Rome will host the BNL Media Art Festival on April 13 – 17 2016. The event, promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale in co-production with the BNL Group BNP Paribas, will explore the new frontiers of art and technology, showcasing over 70 artists from 21 countries, involving 5000 students and 60 guests for round tables, lectures, pitches and workshops. Over 20 events will be held in 8 locations for a Festival that is becoming an international reference point for the digital arts sector.

 

Tomorrow, April 13, at 11 am, the MAXXI Auditorium (Via Guido Reni 4) will host the press conference and event inauguration.

 

Speakers

• Dario Franceschini, Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism
• Nicola Zingaretti, President, Regione Lazio
• Mirta Michilli, Director General, Fondazione Mondo Digitale
• Luigi Abete, President, BNL Group BNP Paribas
• Gerfried Stocker, Managing Director, Ars Electronica Linz
• Siegfried Zielinski, Founding Rector, Academy of Arts & Media Cologne, and Rector, University of Arts & Design Karlsruhe
• Giovanna Melandri, President, Fondazione MAXXI

 

This will be followed by a roundtable on “Media Art: the New Italian Challenge”.

 FOCUS – THE ART OF BUILDING SMART CITIES

Wednesday, April 13, 12 am, MAXXI Auditorium

 

On the opening day of the BNL Media Art Festival, the interdisciplinary roundtable on “Media Art: the New Italian Challenge” will feature a debate on concrete models and projects for sustainable cities, based on the creative use of technology for development.  

 

In Italy, the cultural production system relies on 443,208 enterprises (7.3% of Italian enterprise) that provide employment to 1,450,836 individuals (6.3% of employed workforce) and produce 15.6% of the national added value, 227 billion euro. According to the recent “I Am Culture” Report, edited by Unioncamere and Symbola, the great value of culture reaches far beyond these figures and influences the rest of the economy with a 1.7 multiplier effect: for every one euro produced by culture, 1.7 euro are generated in other sectors. Thus, the 84 billion euro produced by culture, stimulate the production of a further 143 billion, totalling 226.9 billion euro, mainly for the tourism sector. What happens if we add the accelerator effect of technology to the cultural multiplier effect?

 

On Wednesday, April 13, the opening day of the BNL Media Art Festival, seven international experts from different cultures, sectors and countries will address this debate in a round table entitled “Media Art: the New Italian Challenge.”

 

Anna Boccaccio is an institutional relations manager, Alberto Dambruoso, an art critic, Piotr Krajewski is the artistic director of a n important arts and media centre in Poland, Alfonso Molina is an expert in the strategic use of technology for education, Antoni Muntadas, a pioneer in electronic art, Gerfried Stocker managesone of the most important European festivals and Siegfried Zielinski is the founder of studies on the relation between art and technology. These speakers will address innovative strategies to gap the Italian delay in transforming the creative industry into a catalyst for the Italian economy. The round table will be moderated by the artistic director of the BNL Media Art Festival, Valentino Catricalà, as the debate will centre on media art, the drive to combine advanced technology with the great challenges of our age and transforming the cities in which we live.

 

Speakers

• Alfonso Molina, Scientific Director, Fondazione Mondo Digitale
• Anna Boccaccio, Institutional Relations Director, BNL Group BNP Paribas
• Alberto Dambruoso, Art Critic, founder of “I Martedì Critici”
• Gerfried Stocker, Managing Director, Ars Electronica Linz
• Piotr Krajewski, Co-founder and Artistic Director, WRO Art Center
• Siegfried Zielinski, Founding Rector Academy of Arts & Media Cologne and Rector, University of Arts & Design Karlsruhe
• Antoni Muntadas, Media Artist and Professor at the Venice IUAV Visual Art Laboratory

The challenge launched by this round table will continue throughout the five days of the event, involving schools and youth in this debate. The full programme is available at: mediaartfestival.org

 

Both the press conference and the round table will be streamed live at: mediaartfestival.org/maf-tv