Preparations are underway in Forlì for the 9th edition of Ibrida – International Festival of Intermedia Arts, which from 20 to 22 September 2024 will once again transform the city into a lively hotbed of research focused on experimental audiovisuals, where established and emerging artists will present the latest results of their production to the public. The event, pioneering at its beginnings in highlighting the centrality of contamination in contemporary creative processes, today presents itself as a reliable seismograph and catalyst for experiences that systematically move on the edge of consolidated artistic categories, in sensitive exploration of the possibilities offered by new media and the most recent technological advances. This year’s theme, “Artificial Reality”, in close continuity with the focus of the last edition on artificial intelligence, underlines how the intent is not so much to create a taxonomic mapping (which is anyway a collateral result of undoubted interest for professionals) of the evolution of the media, but to seek the connections between the new aesthetics generated by them and a vision of the world that, even in a non-strictly artistic context, no longer seems to be able to ignore the virtual component. To get some previews, we interviewed, as usual, the artistic directors Francesca Leoni and Davide Mastrangelo.
Francesca Fini (Italia), “Binary Blues”, video art, 2023, 11’26’’, courtesy Ibrida Festival
Emanuela Zanon: What reflections led you to choose “Artificial Reality” as the main theme of this edition?
Francesca Leoni e Davide Mastrangelo: The demarcation between artificial and real represents a theme of great relevance in the epistemological panorama, with profound implications that range from philosophy to science, up to ethics and law. After the focus on artificial intelligence in the last edition, we felt the need to delve into the issue from a different perspective, examining how this dichotomy is transforming our perception of the world. We live in a constantly evolving society, characterized by a technological and human revolution that will influence every aspect of our existence. In this context, artists, who historically are the first to experiment with new expressive languages, have been involved to explore what the concept of “real” and “artificial” means for them today. The demarcation line between these two dimensions is becoming increasingly thin, giving rise to new forms of expression and a complex and multifaceted investigation field, which we believe is essential to explore and reflect on carefully.
Mohamed Thara (Marocco), “An egg, the white is gone but the yellow remains”, 2023, 3’50’’, courtesy Ibrida Festival
This year too, the collaboration with the Dino Zoli Foundation is renewed, which will host, as a prologue and long wave of the festival, “BODY (S)CUL(P)TURE”, the first solo exhibition in Forlì by Francesca Fini, an artist who has always moved in a hybrid territory between performance art, interaction technology, sound design, video-cinematographic experimentation, digital animation and painting. What project was developed for the occasion?
A layered exhibition, ranging from video, performance, augmented reality, and the intermedial art by Francesca Fini, an artist we have known for a long time and whose works have enriched many editions of Ibrida Festival. “BODY (S)CUL(P)TURE”, set up at the Dino Zoli Foundation and curated by Bruno Di Marino, expertly mixes human and artificial, organic and synthetic, fascination and repulsion, creating a continuous dialogue between the body and all possible interfaces, from drawing to the creation of a 3D universe. The exhibition will offer a unique experience, enriched by interactive installations in augmented reality, paintings and video performances, allowing the visitors to immerse themselves in the artistic and aesthetic complexity of Francesca. Extending for over a month, this exhibition marks a further step in our commitment to reach an ever wider audience, bringing them closer to intermedial arts and their extraordinary capacity for renewal.
Anton Cla (Belgio), “Cyclepaths”, 2023, 12’25’’, courtesy Ibrida Festival
The heart of Ibrida is the annual call that invites artists to present their works in dialogue with the proposed theme. What reflections did the material you received on the “state of the art” inspire in you? Would you like to share some of your discoveries with us?
Every year we are amazed by the quantity of works that arrive through the international open call. One thing must be said about single-channel video art: it is in excellent health, in fact, it has not prospered like this for a long time, especially among the youngest. We have received many works by artists under 30 from all over the world. The discovery is that there is a great generational turnover, and this represents a lifeblood, especially for festivals like ours, which deal with the contemporary and not the past.
Jacob Mark Shpall (USA), “Firestarter”, 2024, 3’, courtesy Ibrida Festival
What will be the highlights of the live program of the weekend of Ibrida?
This year we will change location and develop a festival spread across the city. The live shows will all be held at Fabbrica delle Candele, at 9 pm and 10:30 pm, and we will have new entries in the festival line-up. On Friday we will open with a new collaboration with Cineteca di Milano, presenting “Idea assurda per un filmmaker” by Gianfranco Brebbia, one of the voices of Italian experimental cinema from the 1960s and 1970s. His films will be soundtracked live by Enrico Malatesta, Attila Faravelli and Nicola Ratti. Following this, Gianmarco Donaggio will present “In visible light”, a fusion of cinema and live arts. On Saturday, we will open with “Cyclope” by Carlos Casas and close with “GO!YA!”, a project born from the meeting of N.A.I.P. and Julie Ant (Giulia Formica), a surreal, unique live show. On Sunday, two artists already known to the festival will return: Luca Maria Baldini and Igor Imhoff, but in a new guise. Together for the first time, they will present “Siderea”, an interactive and generative journey that uses real-time video and sound inputs, giving life to unrepeatable images. This live is produced by us in collaboration with the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival.
Lorenzo Picarazzi (Italia), “Il resto come sempre”, 2023, 9’58’’, courtesy Ibrida Festival
Another essential component of the format are the talks with artists, critics, curators and other art professionals. What events does this edition include?
We will open with a tribute to Bill Viola. Following his premature death, we felt it was worth to dedicate a focus to him, a moment of reflection and celebration of his immense contribution. A talk on Brazilian video art will follow, with two leading artists such as Kika Nicolela and Marcia Beatriz Granero, who will guide us through the visions and artistic experiments of their country. Saturday will be enriched by the presentation of Marco Mancuso’s book, “Chimera. Il Corpo Espanso per una nuova ecosofia dell’arte”, which explores the meeting point between art, design, technology and science, investigating the human body in its relationship with the surrounding environment. We will conclude the talks with a new format: Artist Talk, where a group of international artists present at the festival will discuss how “artificial” and “real” and their interaction manifest themselves in their respective creative practices. In an atmosphere of exchange and sharing, we will also invite the audience in the room to actively participate in the discussion, because we believe that discussion is the beating heart of our festival. Ibrida is not only live, installations and videos, but it is also a place to meet and discuss, where dialogue becomes necessary, an open space where ideas are transformed and regenerated, giving life to new visions and future perspectives.
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Graduated in art history at DAMS in Bologna, city where she continued to live and work, she specialized in Siena with Enrico Crispolti. Curious and attentive to the becoming of the contemporary, she believes in the power of art to make life more interesting and she loves to explore its latest trends through dialogue with artists, curators and gallery owners. She considers writing a form of reasoning and analysis that reconstructs the connection between the artist’s creative path and the surrounding context.
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