Main Partner
Digital Imaging Partner
ARENA – Video And Beyond
curated by Liza Faktor
Sponsored by
Presenting Partner
ARENA – Video and Beyond is a recurring program at Cortona On The Move festival that explores the intersection of photography, film and other media.
Launched in 2018, ARENA’s mission is to bring video, installation and transmedia works about complex social issues and the human condition created by photographers, filmmakers and visual artists to European and international audiences, and to support these projects with industry and educational programming.
At Cortona On The Move we feel it necessary to explore photography’s multiple forms and functions and follow the evolution of visual language. Today, photography doesn’t survive in isolation. Our intention is to look at photography in context and in conversation with film, sound, performance etc.
ARENA makes a statement that transmedia storytelling is not fundamentally new, as it is rooted in narrative and in various artistic media. Innovation goes beyond latest technology. A story can be told in new ways using traditional platforms that have been captivating audiences for centuries. Here in Cortona we connect innovative visual storytelling with the rich Italian cultural heritage in opera, cinema and theatre.
This year, in response to the festival’s theme the program of ARENA explores the layers of meanings stored in the landscape: its memories, as well as its traumas inflicted by historical events and industrial intervention, the impact they have on the people who live on the land.
The projects on show reflect on our connection to the land and the source of our belonging to places, on how we carry the burdens and joys of historical memory, the consequences of exploration, land use and cultural appropriation. The landscape and us, humans, are interconnected beyond our interference with nature and the environment. And this bond dictates why certain events happen today in particular places.
ARENA – Video and Beyond is curated by Liza Faktor and features installations by Italian and international artists, industry talks and reviews.
