Press Release: /si:n/ festival of video art & performance

The second /si:n/ festival of video art & performance launches June 6^th 2011, with a rich and diverse spectrum of video art & performance works by dozens of international, Arab and Palestinian artists. In addition to screenings & installations of video art and performances by Palestinian artists, the festival invited international guest curators to curate programmes of video art from Morocco, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Croatia and Quebec. The Festival features works by prominent artists from around the world, and, in addition to lectures and talks by guest artists, there will be a series of live performance works and a workshop. The festival will run for seven days, from June 6^th – 12^th. Events will take place in various venues in Bethlehem, Birzeit, Gaza, Jerusalem & Ramallah.

The festival is a result of a partnership and collaboration between a group of institutions working in the arts in Palestine: the A.M. Qattan Foundation, Al Mahatta Gallery, the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre,   French-German Cultural Centre (Ramallah), Birzeit University Ethnographic and Art Museum & the Virtual Gallery (Birzeit), Les Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques (Marseille), Palestinian Art Court – Al Hoash, Al Ma'amal Foundation for Contemporary Art (Jerusalem), Eltiqa Group for Contemporary Art (Gaza) , and Dar al-Kalima College (Bethlehem). These organisations were brought together by their mutual interests and desire to see this event take place, and their willingness to share the necessary tasks and responsibilities to realise an international event such as this.

The festival programme has been produced in collaboration with several international curators – Marc Mercier (France), Paul Lee (Canada), Medrar & Mohamed Abdelkarim (Egypt), Toni Mestrovic (Croatia) and Abdellah Karroum & l’Appartement 22 (Morocco). Participating artists include Dominik Barbier and Flavie Pinatel (France), Toni Mestrovic (Croatia), Mariana Vassileva (Bulgaria/Germany), Shaarbek Amankul (Kyrgyzstan), Guido’Lu (Belgium); and Shadi Habib Allah, Mohanad Yaqubi, Basma al-Sharif, Raouf Haj Yehya, Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou Rahmeh, and Bashar Hroub from Palestine. The performance programme includes works by Dirar Kalash (Palestine), Rochus Aust & the 1st German Electrophonic Orchestra (Germany & France) and Esther Ferrer (Spain). A selection of the participating artists will be inviting the public to join them to hear them talk about their work, and there will be a series of master lectures given by some of the distinguished international curators and participating artists. These include Christophe Blase (Germany) on the history and preservation of early video art; Esther Ferrer (Spain) on the history of art performance; and Marc Mercier (France) will speak on the relationship between video art, poetry and revolution. New this year is a programme of film screenings of works by Kamal Jafari and Abdallah al-Ghoul (Palestine) and by Ehab Tarbieh (the Golan). In all, throughout the festival, there will be a total of twelve screening programmes showing video works by many international, Arab & Palestinian artists.

There will also be a Video Art Workshop in Gallery al-Mahatta from June 4^th – 11^th, led by the French artist François Lejault, with the participation of eight Palestinian artists. The resulting works will be screened at al-Mahatta on the closing day of the festival, June 12^th.

The Festival was established in 2009 and initiated a dialogue and exploration of the practices of video art and performance; it featured a varied repertoire of works and created platforms for interaction and discussion. The 2011 /si:n/ festival similarly aims to be a meeting space for knowledge, discussion and production. We hope this year’s events will contribute to establishing the Festival in the art scene in Palestine, and contribute both to its development and vitality and to it becoming a pivotal platform that will attract new participation locally, regionally and internationally.

Please join us at the opening of the festival on June 6^th at the A.M. Qattan Foundation at 6 p.m., for a chance to be introduced to all the partners and the participating artists. The opening will be followed by a live audio-visual performance by Dirar Kalash in Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre at 8 p.m.

To find out more and stay updated with the festival’s events programme and venues, please follow the /si:n/ blog at http://sinfestival.blogspot.com/ , or join our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/sin-festival-of-video-art-and-performance-2011/100468903379260, or follow us on Twitter at @sinFestival2011.