XVI Media Forum of 37 Moscow International Film Festival, June 21—26, 2015

Organized by: MediaFest, MediaArtLab Centre for Art and Culture, Mediafest
Co-organizer: Park of Arts Muzeon
Partners: Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation, Swedish International Committee for artists support Iaspis,  Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Russian Federation in Moscow,  Embassy of the United States of America in Russian Federation

 XVI Media Forum of the 37 MIFF (.pdf)

 Media Forum in MIFF catalogue (.pdf)

XVI Media Forum of the Moscow International Film Festival is an annual parallel program within the film festival, which brings together contemporary artists and film directors working between the intersections of film, video and media art.

Exhibition, theater and movie theater spaces converge and expand their spheres of influence: contemporary video artists can be seen more and more within programs of film festivals, while film directors – at the museum spaces. Reflecting on this trend, this year's Media Forum rejects the usual exhibition format and places new works by internationally known video artists in the movie theatre space. Contemporary avant-garde art also falls within this research interest: multidisciplinary projects break standards of audience’s perception, reflect on artistic method and go beyond movie screens and exhibition halls.

 The 2015 Media Forum is bringing several season premieres of international video art celebrities to Moscow, among them — Gary Hill, Yael Bartana, Johanna Billing and art group Provmyza. And works by artists Anri Sala, Santiago Sierra, Guido van der Werve, Bill Morrison and Anton Ginzburg who have been acclaimed by the leading film festivals and museums of the world, such as MoMA in New York, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, film festivals in Locarno, Rotterdam, Manchester, and galleries of London and Berlin. 

Video program “Walk with a Troubadour” is a first part of the long-running project (there are screenings, master classes and an exhibition ahead). The works assembled for Media Forum-2015 will reveal a hidden performativity of contemporary social and artistic processes. The pieces are created by the artists working on the borders of cinema, video art and music.  The Troubadour is simultaneously a musician, a poet and a performer of his own works. The new troubadours invite the viewer to talk about the inner harmony of man and society in the contemporary world, about the attempts to find and not to lose your own voice, to come into your own tune and not to forfeit it.

The new human, sounding universe is created by means of poetry, sound and rhythm: a nocturne by Chopin in the Guido van der Werve's video, sounds of the universe in Anton Ginzburg's soundscape, Mozart's Requiem in sync with the inner turmoil of Anri Sala and Liria Bégéja's heroine, resonant poetic dialogue by Gary Hill, signals from the past by Bill Morrison, Johanna Billing's improvisational orchestra composed of 60 cars, sound canons and eves by “Provmyza” group and “Boundless expanses” art-group.

Besides the “Walk with a Troubadour” program, another three special programs will be screened at the Media Forum.

First, a retrospective of the video art pioneer Gary Hill is to be shown at the Multiplex Cinema “October”. The artist will give a lecture and present the premiere of his work “The Psychedelic Gedankenexperiment”.

The other two programs will be shown at the summer cinema of the Park of Arts Muzeon. The “Great Expectations” project presents works by a new generation of video artists from Russia, and the “Talking Movie” screenings cycle is curated by Alexei Artamonov, who chose for it cinematic essays, confessions and poetry.

Media Forum is organized as part of the Moscow International Film Festival. The role of new media in audiovisual art and culture received due recognition and Media Forum was immediately introduced into the official program of MIFF. Media Forum as action is an exchange of ideas, infusion of new forces into contemporary culture and vice versa. It is an attempt to demonsrtate the logic of new thought and new communications. At the moment it is inside media culture that new ideas go through trial and approbation, ideas that cannot be realized in contemporary art context.

Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) is held since 1959 and gradually it has become one of most respectable and prestigious film-forums in the world. In 1973 MIFF was registered by the International Federation of Film-producers associations (FIAPF) as an «A» class film festival alongside with those in Berlin, Cannes, San-Sebastian, Karlovy Vary and Venice.

Venues

Multiplex Cinema “October”
Novy Arbat street, 24
karofilm.ru

Summer movie theater MUZEON
Krymsky val, building 2
muzeon.ru

Contacts

Julia Grachikova
+ 7 (905) 719-66-85
ididshe@gmail.com