe’s leading art academies, schools and artist residencies. The deadline to apply is Thursday, 1 October 2020.
The exhibition of works by the participants, titled Resisting the Trouble – Moving Images in Times of Crisis, is produced with NAM – Not A Museum, the contemporary art programme by Manifattura Tabacchi. Manifattura Tabacchi, a former industrial complex built in Rationalist style, is now the focus of a major urban renewal project meant to create a new neighbourhood: a hub of contemporary culture, art and fashion complementing the historic centre, open to the city and the world.
The opening of the exhibition, originally scheduled on Monday the 9th of November, will be postponed due to restrictions imposed by the new Prime Ministerial Decree.
The pandemic has made us more aware of how fragile life is, undermining our sense of community and heightening our fear of difference. Digital devices are essential tools for staying connected, but at the same time, they overwhelm us with a flood of images and information that deeply distorts our perception of reality. This emergency has revealed economic and social inequalities that are becoming ever more intolerable, and rage is fuelling widespread protests and uprisings. Rethinking our relationship with the environment and with the other species living on this planet seems like the only way to avoid looming climate catastrophe. This exhibition will therefore present twelve films, videos and installations that examine the most pressing questions generated by the current world crisis, offering alternative visions to help rethink the present and imagine the future.
Resisting the Trouble – Moving Images in Times of Crisis is a natural continuation of the five previous exhibitions organized at Palazzo Strozzi (2019, 2015), Le Murate PAC (2018), Palazzo Medici Riccardi (2017) and Cinema La Compagnia (2016).
The VISIO Young Talent Acquisition Prize has been confirmed for the sixth edition. It will be awarded to one of the participating artists and consist in the acquisition of a work by the Seven Gravity Collection, a private Italian collection that focuses on video works by contemporary artists. Through this prize and partnership with the Seven Gravity Collection, Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival aims to support young artists by encouraging the practice of collecting moving image works and video installations.
VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images has a five-part structure:
1. Resisting the Trouble – Moving Images in Times of Crisis
This exhibition, curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, displays the participants’ works and will be held at Manifattura Tabacchi in Florence. It presents films and video installations that reflect on the most urgent questions generated by the current world crisis, offering alternative visions to help rethink the present and imagine the future. The opening of the exhibition, originally scheduled on Monday the 9th of November, will be postponed due to restrictions imposed by the new Prime Ministerial Decree.
2. Festival
The participating artists are invited to attend the screenings, meetings and lectures on the festival calendar, and are encouraged to actively participate in the discussions. The main topics will then be explored in greater depth during seminars and conversations with the curators and artists hosted by the festival. This year’s edition will feature works by Francis Alÿs, Omer Fast, Emily Jacir, Adrian Paci, John Menick, Riccardo Benassi and Thao Nguyen Phan, among others.
3. VISIO. Young Talent Acquisition Prize
This prize, to be awarded to one of the participants, consists in the acquisition of that person’s work by the Seven Gravity Collection, a private Italian collection that focuses on video works from contemporary artists. The prize will be assigned by the Founding Members of the Seven Gravity Collection and the winning artist will be announced on the final evening of Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival.
4. Seminari
A series of seminars will be conducted by artists and curators who will talk about various aspects of their practices and research methods. The seminars, which will last two hours each, will be structured so as to include moments of discussion and allow the featured guests and the participants to share their experiences. In previous editions these seminars have been led by Isaac Julien, Marine Hugonnier, Philippe-Alain Michaud, Filipa Ramos, Deimantas Narkevicius, Mark Nash, Maria Lind, Alain Fleischer, Heinz Peter Schwerfel, Sibylle Kurz, Sarah Perks, Erika Balsom, Shirin Neshat, Manuel Cirauqui, Domenico Quaranta and Forensic Architecture.
5. Conversation Room
This informal environment will be used for round tables and one-on-one meetings, forty minutes long, where participants can talk to the artists, curators, critics, producers and directors of international institutions hosted by the festival. Whether used as an opportunity to present portfolios or simply have a conversation, these are meant to be moments of dialogue that will foster the participants’ professional growth and extend their network of international contacts. The distinguished guests who have already been confirmed for 2020 include Philippe Alain-Michaud, Beatrice Bulgari, Adrienne Drake, Ilaria Gianni, Alessandro Rabottini and Hilde Teerlinck.
