The opening ceremony of the 22nd ifva Festival was held tonight (9 March), together with the unveiling of media art exhibition “CINEMA 2.0: The Phantom Machine”, alongside works of finalists of the Media Art Category of the ifva Awards. The winners have also been announced during the opening ceremony. Honourable guests officiating the ceremony include Polymorf from the Netherlands and Verena Friedrich from Germany (participating artists of “The Phantom Machine”), Ip Yuk-yiu (curator of “The Phantom Machine”), Mable Ho (Head of Film Programmes, Leisure and Cultural Services Department), James Soutar (Governor, Pure Art Foundation), Darragh Paradiso (the Director of Public Affairs of the United States Consulate General Hong Kong and Macau), Alice Ho (Programme Coordinator of Goethe-Institut Hongkong), Forest Chan (Managing Director of Viewcon International Limited.), Bryant Lu, JP (Deputy Chairman of Board of Governors of the Hong Kong Arts Centre), Connie Lam (Executive Director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre) and Kattie Fan (ifva Director). Exhibition runs from today to 29 March at Pao Galleries of the Hong Kong Arts Centre. 

“The Phantom Machine” Explores the Entanglement of Cinema with Time and Memory 

The themes of this year’s media art annual exhibition CINEMA 2.0 are “time” and “memory”. ifva continues its collaboration with art.ware to exhibit four works, which possess certain cinematic qualities, resisting the passage of time each in its own way like cinema. Famous Deaths of Polymorf (the Netherlands) consists of two mortuary freezers. When audience is shoved into one of them, one is to experience the reconstruction of the final moments of Lady Diana and Vincent van Gogh by means of sound and scent from a first person POV. American Falls of Phil Solomon (USA) is an immersive triptych film installation that transforms the gallery into a panoramic and artistic journey through the cataclysms of American history. Verena Friedrich (Germany) tries to extend the lives of objects through her two pieces: THE LONG NOW aims at extending the life span of a soap bubble, while the VANITAS MACHINE involves a candle which burns down very slowly by means of technical intervention. For a thorough understanding on the exhibition, all are welcome to join the guided tour by curator Ip Yuk-yiu on 11 March, and Verena Friedrich will also be present to talk about her works. 

Media Art Finalists Showcasing the Possibilities of Media Art

The finalist works of the 22nd ifva Awards Media Art Category would be showcased in parallel with “CINEMA 2.0: The Phantom Machine”. On top of Hong Kong entrants, there are also finalists from Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Indonesia, etc. The honourable jury panel includes curator and exhibition director of Ars Electronica Kristina Maurer, creative director of local architectural studio SKY YUTAKA Sarah Lee, independent curator Ying Kwok, co-founder of yU+co. [lab} Ng Tsz-kwan and interactive media artist Bryan Chung. Media art category Gold Award Ghost in the Sellotape winner Junya Kataoka (Japan) and Silver Award C6H12O6 + O2 winner Irene Agrivina (Indonesia) will receive cash prize of HK$50,000 and HK$30,000 respectively sponsored by Pure Art Foundation, who is also sponsoring the Best Local Work Re-Dürer winner Hui Wai-keung to visit Ars Electronica in Austria or Transmediale in Germany. Gold Award winner will also receive Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera from Blackmagic Design Asia Pte. Limited. The Special Mention was also awarded to Junya Kataoka (Japan) with his work－Floating Paper.

ifva Awards and Festival Celebrates Experimental Spirits

Besides Media Art, the Festival will be showing short films and animations from the Open, Youth, Animation and Asian New Force Categories of the 22nd ifva Awards. Winners of respective categories will be announced at the Award Presentation Ceremony to be held on 18 March.

More programmes from this year ifva Festival includes:

Sharing of Shen Ko-shang, Taipei Film Festival Director: three of his short films Bus Odyssey, A Nice Traveland End of a Century: Miea’s Story will be shown and Shen will talk about his challenging journey of image creation.

“Home and Mobility” screening and panel discussion: Supported by WMA Film, a collaboration with Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Singapore Objectifs and Roundtable Community, five Asian short films on immigrants and the hardships accounted on the way of settling down.

Programme Details: www.ifva.com/Festival 　

Programme and Ticketing Brochure: https://issuu.com/ifva/docs/ifva_22nd_brochure    

The 22nd ifva Festival tickets are now on sale at urbtix.

Date:           9 – 19 Mar 2017

Enquiry:     ifva@hkac.org.hk / 2824 5329

Website:    www.ifva.com

Image captions:
Image 01: (from left to right) Honorable Jury panels including interactive media artist Bryan Chung, creative director of local architectural studio SKY YUTAKA Sarah Lee, independent curator Ying Kwok, curator and exhibition director of Ars Electronica Kristina Maurer; Officiating guest Forest Chan (Managing Director of Viewcon International Limited.); Media art category Silver Award C6H12O6 + O2 winner Irene Agrivina (Indonesia), Media art category Gold Award Ghost in the Sellotape winner and Special Mention Floating Paper winner Junya Kataoka (Japan), Best Local Work Re-Dürer winner Hui Wai-keung; officiating guest James Soutar (Governor, Pure Art Foundation); and Honorable Jury panel yU+co. [lab} Ng Tsz-kwan.

Image 02: (from left to right) Connie Lam (Executive Director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre), Best Local Work Re-Dürer winner Hui Wai-keung and Bryant Lu, JP (Deputy Chairman of Board of Governors of the Hong Kong Arts Centre).

Image 03: (from left to right) Renowned Film Director Ann Hui On-wah, Juror of Open Category Tsang Tsui-shan, Juror of Youth Category Chan Wing-chiu, Famous Film Director O Sing-pui. 

Image 04: Media art category Best Local Work Re-Dürer by Hui Wai-keung is exhibited during the Exhibition in the Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre.

Image 05: Media art category Gold Award Ghost in the Sellotape by Junya Kataoka (Japan) is exhibited Exhibition in the Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre.