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Thursday, March 13 – Friday, March 14
Opening hours :
Thursday, March 13 – 09h00 > 14h00
Friday, March 14 – 09:30 > 14:00
Meeting with Les Volcans – 5:30 pm > 6:45 pm
Free access
To mark the festival’s 40th edition and the 10th anniversary of Les Bienheureuses Rencontres, VIDEOFORMES & Pôle Pixel are joining forces to present a new format, centered on exchanges of experience, artist presentations, cartes blanches granted to French and Romanian digital festivals, and short, dynamic debates.
FOCUS video programs are “cartes blanches” given to curators, international festival directors or VIDEOFORMES partner distribution structures. They can focus on an artist, a country or a label. This year, OVNi Internation Art Video Festival and SIMULTAN are in the spotlight.
Following each Focus screening, an artist presents and illustrates his or her work in 10 minutes. This is followed by a 40-minute round-table discussion in which the curator looks at the artists’ work.
This year’s guest artists: – Santiago Torres
– Laure Nilllus
Moderator: Élise Aspord, PhD in Art History (Art and Intelligence, artificial life and robotics, Paris X, 2007).
Discussions with Jean-Paul Fargier, author of “Robert Cahen, de la trame au drame”, a collection of critical articles on Robert Cahen, one of France’s most acclaimed video artists.
And a dialogue with Richard Skryzak, author of “Vanité et Art Vidéo”.
De 17h30 à 18h45 – Traversée Sud – La Comédie
Rencontres croisées :
An exchange between Jean-Paul Fargier, author of “Robert Cahen, de la trame au drame”, a collection of critical articles on Robert Cahen, one of France’s most prominent video artists, and Richard Skryzak, author of “Vanité et Art Vidéo”.
Coffee reception, presentation and launch of Digital Acts#6 X Les Bienheureuses Rencontres#10
Discussion on the theme of “Networking, network dynamics and cooperation”, followed by a time of exchange between professionals.
Speakers : Pôle Pixel, Le DAMIER, VIDEOFORMES...
The distribution of hybrid works in programming venues (festivals, art centers, theaters, museums, galleries, etc.) requires technical adaptation, enhanced mediation and a rethought economic model. These works involve logistical challenges (equipment, maintenance), specific interaction and mediation with the public, often high costs, and may pose problems of obsolescence or conservation. Their successful integration requires appropriate infrastructures, trained teams and flexible programming.
Exploring the issues and problems involved in distributing works that are still prototypical in terms of their creation, distribution and public understanding.
Creating and leading collaborative networks that share common challenges is a powerful lever for project development. It enables us to exchange knowledge, pool resources and innovate more rapidly in the face of challenges in our respective sectors. Networking also means breaking down isolation, benefiting from the experience of others and identifying new opportunities for working together, whether in the form of partnerships, collective projects or temporary opportunities.
Networking is essential to our activities in supporting and developing hybrid and digital arts in the region, and this discussion will illustrate the dynamics underway in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Presentation of the OVNI festival (Nice, FRA), by Nathalie Amae (Artistic Director)
Introducing an artist : Santiago Torres
Roundtable discussion moderated by Élise Aspord, with Nathalie Amae and ????
“Art is the shortest route from man to man”, we could say - in the words of Malraux - of the human being in all his diversity, especially his sensory diversity. In fact, even though we can live without one or more sensory systems, stimulating the body remains a fundamental need. Digital technology, through its deployment of technologies that multiply our grasp of the world, contributes to an extended physical experience of our reality, opening it up to all audiences.
With this in mind, the OVNi (Objectif Vidéo Nice) festival and its artistic director, Nathalie Amaé, are developing mediation activities in which all the senses are involved. This multi-sensory dimension is also reflected in Santiago Torres' immersive interactive spaces. “To touch the screen is to experience the materialization of a thoughtful gesture, a projection of the mind in luminous matter”. This is the challenge set by the artist in his series Trame en temps réel, in which the public is given the freedom to take hold of the work and transform it ad infinitum.
Touch, smell, hearing... Vidéoformes 2025 is more hybridized and unbridled than ever! In Vers la nuit (Towards Night), John M. Hull, who is gradually suffering from blindness, testifies that “we don't all live in the same world”. Faced with the artificialization of creation, isn't playing with the senses the best way to reconnect with art, with others...? Simply to live...
Presentation of the SIMULTAN festival (Timisoara, ROU), by Levente Kozma (Artistic Director)
- FOCUS #2 :: Screening of artists' videos, presented by SIMULTAN
Introducing an artist: Laure Nillus
Roundtable discussion moderated by Elise Aspord, with Levente Kozma and ??
Round Table#2 : “Créa-hackeurs” or the art of not thinking in circles...
2025, in the face of political instability, the art world enters the arena. The creator-hacker - creator and hacker - no longer hesitates to clash with what exists. Art as a medium, an object of communication in itself... reveals what we don't see, stories on the verge of obliteration. Art awakens consciences. Picasso was already hammering it home: “painting (...) is an instrument of offensive and defensive warfare against the enemy” (Les lettres françaises, 1945).
Simultan (Romania), a platform dedicated to interdisciplinary arts, has made political expression and the fight for access to culture its battleground, thanks to its exploratory nature and its location in a city - Timisoara - long subject to institutional constraints. In the face of adversity, artistic director and co-founder Levente Kozma and his teams created alternative, underground spaces where video art could find refuge. The festival then becomes a sounding board for free expression, questioning the transformative power of art.
The same is true of artists, who often descend to the bowels of things and examine the apocalypse in slow motion. Through her political commitment and documentary approach, transdisciplinary artist Laure Nillus questions the other side of the coin. Her immersive installation Dé-Payser, combining sound narratives and deliberately pared-down visuals, gives voice to border landscapes. From this 90' emotional imagery emerges the imprint of our experiences, that of exile.
In the face of multiple threats (ecological, democratic...), can art send out a message, in the sense that it transforms the recipient-citizen? Can it play the role of a (r)evolutionary catalyst, turning viewers into engaged citizens?
PITCH session for project developers, led by a professional speaker who acts as a mentor, in the company of other professionals (representatives of regional institutions, programmers, etc.).
5:30 to 6:45 p.m. - Salle Traversée Sud - La Comédie
In partnership with Librairie des Volcans.
Discussion with Jean-Paul Fargier, author of Robert Cahen, de la trame au drame, a collection of critical articles on Robert Cahen, one of France's most acclaimed video artists.
Dialogue with Richard Skryzak, author of Vanité et Art Vidéo.