1. Selection
Candidates must be visual artists who:
- work with moving images as part of their artistic practice
- are under 35 years old
- are citizens or residents of one of the 47 member countries of the European Council (complete list)
- hold a degree (M.A. or equivalent) or have had at least one solo show in the last two years
- have an excellent knowledge of the English language
2. Application and Deadlines
Please download the application form here. Together with the application form you must also submit the following files (in English):
- Curriculum vitae (specify date of birth and nationality and/or country of residence)
- Portfolio with web links to previous video works, and exhibition photos if available
- One photograph of the artist with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (format: JPG or TIFF)
Applications must be sent to Carolina Gestri at visio@schermodellarte.org by Thursday, 1 October 2020, before 11.00pm (Central European Time). The twelve selected artists will receive email notification by 19 October 2020 at the latest.
The official opening of the sessions will be at 5.00pm on Monday 9 November, and will end at 11.30pm on Saturday 14 November.
Participants must attend all events for the whole duration of the programme (in person or in streaming).
All meetings and seminars will be in English.
3. The selected artists will be granted:
- A pass providing access to all parts of the festival (screenings, streaming and lectures)
- A €250 grant for their trip to Florence
- Participation in all sections of the programme
- Hotel accommodation (9 – 14 November, six nights)
COVID-19 and support for artists
VISIO is centred on constructing a shared experience, forged by an inclusive community of artists, curators and collectors. That’s why we firmly believe in doing everything possible to help our guests and participants come to Florence safely.
We are well aware of all the problems and uncertainties caused by the current global health crisis, and the difficulty of making plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, the twelve artists selected for the programme will be given a grant of €250 to aid with travel expenses.
If at the time of selection an artist knows it will be impossible to attend, or if their trip must be cancelled for reasons beyond anyone’s control, the €250 grant will still be issued and they can participate in all sections of the programme via streaming.
Jonas Brinker in his practice uses film and photography as tools of observation and contemplation. Trailing from a distance, he gently captures and reframes peripheries of tense environments. His patient cinematography reveals before the viewer imagery that could be seen as self-sufficient Umwelten. His work has recently been shown at Frankfurter Kunstverein; Städelmuseum, Frankfurt; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Goethe-Institut Israel and Berghain, Berlin. Brinker obtained a Bachelor degree from Slade School of Fine Arts in London in 2015 and continued his studies at Städelschule Frankfurt in the class of Douglas Gordons and Willem de Rooij. He graduated as Meisterschüler in 2018. While studying in Frankfurt he went on exchange to Bezalel Academy of Arts in Tel Aviv as well as visiting Josephin Prydes class in UDK Berlin as a guest student.
Through multiple approaches to moving images, her work delves into the subjective level of collective experiences, exploring popular imaginary and shared memories. Director of El Tiempo, Firefly, Bat and The Woodland, her work has been shown in art institutions such as Reina Sofía Museum, Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, Museum of Modern Art of Medellín, as well as film festivals like Ann Arbor, Raindance, FICGuadalajara, Ji.hlava, Vienna Shorts. Graduated in Documentary Film Direction from the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba) and in Fine Arts from the University of the Arts London (UK), she has participated in alternative programs such as P.O.P.S. (Matadero, Madrid), Campus (Latitudes, Barcelona) and La Práctica (Beta Local, Puerto Rico).
Helen Anna Flanagan combines real events with fictitious narratives to produce video, installation and performance. By constructing and imagining scenarios — often making use of the category of the absurd — she investigates social structures and the political subtext of the everyday, focusing on affects and emotions, labor and the body. Her works have been shown in numerous international film festivals such as Go Short International Film Festival, Sharjah Film Platform, November Film Festival, Proyector Plataforma de Videoarte, Experiments in Cinema v.5.1, Film and Video Poetry Symposium, Plymouth Contemporary and Art Rotterdam. Helen is the winner of the 2019 IKOB Feminist Art Prize and is part of the post-academic residency at HISK (2019-2020).
