The Chicago Film Archives (Chicago, IL) and Lab 80 – Cinescatti (Bergamo, Italy) are thrilled to announce a new international artistic collaboration—the 2018 International Media Mixer! This project is one of 15 artistic partnerships supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund.
The International Media Mixer is a cross-cultural “call and response” exchange, bringing together artists from two different countries to explore the process of creating hybrid works of media art. The project sheds new light on the international practice of media conservation and artistic creation.
Here’s how it works: Michelle Puetz, Curator of Public Programming at the Chicago Film Archives, and Karianne Fiorini, film archivist and curator associated with Lab 80 – Cinescatti, each commissioned two local video artists and two local sound artists to collaborate on the creation of four new videos using archival footage. Here is where the exchange comes in: the two filmmakers from Italy and Chicago create new works using digitized footage from the partner archive (Italian-based artists use footage from the Chicago Film Archives and Chicago-based artists use footage from Lab 80 – Cinescatti). Each new silent video is then scored by the sound artists/musicians from the partnering country. Upon completion, the four new pieces will screen in the US and in Italy with live accompaniment by the musicians who created the scores.
The artists selected for the 2018 International Media Mixer are:
Giuseppe Boccassini (IT) + Alex Inglizian (US)
Lori Felker (US) + Patrizia Oliva (IT)
Federico Francioni & Yan Cheng (IT) + Tomeka Reid (US)
Domietta Torlasco (US) + Stefano Urkuma De Santis (IT)
STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES AND INFORMATION!
Chicago Film Archives (CFA) is a regional film archive dedicated to identifying, collecting, preserving, and providing access to films that represent the Midwestern United States. CFA’s purpose is to serve institutions and filmmakers of this region and elsewhere by being a repository for institutional and private film collections; serve a variety of cultural, academic, and artistic communities by making the films available locally, nationally, and internationally for exhibition, research, and production; and serve our culture by conserving films that are rare or not in existence elsewhere.
CFA was formed in late 2003 to house, preserve and care for the Chicago Public Library’s collection of 4,500 16mm films—a collection the library could no longer keep. These films became a springboard for CFA to develop as a regional film archive committed to the acquisition, preservation, study, and exhibition of films that reflect the character and heritage of the Midwest. Since 2003, the archive has acquired over 120 collections containing approximately 27,000 films, videotapes, audiotapes, and ephemera—all donated by Midwest filmmakers, collectors, and institutions.
Laboratorio 80 is the oldest cinematographic association in Italy. Active since 1956, when it was known as the Cineforum di Bergamo, Lab 80 offers both theoretical and practical studies in cinema. In 1976, the organization became a worker cooperative and was renamed Lab 80 film. In the late 1990s, Lab 80 film added a production division, and continues to organize festivals and screenings, distribute films, operate a theater, and offer courses and workshops about cinema.
In 2010, Lab 80 initiated an archival project—Cinescatti—which is dedicated to collecting and providing access to home movies and amateur films related to the city and province of Bergamo. The Cinescatti archive consists of 3,000 home movies and amateur films shot in 16mm, 9.5mm, and 8mm between the early 1920s and the 1980s. Made by amateur filmmakers from in and around the city and province of Bergamo, the films represent a variety of cultural backgrounds and experiences. Most of the films in the Cinescatti archive have been digitized and are accessible for specific projects, research, and film production.