Fondazione In Between Art Film launches | STILL – Studies on Moving Images - A research platform on moving images

An online and printed publishing program with essays and texts by international contributors commissioned by the Foundation is accessible to everyone. 

The Foundation’s collection and the practice of the artists whose works have been supported will be the focus of unpublished studies which will be released four times a year on the website of #fondazione #inbetweenartfilm.

The contents will be collected in a book at the end of each cycle. 

The first chapter features Ferran Barenblit, Yang Beichen, Cristina Lucas,

Shirin Neshat, Pavel Pyś, Wang Tuo, Valentine Umansky 

Rome, 19 April 2021. Fondazione In Between Art Film is pleased to launch the first chapter of STILL - Studies on Moving Images, a research platform for specially commissioned texts investigating the field of artists’ moving images.

Through essays and conversations released four times a year on the website of the Foundation, the project explores works belonging to the Foundation’s collection and the practice of those artists whose works have been commissioned or supported. 

Each chapter of STILL consists of four studies: 

Double Exposure features a conversation between an artist and an art writer,

Close-Up is an in-depth analysis of a work of art from the collection,

Cross-cutting offers a ground-breaking theoretical essay,

First Look is a text examining a work that has been recently acquired. 

At the end of each year, the four chapters will be collected in a book published by Mousse Publishing. 

The first chapter, published on April 19, 2021, features a conversation between artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat and Valentine Umansky (Curator, International Art, Tate Modern, London); an essay by Pavel Pyś (Curator, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis) that explores visual technologies and representation; an in-depth analysis of Cristina Lucas’ three-channel installation Unending Lightning (2015-ongoing) by Ferran Barenblit (Director, MACBA – Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona); and a text by the curator and scholar Yang Beichen examining Wang Tuo’s video The Interrogation (2017). 

Thanks to the collaboration with international artists, writers, curators, and researchers, this project is conceived as an integral part of the mission of the Foundation in promoting the culture associated with moving images, with the desire to contribute to the literature and knowledge surrounding the work of artists whose vision enriches and inspires our work. 

“Fondazione In Between Art Film was founded with the mission of supporting artists and institutions that work in the field of the moving image and probe the boundaries between creative disciplines. Over time, my team and I began to feel a need to explore this territory from another standpoint as well: that of theory, art history, and words as a space of encounter.

This has led us to create STILL – Studies on Moving Images, a platform through which the same dedication we bring to our commitment with artists and institutions is extended to the practice of writing” explains Beatrice Bulgari, President of #fondazione In Between Art Film “Alongside the flow of images, we wanted to offer more space to the words that accompany them, by inviting writers, academics, artists and curators.

The title of this platform, STILL, is an invitation to pause for a moment within this wonderful flow of creativity and carve out a space for deeper reflection, to help explore the outer limits of language that artists are always reimagining.”

Developed by the team of #fondazione #inbetweenartfilm, STILL is conceived by Alessandro Rabottini, Artistic Director, and edited with Bianca Stoppani, Editor, together with Leonardo Bigazzi and Paola Ugolini, Curators.

Coordination: Alessia Carlino, Project Manager.

Design: Mousse Agency.

The 2021 edition of STILL - Studies on Moving Images will see contributions by:

Lucia Aspesi, Assistant Curator, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan

Erika Balsom, Reader in #film Studies, King’s College, London

Ferran Barenblit, Director, MACBA - Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona

Richard Birkett, Independent Curator and Writer

Zoe Butt, Artistic Director, The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City

Barbara Casavecchia, Writer, Contributing Editor, frieze, and Curator, The Current III, TBA21 Academy

Teresa Castro, Associate Professor in #film Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris

Flavia Frigeri, Art Historian and Chanel Curator for the Collection, National Portrait Gallery, London

Karen Irvine, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, Chicago

Nora N. Khan, Writer, Professor at RISD in Digital + Media, Editor, and Curator

Mason Leaver-Yap, Associate Curator, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

Hammad Nasar, Senior Research Fellow, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and co-curator, British Art Show 9

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Founder and Artistic Director, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin

Pavel Pyś, Curator, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Valentine Umansky, Curator, International Art, Tate Modern, London

Yang Beichen, Curator and scholar

With artists Yuri Ancarani, Hiwa K, Cyrill Lachauer, Clare Langan, Cristina Lucas, Diego Marcon, Shirin Neshat, Thao Nguyen Phan, Adrian Paci, Hetain Patel, Hito Steyerl, and Wang Tuo.