Valentina Furian’s work analyzes the relationship between man and nature. The artist is particularly interested in exploring animal domestication as a form of human domination and human domestication in relation to social rules. Her work has been shown in museums, galleries and no profit spaces such as: UNA Galleria Piacenza, MUSE Trento, MAXXI Rome, Sunaparanta Center for Contemporary Art di Goa, Method Gallery, Soho House and ArtOxygen in Mumbai, BACO, The Blank Contemporary Art in Bergamo, Musei Civici Bassano del Grappa, Case chiuse, Careof, Viafarini, Dimora Artica, Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa in Venice, MAMbo Bologna.
She attended the Visual Arts course at the Iuav University of Venice and at the École des Beaux Arts de Nantes.
Megan-Leigh Heilig’s work is confrontational and provocative, but also always intimate and personal. It is concerned with political and social realities, which are translated in art works through her own private experiences. She grew up in Johannesburg and graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BFA; she completed her MFA at UCT; and completed a 2-year residency at the HISK in Gent. Megan has exhibited in the Seven Hills 2nd Kampala Biennale 2016 curated by Elise Atangana; in the Digital Africa projects between YaPhoto and Open Source curated by Christine Eyene in 2017; in 2018 she showed in a group exhibition titled Somewhere In Between at BOZAR in Brussels; Feminist Art Prize exhibition held at IKOB in Eupen 2019, 21st Biennial Contemporary Art Sesc_Videobrasil | Imagined Communities 2019-2020, and a group exhibition titled Together at MHKA in August 2020.
Marcin Liminowicz is a multidisciplinary lens based artist and designer. His work navigates physical & digital environments and focuses on agency of matter and dichotomy between spectating and participating in those surroundings. Combining analysis of notions from geobiology and philosophy with a variety of mediums such as photography, video, spatial installation and performance, he often translates how marginal spaces resonate.
He completed a one year residency at FABRICA Communication Research Centre in Treviso, Italy. Member of Krzak Collective – a community running a communal garden and cultural space in Warsaw. His works are in the collections of Polyeco Contemporary Art Initiative, Greece and Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland. Currently doing MA studies in Arts and Design, Non Linear Narrative at Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (NL) and BA at The Institute Of Creative Photography in Opava (CZ).
The perception of reality by the individual in relation to the environment, time, external stimuli and thought patterns conveyed by the mass media are some of the issues that Edson Luli addresses in his multidisciplinary research. By offering the public a participative type of gaze, Luli proposes to explore and observe what is happening when we are engaged in the activity of thinking. Luli’s work has been shown in international public and private art spaces including the following: A volte penso che…, Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani, San Matteo Church, Lucca, 2020; I don’t know. Let’s see!, Prometeo Gallery Ida Pisani. Online gallery space, 2020. Luli graduated in New Technologies of Art (BA) and in Cinema and Video (MA) at Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan.
Olena Newkryta is a visual artist, whose interdisciplinary work includes photography, video and installations. Her artistic practice examines social fabrics, the production of cultural identity and space with regard to historical and political narratives.
Olena has received several prizes and grants, such as START-scholarship of the Federal Ministry for Culture, Grant of the Federal Ministry for Science, Award of the Kunsthalle Vienna. Her works have been presented at numerous exhibitions and screenings, including Kunstforum Vienna, Kunsthalle Vienna, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Fotogalerie Vienna, Musrara Mix Festival Jerusalem, Crossing Europe Filmfestival, Blickle Kino Vienna. She studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna as well as at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.
Ghita Skali’s work takes as an initial impulse investigations around anecdotes which appeared in the media and have been later forgotten and/or erased. In her approach, it is less a question of truth than to map out all the possible ramifications of this narration, the contradictions and dead ends of the many rumors that made it. Her projects have recently been shown at Palais de Tokyo (Paris), été 78 (Brussels), Project Space Festival (Berlin), Beirut Art Fair, Triangle (Marseille), 18 (Marrakech), Cube Independent Art Space (Rabat), Cairo Off Biennale, Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) and at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin). Ghita Skali studied at Villa Arson in Nice and was a participant at De Ateliers, in Amsterdam.
