VIDEO SOUND ART FESTIVAL XII EDITION
 | The Life of Things
 and the Invisible Qualities of Objects

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VIDEO SOUND ART FESTIVAL XII EDITION
The Life of Things
and the Invisible Qualities of Objects

22 - 28 September | XII edition at the Teatro Carcano
20 June – 30 July | Open Call

The 12th edition of Video Sound Art Festival brings contemporary art to the spaces of the Teatro Carcano in Milan with installations, videos, performances, screening programmes and the launch of the annual call for artists to produce new works.

Video Sound Art festival since 2011 promotes artistic creation by reflecting on the transformations of installation language. The festival takes place in different sites of the city with the aim of testing the relationship between the general public and contemporary art industry. Over the years, VSA has produced around 80 complex installations and hosted 90 artists from over 20 countries in 35 different venues far from the ordinary distribution circuits, with the intention of testing the adaptability of art: group exhibitions at public schools (Biennale Manifesta, PA, Liceo Volta, MI), underground (Ex Albergo Diurno Venezia, MI – Ali Kazma), theatres (Teatro Franco Parenti | Bagni Misteriosi, MI – Yuri Ancarani), sports facilities (Piscina Romano, MI – Enrique Ramirez and Piscina Cozzi, MI) and scientific sites (Civic Museum of Natural History, MI – Haig Aivazian and Planetarium Ulrico Hoepli, MI).

After the exhibition realised in Venice in 2021 for Palazzo Grassi at the Teatrino designed by Tadao Ando, the Festival returns to Milan to present the 12th edition. The theme investigates the life of things, the unexplored possibilities that each object embodies in relation to history, identity and social relations. The exhibition path unfolds inside the theatre with installations, videos and sculptural elements with the aim of creating an encounter with viewers and rewriting the invisible connections that exist between objects and the material that constitutes them.

The Festival is proud to announce the participation of Mika Rottenberg, Daniel De Paula, Jo Bannon and Candoco Dance Company and the editorial project Mac Guffin.
The exhibition will start from the basement of the theatre. This underground, normally inaccessible to the public, will host Daniel De Paula, in collaboration with the Francesca Minini Gallery in Milan, with a  new complex installation composed of the video work circulação, sculptural and sound elements. circulação is a montage of technical videos, appropriated by the artist after extensive negotiations with the companies that probe and surveil infrastructural structures active in extraction of natural resources such as oil and natural gas, wind power generation and telecommunication. Through strategies such as negotiating with institutions and the displacement of everyday objects, his works reflect on the power dynamics within political and social structures that inevitably shape places, objects and relationships.

In the gallery of the central hall, VSA will present the video Cosmic generator of Mika Rottenberg, represented by the Hauser & Wirth Gallery in New York. Starting with videos filmed in different shops in Calexico (California), Mexicali (Mexico) and Yiwu (China), the artist intends to recreate the imaginary life of an object, from its production in the factory to the moment it is sold. A tunnel system establishes a trading connection between various places and actors, suggesting a reflection on how certain objects are allowed to circulate in the world freely whilst on the other hand, for other objects the distance of a few meters could take a really long time.
The guests of the twelfth edition include also numerous female artists such as Oli Bonzanigo, with a new site-specific installation in the theatre courtyard, Caterina Morigi, with her series of sculptural elements Making Special, and Letizia Cariello (Letia), with a complex installation consisting of the video work Con te and the fabric sculpture L'ombra mia mi ha fatto paura. Letizia Cariello's research is aimed at reconstructing connections and relationships between matter and space. From trees to teapots, from cups to photographs, her sign crosses everyday objects to materialise time in a perceptible form.

To explore the topic in the publishing field, the Festival involves the prestigious editorial project Mac Guffin, a design research platform based in Amsterdam exploring the life of ordinary things. Each issue is dedicated to a single object, used as a starting point to explore the historical, social and political aspects it represents. The strongly interdisciplinary approach is able to deepen and decline the main philosophical, social and political theories of our time to support an open and egalitarian vision. On the occasion of the launch of the new issue dedicated to the chain, the stage of the theatre hosts an installation and a series of podcasts.

The Festival also presents three performance interventions and a video dance screening programme with a selection of national and international titles, such as Feeling Thing by Candoco Dance Company and Jo Bannon, Fresh Oranges Into The Ocean by Silvia Giordano, and Pallae: Womanhood Story by Park Sohyun. The aim is to awaken the expression of physical language in relation to the things that surround us. 

OPEN CALL | The Invisible Qualities of Objects

Since 2011 Video Sound Art has supported the production of new artworks by promoting research paths. Every year, through an open call, Video Sound Art selects and produces new works that are exhibited alongside the retrospectives of internationally renowned artists.

For the 12th edition, the call for artists focuses on the possibilities of performative language. Artists are invited to question how things work when they no longer occupy a position, when they cannot be touched or felt

Each participant presented their vision using the lens of performance. The projects were judged by an exceptional jury composed of leading figures from the art world: museum operators, critics, curators and artists.
The winning project of Video Sound Art's Open Call 2022 is Drilling Down by Antonio Perticara.
The work will be presented to the public during the 12th edition at the Teatro Carcano.

VIDEO SOUND ART FESTIVAL XII EDITION
The life of things
and the invisible qualities of objects

Artistic Director and Curator
Laura Lamonea

Open Call Coordinator
Francesca Colasante

Screening Program Coordinator
Bianca Ambrosio

Production
Lino Palena e Anita Wilczega