The 17th Festival of Audiovisual Arts celebrates this year the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Audio & Visual Arts (AVARTS) of the Ionian University, presenting an extroverted, dynamic, and rich program of artistic, scientific, and educational events that fills the city of Corfu with images and sounds.
The opening of the festival is the central anniversary event and will take place on Thursday (23/05) at 19:30 in the People's Garden. Honored guests are Nikos Kanellopoulos and Marianna Strapatsaki, both ex-presidents of AVARTS. At the same time, the group art exhibition of the teaching staff of the AVARTS “Moments of Encounter” will open its doors to the public at the nearby Municipal Gallery of Corfu (Thanos Christos Venue, 23/05-02/06).
The artistic program of the festival includes a wide range of events that, on the one hand, highlight the artistic production of the Department and, on the other, showcase the work of acknowledged artists. This year, the main exhibition of the festival presents the virtual reality project Oedipus in search of Colonus by Loukia Alavanou, which participated in the 59th Venice Art Biennale and deals with issues of immigration, displacement, and human rights. It takes place at the Ionian Parliament (23/05-02/06) in an installation specifically designed for the venue, with the support of the Onassis Foundation. Another contemporary topic, the hidden effects of modern industrial society on human life and beyond, is illuminated by “Mutagenic futures”, a hybrid exhibition by bio-artist and theorist Ken Rinaldo hosted at the Public Central Historical Library of Corfu (Corfu Tech Lab, 23-31/05).
Highlighting the creativity and the artistic work of AVARTS students is a key priority of the festival. The “17th Student Photography Exhibition” (Venetian Prisons-Old Fortress, 17/05-02/06), the group multimedia exhibition “Department of Audio & Visual Arts, 20 Years of Creativity” (Corfu Art Gallery, 23-31/05) and the performance Tonight We Improvise by Pirandello by the student group AVARTS THEATRE (Galinos atrium, Old Psychiatric Hospital) are just a sample of the rich artistic life of the Department. The program is completed by numerous performances, digital works, installations, and screenings (short films, animation, video art, documentaries) that have been created in the context of the courses of the Undergraduate and Postgraduate curricula of AVARTS and are presented in the premises of the Department and Polytechno.
As every year, the festival is organized in collaboration with the Laboratory of Electroacoustic Music Research & Applications (ERHMEE) of the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University. With the title “Acousmata”, concerts of live electroacoustic music will be held at Polytechno (24-26/05), with a special sound diffusion system, including student and faculty works, music works accompanied by video art, and mixed works for instruments and electronic music, as well as a live electroacoustic performance by composer, sound artist, and musicologist Matt Rogalsky (05/29).
The festival is also framed by the 6th DCAC international conference (Digital Cultures & AudioVisual Challenges, 24-25/05) and the successful AV-School. Τhis year DCAC takes place as a joint event with the 3ai international symposium (Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, 26-27/05). Emphasis is placed on the hot topic of the relationship between AI and Art, with keynote speakers the leading theorist of new media and digital arts Distinguished Professor Lev Manovich (online) and the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Digital Technology of the Université de Vincennes - Paris 8, Professor Khaldoun Zreik. AV-School (28-31/05) is being held in the Public Central Historical Library of Corfu. Under the general title “Impressions” it addresses the university and wider community by offering a series of free seminars and workshops focusing on art-based research, cinema, video games, performance, radio, feminist approaches, and ecological consciousness. Major instructors are the internationally renowned Mark Bond (Bournemouth University), Jakob Berglund Rogert (Uppsala University), Agata Lulkowska (Staffordshire University) and Kleoni Flessa (film director).
The festival is supported by the Onassis Foundation, the Municipality of Corfu, the Public Central Historical Library of Corfu (Corfu Tech Lab), the Municipal Gallery of Corfu, the Corfu Gallery, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Corfu, Voulgaris Hospitality Group, Polytechno and Creative Europe.
Admission to all events of the 17th Audiovisual Arts Festival is free. Detailed information can be found on the following websites:
17th Audiovisual Arts Festival: https://avarts.ionio.gr/festival/2024/en/
DCAC: https://avarts.ionio.gr/dcac/
AV-School: https://avarts.ionio.gr/school/
Schedule: https://avarts.ionio.gr/festival/2024/en/schedule
