Directing the Real. Artists’ Film and Video in the 2010s, curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, brings together single channel video works by nine international artists, most of which are presented in

France for the first time. This generation of artists, born after 1980, operates at a time when confronta­tion with the “real” and its representation often become necessary and in­evitable. Our experience of the world around us is however more and more mediated and altered by screens and electronic technologies, to the point that the borderline between real and virtual can be blurred. The transition from analog to digital and the acceleration of the in­ternet and new media are deeply influencing video language by generating aesthetic and formal choices that are now well recognizable in their works.

How do artists respond today to a globalized society where images and information are so often built and manipulated to alter reality?  And how the technological revolutions of recent years, and the speed with which these images are shared and consumed, have influenced their (and our) outlook on the world?  How to represent a world ever more ruled by economic interests, divided by wars and social injustice, and where the relation between man and environment is reaching a critical point?  In such a context which is the role and the potential of art and of the exhibition space as physical place for reflecting and sharing?

Directing the Real. Artists’ Film and Video in the 2010s aims to offer an overview on the production of nine international artists who have made some of these questions the central theme of their practice. The works are divided into three thematic programmes. The alienating and exploiting effects of capitalism on labour are the subject of Programme n.1; while the artists included in Programme n.2 have decided to film or create landscapes and locations that become central characters in the work in order to testify a failed utopia or a possible apocalyptic future. Finally the video of Programme n.3 have all been realized during situations in which the artists were forced into specific geographical limitations caused by political, economic or artistic reasons.

Directing the Real. Artists’ Film and Video in the 2010s was part of the exhibition with the same title organized by Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival in Florence to celebrate its 10th anniversary (November 14th – December 10th 2017, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence). For several years the Festival has been committed to promote and produce the works by this new generation of visual artists working with moving images through projects like VISIO. European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images (2012-2017) and the Premio Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival (2010 – 2013).

VISIO has created a significant archive by mapping up to now over 500 artists working with film and video in Europe. The programme has developed into a wide exhibition and research platform and the outcome of this work will result in a publication produced by Lo Schermo dell’Arte in collaboration with Passerelle Centre d’art contemporain and Palazzo Strozzi. The book will be published by Mousse Publishing in 2018 and will feature contributions by leading international curators, artists and critics that have participated in the programme.