PAST EVENTS 2023
From November 20 To November 26
TALKS
MAST.AUDITORIUM
SIMONE SANTILLI
NOTHING IS TRUE. EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED.
PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEOGAMES, AND WORK
In conversation with Matteo Bittanti
The digital environments of video games are sites of intense activity by a growing community of virtual photographers. Their cameras are made of code and, in addition to producing images, can determine their survival by acting as weapons or means with which to move through space and time. At the same time, our everyday life increasingly resembles a strange game in which images are the rules and the prizes.
Simone Santilli and Matteo Bittanti will discuss the way in which videogames and photography intertwine, producing aesthetics and practices whose scope goes far beyond videogames. The role of the two media is indeed central in contemporary society, from politics to entertainment, from art to marketing, from authorship to participation, from the environmental crisis to that of the very idea of reality.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
WORKSHOP
MAST.ACADEMY
SIMONE SANTILLI
PHOTOGAME
THE PHOTOGRAPHY GAME / PHOTOGRAPHING GAME BETWEEN REALITY AND VIRTUALITY
The workshop consists of a photographic exploration of the anthropized space of Fortnite. After a theoretical and historical introduction shedding light on the relationship between real and virtual urban space and the growing confusion between truth and representation, participants are invited to delve into the map of Epic Games’ battle-royale video game to analyze some aspects of it through the use of the video game’s photographic mode. At the end of the research, the images produced will be printed, collected, edited and discussed with the aim of highlighting recurring motifs and themes in contemporary visual imagery.
Participants should be equipped with a laptop with Fortnite and a smartphone with Fujifilm Instax Share application.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22
TALKS
MAST.AUDITORIUM
DAYANITA SINGH
OUT OF THE BOX
STORIES FROM THE PORTABLE MUSEUM
In conversation with Urs Stahel
“I don’t want to be a book on your bookshelf or a print on your wall” says photographer Dayanita Singh.
In her talk she will share with us her concepts of taking exhibitions “Out of the box” away from the gallery walls, into her nine pocket jacket and into the world.
Dayanita Singh groups her works by formal criteria or content and presents them as “mobile museums”: screens or modular showcases, adjustable shelves, or stacked boxes are an integral part of her constellations. Each unique view – of people, architecture, interiors, furniture – has its place in the overall framework and is also related to the pictures surrounding it. Such mobility – on the part of both artist and viewer – makes it clear that, for Singh, photography is a fluid medium; her custom-made structures enable her to put together ever-new variations on the present sourced from large archives.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23
GUIDED VISITS
PALAZZO BONCOMPAGNI
GUIDED TOUR WITH THE CURATOR
Guided tour of Linda Fregni Nagler’s exhibition Playgrounds with the artistic director of Foto/Industria Francesco Zanot
PALAZZO PALTRONI
GUIDED TOUR WITH THE CURATOR
Guided tour of Danielle Udogaranya’s exhibition Seeing Me, Seeing You, Seeing Us with the artistic director of Foto/Industria Francesco Zanot
SPAZIO CARBONESI
GUIDED TOUR WITH THE CURATOR
Guided tour of Ericka Beckman’s exhibition Reach Capacity with the artistic director of Foto/Industria Francesco Zanot
SAN GIORGIO IN POGGIALE
GUIDED TOUR WITH THE CURATOR
Guided tour of Hicham Benohoud’s exhibition La Salle de Classe with the artistic director of Foto/Industria Francesco Zanot
PERFORMANCE
MAST.AUDITORIUM
CAMERA LUDENS
THE GAME OF MEMORY
Selection of screenings curated by Home Movies
Introduction by Andrea Angiolino
Electroacoustic improvisation by the Bologna Conservatory of Music
The playful dimension has always been inherent in family cinema, the camera and projector being ‘toys’ within everyone’s reach. Through a montage of film sequences shot between the 1920s and the 1980s, the theme of play will be explored, investigating how it was experienced and represented by Italians through private movie cameras.
