Loop Symposium

Wednesday 20 Nov. 2024 3.30pm – 4.45pm, moderated by Filipa Ramos

Commissioners play a fundamental role in bridging artistic creation with the needs of a place and the desires of an epoch. Commissions rely on relationships, based on dialogue and exchange. They are made of trust, support, commitment and anticipation, as the end result of a commissioned artwork is a surprise for all. Commissions must balance many aspects, from the expectations of funding bodies to the unpredictable reception of press and the response of specialized and general audiences to a new artwork. They are particularly important to stimulate the work of artists whose practice does not rely as heavily in the market as that of artists whose mediums are more traditional. For this reason, they are fundamental to assure the dynamic and healthy life of time-based media and artists’ cinema. In this panel, we bring together institutional experiences, both public and private, to discuss the context, pertinence and modalities of commissioning in the context of art exhibitions, festivals, biennales and other encounters that support and rely on the exhibition of newly commissioned filmic artworks.

Wednesday 20 Nov. 2024, 5pm – 6.15pm, moderated by Filipa Ramos

The beauty of making things happen. To debate matters of production is fundamental to understand the logics, logistics and funding systems of artists’ cinema, as well as the upsides and challenges they face. They concern the responsibility for the concretization of a project and all it entails to the many networks that are built across artists, commissioners, funding bodies, curators and exhibition venues to ensure that the making of an artwork runs smoothly from concept to completion. Handling logistics, keeping budgets, following ideas and managing people are fundamental aspects of producing artists’ cinema which will be discussed here. Sharing the know-how and experience of artists, commissioners and producers, this panel will attend to the ways—logistic, financial, organizational—that allow an artistic vision to come true and materialize itself, and the structures that make this happen. The panel will also
consider the specificities of producing artists’ cinema in the present, the possibilities for the creation of networks for international art and film funding and development, and the changes in the sectors of art and film festivals during the last decade.

Thursday 21 Nov. 2024, 10am – 11.15am, moderated by Filipa Ramos

If the beginning of the 21 st century assisted to a cinematographic turn in contemporary art, accompanied by the emergence of a cinema of exhibition, much has changed with the radical transformation of spectatorship and museum visiting habits of the last decade. New technologies of vision and of capture of images also transformed the way exhibitions are conceptualized and organised, and how research is made and shared. New formats and temporalities, hybrid disciplinary dialogues, the emergence of different circuits for the circulation of art have all changed the ways in which artists’ cinema, and its variations of styles, formats and languages, is conceived and presented. During this panel, which is composed of a group of international curators and museum directors with an outstanding experience in exhibiting time-based media, we will debate the fascinating tools and methodologies for researching, conceiving and presenting apparatuses for artists’ cinema, as well as the challenges imposed by recent changes in the arts and culture, and their impact in the strategies of museums, art centres and large-scale exhibitions.

Thursday 21 Nov. 2024 11.30am – 12.45pm, moderated by Elvira Dyangani Ose

How is a collection made? What are its agendas, interests and areas of focus? What are the differences between collecting traditional supports and time-based media, such as film and video? What are the role of private and public collections in the current times, and how to assure the preservation of their legacy for the generations to come? What are the roles of galleries, museums, curators and artists in shaping a collection? How to stimulate the collection of and support to moving images in the
arts when their presence in art fairs and galleries is often liminal? What kind of protocols can be established to assure that artworks of public interest may be co-owned, shared and circulated across public and private owners and lenders? In this discussion about collecting artists’ cinema, key figures working across museums, collections and foundations and the commercial sector are invited to share their knowledge, experience and vision about the present and future of collecting films, videos and installations by artists.