Fotonica Festival in Rome

From 1 to 10 December the 7th edition of the Fotonica festival will be in various venues in Rome, Acquario Romano, Accademia d’Ungheria, and Cieloterra with videomapping, interactive installations, audio video and live a/v performances, workshops for adults and children, artistic residencies, talks and conferences.

Photonics celebrates the photon, the smallest and most brilliant luminous fragment in the universe, a tiny particle with enormous and multiform creative power capable of giving rise to all forms of light. A unique event in the panorama of Audio Visual Digital Arts, which investigates all those art forms in which the element of light is central, presenting for years the best experiences in the international field and contributing to the creation of a network that brings together the most important realities of the sector.

A festival for the city of Rome that is preparing to welcome some of the most influential artists related to audio video and digital arts: from the leading names in world electronics such as the visionary Mexican artist Murcof, or the Hungarian Gábor Lázár, to the pioneers of vjing in Italy Otolab, from the Canadian Sabrina Rattè, one of the most promising and brilliant digital artists at international level to the Hungarians Victor Vasarely and Péter Botos, and to talented local musicians who have established themselves on the international scene, such as the double bass star Caterina Palazzi, or the Italian-Dutch composer, sound designer and multi-instrumentalist Grand River.

It starts at 5 p.m. on 1 December at the Hungarian Academy of Art in Rome on Via Giulia, for the festival opening with light installations co-curated by the Light Art Museum (LAM) of Budapest of two leading exponents of contemporary art, the Hungarians Victor Vasarely – a key figure in abstract geometric art that later became the international movement known as Cinetism – and Péter Botos, who arrives in Rome after having exhibited his works at the Venice Biennale and in the world’s most important museums. On the borderline between art and science, Victor Vasarely’s Virtual lighting sculpture is one of his typical “ever-changing” compositions, an optical experiment based on the contrast between black and white created by the lights and shadows that pass through his Plexiglas sculptures to give the illusion of movement.

With Hommage á Eliasson Péter Botos creates a baroque geometric sculpture in optical glass, revisiting the geometric tradition of the early 20th century according to the canons of minimalist and avant-garde art. The public will also be able to visit the ongoing exhibition of one of the pioneers of digital and algorithmic art, the 89-year-old Hungarian Vera Molnár (curated by Francesca Franco). The festival continues throughout the week, and in particular on the weekend of 8-10 December also at the Roman Aquarium, and the Cieloterra with a packed programme.

(from the press release)

images: (cover- 1) Otolab Ot-e, 2021 (2) Andrea Sztojánovits, «Nest», 2021