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IROMEDIA 2023
THE 2nd YEAR*

LATIN-AMERICAN New Media Artists*

+NFT FINE ARTS Exhibition

Brazil - Argentina - Cuba - Chile - Iran

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Main Curators

#Gabriel_Soucheyre [VIDEOFORMES Society]

#Saeed_Khavar_Nejad [SAFPEM Institute]

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Invited Curators

#Giovanna_Rombaldi [TDF COLLECTIVE Brazilian Art Managers]

#Carola_Del_Pizzo [EXOART LAB Italian Society]

#Marta_Bianchetti [EXOART LAB Italian Society]

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NFT Curatorial Board

#Ali_Sharafi #Ehsan_Nasri #PIR&PIR ART Studio of Munich #SAFPEM_Institute

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Cordinator

#Monika_Gille

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Local Organizers

#TECH-FAC New Media Museum #DAS Society

POSTER

The 2nd annual Iromedia is a special exhibition of video art and video installation based on Latin American and Iranian New Media artists.

Latin American Artists

#Lucas_Bambozzi [Brazil]

#Gabriela_Golder [Argentina]

#Enrique_Ramirez [Chile]

#Kika_Nicolela [Brazil]

#Usurla_San_Cristobal [Chile]

#Eder_Santos [Brazil]

#Elcio_Miazaki [Brazil]

#Ana_Paula_Mathias [Brazil]

#Isabel_Ramos_Rodriguez [Cuba-Italy]

#Franco_Palioff [Brazil]

Presented Collection

#INcoming

INcoming [Enrique Ramirez]

This project was born out of a response to the infamous image published April 19, 2016, in which the Norwegian immigration minister, Sylvi Listhaug, was photographed in the Mediterranean Sea 'abandoning ship' from a Norwegian rescue vessel - wearing a protective orange survival suit - stating to the press: "You can't put yourself in the same situation as the refugees but you can see it from that perspective [and experience] how it is to be in the water that way."

As a symbolic response to this image, I invited a Syrian immigrant living in Stavanger to partake in the same action and launch themselves into the North Sea in Stavanger - the capital of oil and economy in Norway - to simply jump into the water...and float.
The film is an allegory to the gesture of 'throwing oneself into something', but to throw oneself into something is not only a physical act but also a decision with deep layers and meanings. To throw oneself into the void, to jump into the water; to throw oneself into situations in life or into the unknown. Life is always a limbo where one must take that kind of decision, either to stay watching from the fringes or decide to throw ourselves in, and invent wonderful machines to help us survive the journey that is to jump ...

