Art on Film at ‘Lo Schermo dell’Arte’ 2024

November 13 – 17: Lo Schermo dell’Arte, Cinema & Contemporary Art Festival, 17th Edition. Cinema La Compagnia, Palazzo Strozzi,  NYU Florence, Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze. Talks and screenings take place from 10 am to 10:30 pm, streaming via MYmovies ONE.  Tickets: €6; €10 day pass, €35 festival pass, free admission to those under 30.  Films are either in English (original language) or accompanied by subtitles in English.

Directed by Silvia Lucchesi, Lo Schermo dell’Arte will present a wide variety of artist films and documentaries on contemporary art, and masterclasses and talks with artists. The main festival venue will be at the Cinema La Compagnia, with a dense schedule of screenings, and will serve as the primary space for spectators, curators and artists alike to converse. Additional films will also be available online via Mymovies ONE. Gucci is one of the primary sponsors of the festival, and they have ensured that young attendees will have free access to screenings and have the chance to vote for their favorite film on the Lo Schermo dell’Arte app.

Opening night on Wednesday will feature the world premiere of Edge of Life (2024; La Compagnia, 7:30 pm) which is a live performance by John Menick and explores themes of the digital age, in which you will see the artist participate in a dialogue with an anthropomorphised computer about digital mortality. The same evening will also include a screening of Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (La Compagnia, 9 pm) by Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck, which explores the experiences of Ernest Cole, who documented the South African apartheid.

Screenings will be happening just about all day everyday between the 13th and the 17th. Each film displays a unique use of the language of film to talk about personal, social, and political subjects. Notable films on the program include the world premiere of The Speech (2024) by Lina Lapelytė, which explores a site-specific performance by 100 children in Paris, and how language and sound ties into their approach to the world around them. Another film featured: Among the Palms, the Bomb, or: Looking for Reflections in the Toxic Field of Plenty (2024) by Lukas Marxt and Vanja Smiljanic, investigates Southern California’s Salton Sea which was originally a test site for the atomic bombs that were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There will also be The Invisible Worm (2024) by British-Palestinian artist Rosalind Nashashibi, which is a portrait of a friendship between two female artists. Some more experimental works by the Italian artist Diego Marcon, who will showcase La Gola (2024), which follows Gianni and Rossana, two hyper realistic dolls that were animated digitally.

Each edition of Lo Schermo dell’arte highlights a different up and coming figure. This year is Oscar-nominated American artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley, who has developed her own personal style, blending genres where she creates spaces to explore socio-political conflict through people’s stories. Time (2020), was one of her most recognized works which tells the story of two lovers facing the adversity of the American justice system. It was nominated for an Oscar, and won for Best Director of a U.S. Documentary at Sundance. At the festival works by Bradley from 2017 to 2023 will be shown, and she will also give a public talk at New York University Florence-Villa Sassetti on Thursday, November 14, at 3 pm.

The special event of the festival will screen every day, and is an incredible 14 hours long, exergue – on documenta 14 (2024) by Dimitris Athiridis follows the behind the scenes preparation of documenta 14, a very esteemed contemporary art exhibition which took place  in both Kassel, Germany, its traditional home, and Athens, Greece and will be presented at Palazzo Strozzi. There will also be a masterclass by Dimitris Athiridis at Strozzina on Friday, November 15, at 10:30 a.m and a conversation between Adam Szymczyk and Salvatore Lacagnina, curator and co-creator of the Studio14 program for Athens documenta 14, on Saturday, November 14, at 3 pm.

The final special section of the festival is The 13th edition of VISIO, the European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images, dedicated to artists under 35, curated by Leonardo Bigazzi. VISIO is a program dedicated to artists who use moving images in their artistic practice, at the festival the eight chosen participants will screen their work through an online platform, called Mymovies ONE. The program will also include featured works by artists who were awarded the VISIO Production fund in 2023. Notable works include Flowering and Fading by Andro Eradze, After Colossus by Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, and the Italian premiere of Razeh-del (2024) by Iranian artist Maryam Tafakory, an experimental film collage, that tells the story of two Iranian students who try to make a film under the theocratic regime in 1998.

Lo Schermo dell’Arte will also present various documentaries highlighting stories from contemporary art which include Art of Diplomacy (2023) by Brazilian director Zeca Brito, and Arte povera: Appunti per la Storia (2023) by Andrea Bettinetti.

The 17th iteration of this festival is sure to inspire, with films everyday covering a wide range of topics. For more information, check out the festival program linked here. (Piper Begler)