Peter Spanjer is a Nigerian visual artist, born and raised in Germany and currently living and working in London. Using immersive and mixed media that combine film and sound, Peter’s work addresses the soft, vulnerable and complex nature of black life and the black body within the space it occupies. His work has been shown at White Cube, Saatchi Gallery and has been part of the Circa 20:20 programme where his film was shown at Piccadilly Lights. His forthcoming exhibition includes his debut solo show at the Kristin Hjellegjerde gallery in London. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2020, where he received his MA in Contemporary Art Practice: Moving Image.
Emilia Tapprest is a designer and filmmaker who investigates social and psychological implications of emerging technologies on human beings. Her film works tackle themes such as human connectedness and agency in the quantified age, exploring how a system’s underlying logic produces particular ‘affective atmospheres’ in interaction with its social fabric. Working in close collaboration with historian and music producer Victor Evink, their research explores visceral and existential implications of rapid technocultural developments through interdisciplinary worldbuilding and immersive media. She is currently based in Maastricht, and is resident at the Jan van Eyck academie (2020-2021).
Tora Wallander works on research-based projects, departing from the analysis of real events and phenomena to end up with the production of video works who oscillate between fiction and documentary. She has an interest in mankind’s relation to nature and our role in it. She makes use of a wide range of materials and techniques, often using methods that create illusions when moving between the analogue and the digital. Her work has been shown in Konstakademien, Stockholm; R1, KTH, Stockholm; Galleri Mejan, Stockholm. She is an MFA graduate at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm.
Resisting the Trouble – Moving Images in Times of Crisis
curated by Leonardo Bigazzi
in collaboration with NAM – Not A Museum
Manifattura Tabacchi
The exhibition of works by the participants, titled Resisting the Trouble – Moving Images in Times of Crisis, is produced with NAM – Not A Museum, the contemporary art programme by Manifattura Tabacchi. Manifattura Tabacchi, a former industrial complex built in Rationalist style, is now the focus of a major urban renewal project meant to create a new neighbourhood: a hub of contemporary culture, art and fashion complementing the historic centre, open to the city and the world.
The opening of the exhibition, originally scheduled on Monday the 9th of November, will be postponed due to restrictions imposed by the new Prime Ministerial Decree.
The pandemic has made us more aware of how fragile life is, undermining our sense of community and heightening our fear of difference. Digital devices are essential tools for staying connected, but at the same time, they overwhelm us with a flood of images and information that deeply distorts our perception of reality. This emergency has revealed economic and social inequalities that are becoming ever more intolerable, and rage is fuelling widespread protests and uprisings. Rethinking our relationship with the environment and with the other species living on this planet seems like the only way to avoid looming climate catastrophe. This exhibition will therefore present twelve films, videos and installations that examine the most pressing questions generated by the current world crisis, offering alternative visions to help rethink the present and imagine the future.
Resisting the Trouble – Moving Images in Times of Crisis is a natural continuation of the five previous exhibitions organized at Palazzo Strozzi (2019, 2015), Le Murate PAC (2018), Palazzo Medici Riccardi (2017) and Cinema La Compagnia (2016).
The opening of the exhibition, originally scheduled on Monday the 9th of November, will be postponed due to restrictions imposed by the new Prime Ministerial Decree.
VISIO. European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images, 9th edition
curated by Leonardo Bigazzi
Promoted and organised by Lo schermo dell’arte Film Festival in partnership with NAM – Not A Museum, the contemporary art programme by Manifattura Tabacchi. It receives funding from MIBACT – Directorate General for Film and Audiovisual, Regione Toscana, Comune di Firenze, Fondazione CR Firenze, Fondazione Sistema Toscana. It is realised in collaboration with Fondazione In Between Art Film and MYmovies and with the support of Gucci as Main Sponsor. Media Partner: Flash Art.
The participants are selected in partnership with:
- Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
- Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
- Art House (Shkodër)
- Careof (Milan)
- De Ateliers (Amsterdam)
- Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam)
- HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme
- La Casa Encendida (Madrid)
- Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (Amsterdam)
- Royal College of Art (London)
- Royal Institute of Art (Stockholm)
- Städelschule (Frankfurt)
- Universität der Künste Berlin
- Vilnius Academy of Arts
- WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre (Brussells)