#VACAS

VACAS [Gabriela Golder] The Beauty of Slaughter

Gabriela Golder’s video COWS / By: Christoph Blase


A bull, or perhaps it is just a cow, is chasing a group of people who are escaping on a packed horsedrawn wagon. But the cow gives up its seemingly hysterical chase, and turns off. It doesn’t stand a chance. This is the first and also the last scene in the Argentinean artist Gabriela Golder’s video Cows.
And it is the only time an animal is seen hunting a human being. Otherwise the whole work turns around killing animals, wrenching and ripping off great chunks of their flesh before they are actually dead. Once people have had their share, or more precisely, once they have manager to grab as much as they can just about stagger along under the weight of, they hurry to make themselves scarce.
The concept of “making themselves scarce” is vividly underlined in the video. It runs in show motion for long passages of its good four minutes, impressively slowly. The people with their booty seem. To choreograph their flights unconsciously, they pause, look backwards and sideways, constantly trying to find an open and safe path out of the fray, alone or in groups. The images, drawn from television stock, are processed, rearranged and repeated in such a way that for a time they also acquire an abstract beauty that contrasts starkly with what the video is recording.
In reality, time was racing by on that 25 March 2002, when a cattle transported overturned on an Argentinean country road, burying its load intended for the abattoir alive underneath it. Within a few minutes, hundreds of people were on the spot, cutting and tearing the trapped creatures up as quickly as they could. A single policeman can be made out. He can do nothing, or perhaps does not want to do anything, other than stand and watch.
But the alienation in the video is so powerful that at first we have only a vague idea of what is really going on. Gabriela Golder cuts to black for a few seconds over and over again, as if she wanted to give viewers the chance to think briefly about what they hove seen. Uncertainty prevails until the end. Only then do four lines of text appear, saying that people actually did slaughter the cows trapped under the lorry on the open road. And even this is worded so dryly: “About 400 people slaughtered the cows, which had spread on the asphalt some minutes before when the truck transporting them fell down,” as though it was just a minor news item, nothing special, not a drama, not a tragedy, just a completely normal, even if somewhat bigger and more unusual, opportunity for plunder in a decaying South American country. Here, in contrast, the animal protection agencies would trigger a discussion about the safety of cattle transport. That is how different life is on the other side of the earth.
On a second viewing, knowing what is actually happening, the video develops like a funeral march at first. The images fade slowly in from black, and the music on the soundtrack sounds like mourners humming, the short black seconds on screen are the black of death. We are reminded of the sacrificial lamb, or of human sacrifice. At one point the music is reminiscent of crackling flames. In a still that interrupts the flow of movement several times, the red of the raw flesh between two people seems like the flames of a funeral pyre they are burning on. As if these people are being burned anyway, for the rest of the world. The trucking accident with steak intended for the reach was just a happy chance that
prolonged life without hunger for a few days for once.
The techno-style music that comes in later sounds like shots ringing out and electric shocks. From here onwards the action deals not so much with death as the act of killing. People slaughter cows, but people also slaughter other people. There are some moments in Golder’s work when it is not clear who the massacre is aimed at. It is possible to imagine that the army might arrive, or the abattoir owner’s henchmen, and start shooting indiscriminately at the crowd.
Golder does not use the original sound. Perhaps the television stations didn’t use it for the broadcast either, as the cows’ death bellows must have been brutal. It would also have thrown the video of balance: a soundtrack like that would have been too dominant. We would have thought too much about the poor animals and not enough about the poor people. The video would have lost its subtle element.
We would not have been able to look at it at the same way as we do Eugène Delacroix’s picture in the Louvre, which is considerably resembles in places – in colour quality, composition, and content. The boy’s blue shirt, the red meat on his back, his white cap – just a few stripes, as in Barnett Newman’s Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue. In fact it is precisely this pictorial power that is specifically not to be overwhelmed by the content, and thus makes this video so effective. Of course the work also relates to the situation of people in Argentina and to globalisation policy. Without these it would have no basis at all. We would not understand Cows at all. But if that were all it was about, it would not be so good.

#AFFECTS

AFFECTS [Kika Nicolela]

What is the emotional noise that happens when we get touched by images that are purely created through dialogue with an artificial intelligence?

I have always been fascinated by how Bergman’s films portrayed women and the complex relationship between them, especially in ‘Cries and Whispers’ and ‘Persona’. The expressivity of close ups in his films, also something that I kept coming back to in my video works. 

So I wanted to create an AI animation with only the faces of women, very affectionate, full of emotion, and ambiguous about the relationship between them. Sometimes they seem like siblings, friends, or mothers and daughters. 

The challenge was: can I create a piece where the viewer projects their feelings into AI generated images, like we do when we watch characters on a film? Or is it anyway a different type of projection? 

Working with AI animation is so different from working with “normal” video. I have always loved shooting people, contemplating their faces, reading their body languages. With AI, we create the faces, the bodies. But unlike CGI, the work is born out of a dialogue, and it’s never perfect. These imperfections are, for me, fascinating; it's when we can feel the ghost in the machine.

#SOLASTALGIA

SOLASTALGIA [Lucas Bambozzi]

O conceito de solastalgia - estresse mental e/ou existencial causado por mudanças ambientais abruptas, não só por consequências naturais, mas também, por modelos de extrativismo danosos - norteia e intitula a exposição inédita que o cineasta, artista visual e pesquisador em novas mídias, Lucas Bambozzi, exibe entre os dias 1º de julho e 1º de outubro no MAC - Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo. A mostra, com acompanhamento curatorial de Fernanda Pitta, do MAC USP, traz quatro videoinstalações que servem como uma espécie de convite para o público refletir sobre o impacto social e ambiental das atividades mineradoras no Brasil e a produção de imagens em torno das tragédias.

