Cimatics Festival, STRP, Biennale Némo, Elektra Festival
Digicult has developed “+ 39:Call for Italy” for Cimatics Festival in Brussels in 2007, invited by Nikolas Wierink, a modular project of live experimental Live Media and Live Cinema performances (curated by Marco Mancuso) and a video-screening which (curated by Claudia D’Alonzo) which focuses on the developments in digital arts in Italy in the last 10 years.
Performances: Otolab “op7″/”Circo Ipnotico”, Quayola “Path to abstractions”, Mylicon/En: “Put down the gun” , Echran “Stardust”, Zimmerfrei “The Colony”
The curatorial project was born with the aim to help Italian artists to present their artworks within the most important international events in the field of artistic and cultural transactions between digital audiovisuals, music, cinema and design.
After Cimatics Festival, the project “+ 39:Call for Italy” was also commissioned by some other international festival like Strp Festival in Eindhoven in 2008 (in which otolab and Echran performed, while Marco Mancuso lectured),Nemo Festival in Paris in 2008 (in which otolab, Quayola and Mylicon/En performed), Transculture Audiovisuelles in Lille in 2008 (in which Mylicon/En performed and the video-screening were projected), Sonic Acts in Amsterdam in 2008 (in which Otolab performed) and Elektra Festival in Montreal in 2009 (in which Otolab performed as well).
Following the Italian cultural tradition in design and project, extending it to the ultimate forms of audiovisual art and creativity linked to the usage of new and digital media, the exhibition “+39” wants to be a breathing space on the artistic evolution of some among the most representative protagonists of the most recent Italian electronic scene.
Without any celebratory ambition, conscious of the intrinsic value of the presented works, the exhibition “+39”, is the first retrospective on those artists, musicians, designers, video-makers, vjs and programmers who, in the last 10 years in Italy, have consciously developed languages and aesthetics within an ever-changing and spreading cultural ambit. “+39” is therefore the first opportunity for a whole movement of professional Italian creatives working in the digital domain to get together and be acknowledged as a proper scene. The term is abused of, loved and hated, still it is indicative of a cultural-artistic current, of common ideological-creative grounds that unite human and professional experiences, contexts and ambits that are sometimes very far apart. The Italian scene is ready for international confrontation.
Far from being exhaustive, “+39” wants to uncover the existence of a movement, show an imagery, highlight work and project methods that are linked to the country and its protagonists. The conscious spectator shall then recognize traces of Italian experimental video art tradition in the live-cinema project “Put down the gun” by the duo Mylicon/En, wonderful attempt of micro-narratives and figurative suggestions to seek an additional interaction between audio and video, in which an important role is played by the contrast between images produced by totally analogical tools and an electro/digital sound produced by laptop or synthesizer.
Internationally representing Italian design applied to new technologies, code, audiovisual research and interactivity, “Op7 – an audiovisual performance by the Otolab collective – reinterpreting optical art with a strongly synaesthetic approach that links electronic music and visual scenography. Morover, the live audio-video project “Path to Abstraction” by Quayola rappresenta uno tra i più validi esempi di come la scuola Italiana del graphic design, del video arte e della musica elettronica si sia evoluta nel nostro paese grazie al contatto con esperienze accademiche da un lato e con la cultura underground dei club dall’altro.
Finally, ZimmerFrei, a group that produces theatre and dance performances, short movies, audio installations, presents the performance “The Colony”, proposed as a live expanded cinema: the video is projected on a screen and the soundtrack is played live by the artists themselves (turntable, samples, toys, noises and voices) and two guitarists.