The selection of screenings is the result of a research into the immense audiovisual heritage of Fondazione Home Movies – Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia. From parcels opened on Christmas Day to open-air amusements and board games, this review brings together memories of the 20th century that mark a return to the collective and social dimension of play.
Selection and editing: Michele Manzolini and Enrico Riccobene
Production: Paolo Simoni for Home Movies, in collaboration with Kiné
The lecture
“In these films, the game begins to pervade life as it does even more today, when the game industry has overtaken the cinema industry and the gamification of study, work, shopping gives us the illusion of playing a lot. But the abundance of ludic offerings has made gaming lose a lot of its magic: these films give it back to us.”
Andrea Angiolino is a journalist and inventor of games for radio and TV, magazines, advertising, and the internet. He has written about thirty books including the Zanichelli Dictionary of Games, with Beniamino Sidoti, and tells stories about games and toys on Wikiradio, on Rai Radio Tre. He is professor of Game Culture at NABA in Rome and winner of the Best of Show award for his career at Lucca Games 2004 and the Gradara Ludens 2022 award.
The soundtrack
The projections are accompanied by improvised musical pieces performed by musicians from the Biennium of Electroacoustic Improvisation at the Conservatory of Music in Bologna, a course characterised by a distinctly creative nature and open to the use of new technologies.
Electroacoustic Improvisation of the Bologna Conservatory of Music
Performers: Francesco Giomi, Simone Grande, Salvatore Miele, Andrea Sanna
Coordination: Simonluca Laitempergher
In collaboration with Archivio Aperto
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25
CINEMATOGRAPHY
MAST.AUDITORIUM
Film program
MBM. MAST Best Movies
READY PLAYER ONE
Steven Spielberg, USA, 2018, 140’, o.v. with Italian subtitles
Columbus, Ohio, 2045. Most of humanity, plagued by misery and lack of prospects, takes refuge in Oasis, a virtual reality created by the brilliant James Halliday. The latter, before his death, reveals the presence in Oasis of an easter egg, a secret level that allows whoever finds it and wins each challenge to gain control of Oasis.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26
PERFORMANCE
EX CHIESA DI SAN MATTIA
AUGUSTIN LIGNIER
DOG STEREO CAT
The artist Augustin Lignier will create, within the exhibition Automated Photography, the performance Dog Stereo Cat, based on 12,500 images of dogs and cats used to teach artificial intelligence to distinguish between these two animals. Every second, an image will appear on the screen for the duration of a single frame. Lignier will attempt to recognise the subject each time, thus acting on the boundary between human intuition and machine learning and questioning the very nature of knowledge and recognition.
Ingresso gratuito senza prenotazione.
FAMILY TOUR DAY
MAST
Maximum of 15 children aged 7 to 12. Each adult may accompany up to 2 children.
3 PM – 3.45 PM: Workshop
3.45 PM – 4.30 PM: Guided tour of the exhibition Andreas Gursky. Visual Spaces of Today
4.30 PM – 4.50 PM: Snack in the Cafeteria
5 PM: Screening of Epic from the film program Future Film Kids (optional)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
MAST.AUDITORIUM
Film program
Future Film Kids
EPIC
Chris Wedge, USA, 2013, 102’, Italian
Mary Katherine, known as MK, arrives at the small house in the middle of the forest where her father, Professor Bomba, lives. He is determined to prove that the forest is inhabited by a population of tiny creatures. MK, fed up with her father’s eccentricities, decides to leave, but is forced to chase Osie, Bomba’s old and shabby dog, through the forest. While looking for him, MK sees a tiny creature who gives her a bud and shrinks her, showing her that the forest is populated by tiny individuals who are fighting for the survival of nature.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
MAST.AUDITORIUM
Film program
MBM. MAST Best Movies
OCÉANS
Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, France, 2009, 103′, o.v. with Italian subtitles – documentary
A fascinating journey into the depths of the oceans that shows the treasures, unveils the mysteries and pitfalls that hide in the depths of the sea. The movie invites you to reflect on the impact of man on the aquatic ecosystem and promote an ethic of respect for nature.
César Prize for best documentary in 2011
