From 1983 to 1990 the Festival Arte Elettronica (Electronic Art Festival) of Camerino has been a primary point of reference to explore the interaction between art and new technologies. Established by the City Hall with the support of the University, the Festival has attracted international attention, giving many Italian artists the possibility to make their research known overseas. Over the course of various editions, the Festival has hosted conferences and exhibitions, even international ones, on the language of computer art, graphics, video, photography, cinema, tv, music and cultural heritage.
On 20 October La Sapienza hosts a study day promoted by the Department of Art History and Drama of the La Sapienza University in Rome. This event, planned to be as a historical overview of the artistic research and critical debate that took place at the festival and in the cultural context of the 80s, will consider the faceted legacy of this pioneering experience in the field of today’s digital images. Artists and scholars, key players of the time and current researchers will all take part with contributions that are critical and historical in their approach.
This initiative is made possible thanks to the digital materials and documentaries provided by Il pulsante leggero, an association founded by Rinaldo Funari in Rome in the 1980s, committed to exploring the interactions between art and computers, as well as animating the different editions of the Festival Arte Elettronica of Camerino. (from the press release)
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Important guests and active pioneers in the field from the 80s, together with young researchers, will be called to exchange ideas in a one-day event that traces the continuity of a historic process of experimentation that made history in Italy, as always, but was valued more abroad than in its country of origin. The event will become an important document, restoring the role of Italy in creativity also within the merging of art and technology.
Memoria e attualità della Computer Art in Italia: il Festival Arte Elettronica di Camerino [Memory and Modernity of Computer Art in Italy: Camerino’s Festival of Electronic Art, a one day seminar curated by Silvia Bordini and Francesca Gallo
20 October 2017, MLAC – Sapienza Università di Roma, 9.30a.m. – 1 p.m. / 2p.m. – 6.30 p.m.
Participants: Adriano Abbado (artista, Milano), Silvia Bordini (Sapienza Università di Roma), Gianni Blumthaler (Rai, Roma), Paola Castellucci (Sapienza Università di Roma), Valentino Catricalà (Fondazione Mondo Digitale, Roma), Enrico Cocuccioni (Rai, Roma), Valerio Eletti, Enrico Cocuccioni (Sapienza Università di Roma), Pietro Galifi (artista, Roma), Francesca Gallo (Sapienza Università di Roma), Antonio Glessi (artista, Firenze), Paola Lagonigro (Sapienza Università di Roma), Sandra Lischi (Università di Pisa), Chiara Passa (artista, Roma), Mario Sasso (artista, Roma), Ilaria Schiaffini (Sapienza Università di Roma), Paolo Uliana (artista, Roma), Claudio Zambianchi (Sapienza Università di Roma).
Images: (cover 1) Camerino Colour Factory (2) Adriano Abbado, «Orbital City», 1984 (3) Crudelity Stoffe, Romeo Juliet (4) GMM – Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici, 1984, video from youtube