A exposição abre com montanhas e paisagens dilaceradas na obra SOLASTALGIA (2023), uma instalação que nasce do processo de realização do longa-metragem LAVRA (2021, 91 minutos), também de Lucas Bambozzi. Por meio de uma linguagem mais sensorial - mais imagética, sem diálogos, personagens e/ou narrativas ficcionais, presentes no documentário -, a instalação evidencia as tragédias causadas pela mineração de ferro no entorno de Belo Horizonte (MG). “As imagens explicitam uma lógica extrativista que destroça modos de vida, em nome de uma noção arcaica de progresso. Se antes estávamos expostos a formas de solastalgia apenas em função de acidentes tidos como naturais, hoje, os acidentes são causados por negligências - por modelos de extrativismo danosos e também por uma noção de desenvolvimento que entra em conflito com outros modos de se viver”, comenta Bambozzi.

As narrativas de tragédias, acidentes naturais ou causados por ações exploratórias também aparecem na obra inédita EXTRA, EXTRA (2023), vídeo criado a partir de imagens e registros de fotojornalismo, publicados por diversos veículos de imprensa.

Na série PAISAGENS RASGADAS (2021), Bambozzi adentra no espaço aéreo e exibe em cinco telas LCD passeios virtuais através do Google Earth Studio - ferramenta que agrega imagens aéreas de diferentes fontes, a partir de coordenadas de latitude e longitude. Na obra, também em formato de vídeo, o artista apresenta imagens de crateras de extração de minério de ferro de grandes mineradoras multinacionais, localizadas em espaços de controle privado e até então inacessíveis a registros fotográficos usuais.

Em LUZES (2023), painéis luminosos posicionados no chão recebem projeções de frases que sintetizam a ideia de solastalgia, sob o olhar de 3 pensadores convidados: Ailton Krenak, líder indígena, ambientalista e filósofo; Christiane Tassis, escritora, roteirista do filme Lavra, e a artista, Giselle Beiguelman. Ao longo do período expositivo, novas participações de artistas devem se somar ao espaço da instalação, em diálogo com as redes sociais e com a exposição em sua integralidade.

“Considero o desdobramento do filme em uma instalação, um processo rico e ao mesmo tempo espontâneo, pois são formas interconectadas de diálogo com públicos distintos. Dediquei os anos 2019 - 2022 para o lançamento do documentário, mas a ideia que move o filme também aconteceu de outras formas, como uma instalação na Bienal de la Imagen en Movimiento (BIM), no Museu da Imigração - Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (Buenos Aires, Argentina), no segundo semestre de 2022. E, agora, o trabalho se configura como uma nova proposta; uma exposição autônoma, envolvendo um espaço maior e agregando novas obras, para que assim, possa conciliar com a complexidade que o tema exige. O MAC USP é um museu ligado à pesquisa, ensino e extensão universitária - é um espaço que produz reflexão sobre suas atividades. Então, poder retomar essa conexão com o circuito da arte contemporânea, por meio do filme e agora com este projeto de audiovisual expandido no MAC USP - que comemora os seus 60 anos -, é um processo que me dá grande satisfação”, pontua Lucas Bambozzi.

“Solastagia” é um projeto contemplado pelo PROAC Edital 09/2022, por meio da Secretaria de Cultura e Economia Criativa do Governo do Estado de São Paulo.

#tramas

TRAMAS [Usurla San Cristobal]

My artistic work proposes a meeting point between experimental music, performance art and video art, which I conceive as tools for exploring contemporary subjectivity, addressing issues such as gender, identity,
fragility, eroticism, intimacy and affection.
I work by combining artisan elements, such as weaving and calligraphy, with low-cost digital technologies, such as home camcorders and free software.
Through these elements, I propose a dialogue between ideas derived from the humanities and the materiality of artistic practice, trying to reconcile conceptual thinking with the sensoriality of the body.

