13th edition
Babel
VIDEO SOUND ART presents Babel, the 13th edition of the festival scheduled from November 10 with an exhibition project spread across three cities in Lombardy – Brescia, Bergamo and Milan. The festival focuses on the ambiguous nature of language: screenings, installations and performances make up a program built in collaboration with international institutions. From the Dutch publishing group MacGuffin’s research on the letters of the world’s alphabets, to research on identity expressed through video language carried out by curator Laura Lamonea at CNAP – Centre national des arts plastiques in Paris.
Brescia and Bergamo
10 – 19 November 2023 | 24 – 25 November 2023
MO.CA – Centro per le Nuove Culture | Sala Diana e Sala Conversazioni, Via Moretto, 78, Brescia
Bunkervik, Via Federico Odorici, 6 B, Brescia
Cinema Nuovo Eden, Via Nino Bixio, 9, Brescia
Liceo Scientifico Statale “Filippo Lussana”, Via Angelo Maj, 1, Bergamo
The 13th edition started in the city of Brescia involving three venues: the MO.CA – Centro per le Nuove Culture inside the historic baroque Martinengo Colleoni Palace of Malpaga, the Bunkervik – a former air-raid shelter built in the 1940s, and the Nuovo Eden cinema, a movie theatre located in the Carmine district.
Guest artists: Haig Aivazian, Giuseppe Boccassini, Marilisa Cosello, David Claerbout, Jordi Colomer, Andrea d’Amore, Alexandre Erre, Cyprien Gaillard, Camille Henrot, MacGuffin – Kirsten Algera and Ernst van der Hoeven, Rania Stephan, Hito Steyerl, Natália Trejbalová, Angela Xu.
In Bergamo at the Liceo Scientifico Lussana, during the Open Day event in the spaces of the fair on the 25th of November, Video Sound Art presents L’alieno non parla ma capisce (“The alien does not speak but understands”), a performance created in collaboration with a group of students from the school. The project is the outcome of a collective work on language as a commentary on the text ” أجنبية بلغة الكتابة / “To Write in a Foreign Language” (2000) by Lebanese writer and artist Etel Adnan.
Milan
30 November – 3 December
“I tesori della Ca’ Granda” Museum
Historical Archive of the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico and Crypt of the Ca’ Granda
Babel in Milan presented an exhibition project in dialogue with the Historical Archive of the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico. Underneath a splendid vault with lunettes, a constellation of micro-stories represents the ideal building blocks of the tragically impossible project: the construction of the mythological tower of Babel, the metaphor that guided the current edition of the Video Sound Art Festival.
Guest artists: Ali Kazma, Pierre Huyghe, Camille Henrot and Edith Dekyndt
13th edition
Babel
11 – 19 November 2023 Brescia
24 – 25 November 2023 Bergamo
30 November – 3 December 2023 Milan
Brescia
MO.CA – Centro per le Nuove Culture, Via Moretto, 78
Bunkervik, Via Federico Odorici, 6 B
Cinema Nuovo Eden, Via Nino Bixio, 9
Milan
Historical Archive of the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico,
via Francesco Sforza 28, 20122
With the contribution of:
Municipality of Brescia
Municipality of Bergamo
Monte di Lombardia Bank Foundation
In collaboration with:
MO.CA – Centro per le Nuove Culture
Cinema Nuovo Eden
Bunkervik
Historical Archive of the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico,
With the support of:
CNAP – Centre national des arts plastiques
Curated by Video Sound Art
Art direction and curatorship
Laura Lamonea
Curatorial team and Open Call coordination
Erica Petrillo
Education
Thomas Ba, Laura Lamonea
Production
Lino Palena
Press office and communication
Francesca Mainardi, Rebecca Canavesi
and Caterina Migliore
Communication consultant
Valentina Letizia
Graphic identity
Martin Groch
