SHOW: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2020 NOW LIVE

THE 2020 EDITION OF THE MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE!

From May 25th until the 30th 2020, the work of 25 different artists from 13 nations are exhibited online in 6 different programs. Click here to see the full lineup. Most of these works have never been presented in Italy before. The third edition of the MMF was originally supposed to take place inside the Contemporary Exhibition Hall at IULM University, but was postponed due to the ongoing Covide-19 emergency.

An official event of Milano Digital Week, the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is organized in collaboration with GAMESCENES. Art in the age of video games and the M.A. in Game Design at IULM University. A follow-up to the 2016 exhibition GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY, the festival brings to Milan idiosyncratic video works that lie at the intersection of video art, cinema, and digital games.

The 2020 MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is curated by yours truly and presented by FANTAGEMMA, Gemma Fantacci’s alter ego.

Start watching now!

PROJECT: VRAL

I'm happy to announce VRAL, a uniquely curated game video experience, available for free on the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL website offering screenings of machinima created by artists and filmmakers whose work lies at the intersection of video art, cinema, gaming, and other visual practices. The program features exceptional machinima selected based on their cultural relevance, artistic achievement, and innovative style. Often presented only in the context of festivals, exhibitions, and surveys, these works best represent the variety, ingenuity, and creativity of game-based video practices. A space providing access to diverse and innovative voices, VRAL is an online-only supplement to the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL. Throughout the year, VRAL celebrates a new generation of digital filmmakers and artists engaging with video game-based technologies, aesthetics, and practices. 

The project comprises exclusive interviews, image galleries, and an archive. 

I’m curating this ongoing exhibition space with Gemma Fantacci.

VRAL begins April 25 2020 with the world premiere of Rapid Transit: Preface by Victor Morales and continues with Aleksandar Radan’s In Between Identities.

See more at VRAL

BOOK: MACHINIMA. 32 CONVERSATIONS ON THE ART OF VIDEOGAMES

I'm thrilled to announce the release of MACHINIMA. 32 conversazioni sull'arte del videogioco, a new book featuring interviews with international artists using video games to make art. MACHINIMA. 32 conversazioni sull'arte del videogioco expands, in print form, both the exhibition GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY, curated by Vincenzo Trione and I in 2016 at IULM University, in Milan, Italy, and the official catalog, released by Silvana Editoriale in June 2016.  The vast majority of the conversations with the artists featured in the show were produced by the students enrolled in the M.A. in Arts, Cultural Heritage and Markets Program at IULM. As such MACHINIMA. 32 conversazioni sull'arte del videogioco is a collective, interdisciplinary project connecting art criticism, media studies, and new media. Topics discussed range from the practice of appropriating games for making art to the artists' approaches to the medium, providing scholars, critics, and artists a set of invaluable resources to better grasp the meaning and practice of machinima.

Published by Concrete Press, the book is available in Italian on Amazon US, Amazon Italy and Blurb.

Here's a short preview and here's the book's teaser:

MACHINIMA. 32 Conversazioni sull’arte del videogioco
Edited by Matteo Bittanti
Release date: March 08, 2017
Features: Softcover, 158 pages, black and white
Format: 15×23 cm, 6×9 inches
ISBN: 9781366258540
Language: Italian
Price: $15.99

Featured artists:

Larry Achiampong, Rewell Altunaga, Hugo Arcier, Marta Azparren, Benjamin Bardou, Ashley Blackman, David Blandy, Josh Bricker, Joseph Delappe, Claire Evans, Harun Farocki, Foci + Loci, Anita Fontaine, Chris Howlett, Ip Yuk–Yiu, Hui Wai–Keung, Kent Lambert, Lawrence Lek, Les Riches Douaniers, Miltos Manetas, Marco Mendeni, Victor Morales, Oscar Nodal, Baden Pailthorpe, Paolo Pedercini, Tom Richardson, Philip Solomon, Kent Sheely, Georgie Roxby Smith, Palle Torsson, Michiel Van Der Zanden, Angela Washko, Brent Watanabe.

LINK: Concrete Press

CURATION: TRAVELOGUE

TRAVELOGUE
Curated by Matteo Bittanti
September 7- 11 2016
Cantine di Vincenzo I Gonzaga
Piazzetta Santa Barbara, 46100 Mantua MN
Open every day from 8.15  AM until 19.15 p.m.
Admission: 3 euros
An official event of Festivaletteratura 2016
Official website: travelogue.space

TRAVELOGUE is a survey of audiovisual artworks made with or inspired by video games. Using machinima and interactive installations, fifteen artists examine the virtual automobile as medium, message, technological commodity, status symbol, interface, and prosthetics. Created through a process of appropriation and remix, these works lie at the intersection of fiction and documentation, performance and simulation, video art and experimental cinema.

TRAVELOGUE takes the viewer for a ride through landscapes that are simultaneously familiar and uncanny, featuring dematerialized vehicles in autopilot mode; glitches, ghosts and algorithms; weapons of mass distraction and feedback loops; sudden acceleration, absolute speed, and endless stasis. Until the inevitable crash.

The exhibition is staged in the Cellars of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, a part of the Gonzaga Palace. Featuring an impressive structure with exposed brick walls and beamed vaulted and barrel ceilings, the space features several rooms covering an area of about eight hundred square meters located in a XV Century building.


FEATURED ARTISTS

Max Almy & Teri Yarbrow

Dave Ball

Bob Bicknell-Knight

Clint Enns

COLL.EO

JODI

Matthew Hillock

Kristin Lucas

Victor Morales

Leonardo Sang

Palle Torsson

Jean-Baptiste Wejman

+ Surprise artist

COLLATERAL EVENTS

CRASH: GAME AESTHETICS AND CONTEMPORARY ART

Isabelle Arvers e Valentina Tanni in conversation. + SURPRISE SCREENING

Sunday September 11 at 11:30 AM

Cantine di Vincenzo, Piazza Santa Barbara, 46100, Mantua Italy

Admission: 6 euros

What is the difference between video games and game videos? What are the affinities and divergences between video games and video art? What role do electronic simulations play within the current visualscape? Isabelle Arvers and Valentina Tanni discuss the influence of game aesthetics on contemporary art. The conversation is moderated by Matteo Bittanti.