#OURAGUALAMALMA

OURAGUALAMALMA [Eder Santos]

Video art from Brazil

#RETROCEDER

RETROCEDER [Elcio Miazaki]

Without interfering with the object, the clock face with the inverted numbers is original, as well as the mechanism of the machine running it counter clockwise, which underwent a revision to fit its current position as an artwork. It is a classic object found in Brazilian barbershops where it is positioned to be seen through the image reflected in the mirror. In fact, the clock displays the correct time, and even with the impression of going back in time, this sensation coexists with the retrograde situations of the present. As it is an object present in a predominantly male environment, almost exclusively, the barber's clock aligns the figure of man to retrograde movements.

#TAROT TRANSUBSTANTIAL

TAROT TRANSUBSTANTIAL [Ana-Paula Mathyas]

A video art presented by TDF Collective Society from Brazil and Italy.

#REQUIEM

REQUIEM [Isabel Rodriguez Ramos]

A video installation art presented by EXOART LAB Society from Italy / Curated by Carola Del Pizzi and Marta Blanchietti.

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Requiem” – “riposo”, “pace” in lingua latina – è la parola con cui l’artista Isabel Rodriguez Ramos sceglie di salutare i resti di un albero secolare, abbattuto pochi giorni prima del loro incontro. Questa videoarte segna l’inizio della ricerca di Isabel con Plantsplay, un convertitore del bioritmo capace di trasformare la fisiologica attività dei vegetali in musica. Ricerca che rappresenta un ulteriore prezioso ramo della sua poetica, orientata a esplorare la spiritualità e la vitalità della natura, restaurando la consapevolezza degli esseri umani di esserne parte e di vibrare, a partire dai propri corpi, in armonia con essa.  Ed è così che dopo aver ascoltato gli ultimi affannati sospiri di un antico albero e averne asciugato le lacrime di resina con la cura di una madre, Isabel dona agli spettatori un canto funebre inedito, da sempre passato sotto silenzio. Un canto che sgorga direttamente dal tronco a cui è stata amputata l’esistenza e che parla di un epilogo, ma è anche foriero di un’inattesa scoperta: la scoperta che il mutismo della morte nasconde in realtà voci invisibili, che possono affievolirsi, trasformarsi e alternarsi, senza però mai smettere di cantare l’eterna pulsazione del mondo. “Requiem” si fa allora compassionevole preghiera di quiete per una vita spezzata, augurio di riposo per i cuori stanchi di chi ne ha udito il dolore, ma anche speranza di pace per chi ha il coraggio di sintonizzarsi sui suoni che germogliano da ogni fine.  
Il paesaggio sonoro che accompagna il video è creato a partire dai suoni campionati attraverso Plantsplay, integrati da alcune linee melodiche realizzate della cantautrice italiana Rossana De Pace, con cui Isabel ha fondato il duo di ricerca artistica Gea Collective nel 2022.

Iranian Artists

#Behnam_Kamrani [IR]

#Mehrnoosh_Roshanaei [IT]

#Elmira_Abolhasani [PO]

#Shirin_Abedinirad [USA]

#Melina_Clade [IR]

#Rosie_Taheri [IR]

#Dorsa_Basij [IR]

#Arezou_Ramezani [UK]

#Mohammadali_Famori [IR]

#Soheil_Kheirabadi [IR]

#Babak_Sepanta [IR]

#Sadegh_Majlesi [IR]

#Samira_Pahlavani [IR]

#Elham_Kazemi [IR]

#shirin_abedinirad

#shirin_abedinirad

#mehrnoosh_roshanaei

#mehrnoosh_roshanaei

#behnam_kamrani

#behnam_kamrani

#babak_sepanta

#babak_sepanta

#dorsa_basij

#dorsa_basij

#melina_clade

#melina_clade

#mohammadali_famori

#mohammadali_famori

#rosie_taheri

#rosie_taheri

#babak_sepanta

#babak_sepanta

#soheil_kheirabadi

#soheil_kheirabadi

#soheil_kheirabadi

#soheil_kheirabadi

#elmira_abolhasani

#elmira_abolhasani

#arezou_ramezani

#arezou_ramezani

#sadegh_majlesi

#sadegh_majlesi

#samira_pahlavani #elham_kazemi

#samira_pahlavani #elham_kazemi

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