Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity
This sentence by Audre Lorde was the inspiration for the production of the 36th edition of Les Instants Vidéo festival. For indeed « It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the path that helps us to formulate the nameless, making it possible. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are paved with our poems, carved out of the rock of the experiences of our daily lives. As we come to know and accept them, our explored emotions become sacred and fertile ground for the most radical and daring ideas.”
In the current context (reduced funding for artistic creation and culture in general, shrinking spaces for freedom of expression and the rise of totalitarianism, common humanity under the yoke of globalisation), we need to listen to the thunder, to explore the unexpected and create porosities between universes.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the birth of video art, we offer you a panorama of international artistic creation, poetic, sometimes fiery, organic, generous, serious or joyful: 167 works from 45 countries. Poetry is one of the most effective tools to connect with our emotions (joy, fear and anger), to recognise them, to gain clarity about what surrounds us and to give words to our fears and hopes. The festival will be punctuated by opportunities to meet, discuss and enjoy each other’s company, providing a caring setting for our exchange of words and thoughts.
Our escapades know no borders and will take us to Milan, Jordan and Palestine. The festival will also be touring our home territory (Ecole Supérieure d’art in Aix-en-Provence, Town hall (district 1/7), Bibliothèque de l’Alcazar (Public library), Archives Départementales (County archives), Cinéma Vidéodrome 2).
Other “unpredictable and transdisciplinary fraternities” around video art will be on show at the opening of the festival at La Friche, with a programme devised by the programm’actors (inhabitants of Marseille), or in the popular ephemeral galleries, 3 exhibitions at the heart of social structures.
At La Friche too, this year our guests will have to follow a somewhat winding route, not only because of the partitions that cover the 650m2 exhibition space. We’d like to invite them to stray from the straight and narrow, to opt for deviations and allow themselves to get lost in the bittersweet gaze of the artists’ proposals. Let’s live the insurrection against the given….the deployment of our imaginations… the reinvention of our languages… our dreams of survival.
This vital necessity also provided an angle of reflection that led us to invite other festivals to join us in a conversation about the role of festivals. For us, festivals are neither travelling creation markets nor museum institutions, but places of artistic and poetic daring, collaboration, encounter and exchange, from which we know we’ll return changed and enriched by experiences that are both collective and intimate. They are places of hospitality in action, openings to the world, “enchanted parentheses, worlds of social utility, small ephemeral republics” as Emmanuel Négrier puts it.
And to make us feel even stronger, our videopoetic friendships have led us to offer 3 Carte Blanche to 3 video art festivals: Cairo Video Festival (Egypt), Limited Access Festival (Iran), and Vidéoformes (Clermont-Ferrand, France).
Poetry is a way of escaping outside dictates and reclaiming our freedom, says Audre Lorde. So is popular song. What happens when we combine the popular with video art? Come and listen to our proposals, all introduced by a popular song.
You’re very welcome.
