BNL Media Art Festival

From 13 to 17 April, art and technology come together for a show in the prestigious setting of the MAXXI museum. This is the first edition of the BNL Media Art Festival, promoted by Fondazione Mondo Digitale in conjunction with BNL Group BNP Paribas in order to explore new frontiers in culture and art. International artists and experts, high-profile partners, students from all over Italy and eight different venues for a wide-ranging festival which is set to become an international reference point in the digital art sector.

The Palestra dell’Innovazione, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MIBACT), Rome University of Fine Arts (RUFA), Quasar Design University, the Accademia di Spagna and the Chilean Embassy open to an open festival which is spread throughout the city of Rome, and which involves a wide array of international guests, making it an essential reference point for artists, curators, young people, creatives and experts in the sector from all over the world. The packed programme of events features internationally renowned figures such as Gerfried Stocker, managing director of Ars Electronica Linz, Siegfried Zielinski, Founding Rector of the Cologne Academy of Arts & Media and Rector of the Karlsruhe University of Arts & Design, and Antoni Muntadas, media artist and professor of Visual Arts at the IUAV in Venice.

There will be installations and performances by more than 50 Italian and international artists, with the participation of over 20 countries; lectures, conferences, masterclasses and workshops for children: with the BNL Media Art Festival an important new artistic era dawns in Italy. Following the pattern set by Holland, Germany and the UK, where pilot events have been held with extraordinary public success, the BNL Media Art Festival offers a wide-ranging laboratory for artistic production, unique in our country. The aim is to build bridges between schools, museums, cultural centres, universities and business, bringing art closer to the younger generations and offering them a new way of approaching and using technology. Thus the starting point is the school, educating young children in the creative, artistic and active use of technology and digital tools, to encourage the development of innovative models of pedagogy and strategic skills for the advent of new markets, trends and professional profiles. Since January, 13 artists, – Rome, Milan and Naples – have been working with pupils from 12 schools of various types on a joint digital art project. The resulting works will be exhibited at the  MAXXI during the Festival and the best will receive a prize alongside the winning artist from the international call for entries. Almost a thousand artists from all over the world applied to exhibit their work in the MAXXI’s Spazio D. (from the Italian press release)

BNL-Media Art Festival, MAXXI Museum, Rome, Italy, April 13 – 17, 2016, please visit the website for the updated program

The festival is sponsored by MIBACT, the Lazio Region and the City of Rome, in conjunction with  Samsung, Google Cultural Institute, MAXXI, RUFA, Quasar, the Goethe Institut, the Accademia di Spagna, and the Embassies of the United States of America, Israel, Chile, Ecuador and France. Media partners: Rai, Wired, Inside Art.