
Mika Taanila’s The World (2017) and Jonna Kina’s Secret Words and Related Stories (2016) are included in this year’s edition of Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival, held in Florence from November 15–19.
The Italian premiere of The World takes place on Friday, November 17 at 18:00 in Cinema la Compagnia. Inspired by The Man Who Fell to Earth, Nicola Roeg’s film starring David Bowie, The World represents a literally reversed version: the pictures are actually overturned. In an apocalyptic atmosphere, animals, plants and objects seem to await a final disaster.
Mika Taanila is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. He works with documentaries, experimental film and visual arts. Human engineering, utopias, failures and man-machines are recurring themes in his films and installations. Taanila’s works have been shown at major international group shows, such as Venice Biennale (Nordic Pavilion 2017), Aichi Triennale (2013), dOCUMENTA (2012), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Berlin Biennale (2004), Manifesta (2002) and Istanbul Biennial (2001). Solo shows include the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki (2013–14), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2013), TENT, Rotterdam (2013) and Galleria Heino, Helsinki (2010).
Also for the first time in Italy, Jonna Kina’s Secret Words and Related Stories is installed in the exhibition “Directing the Real: Artists’ Film and Video in the 2010s“. Curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, the exhibition is open from November 15 to December 10 at Galleria delle Carrozze di Palazzo Medici Riccardi.
Secret Words and Related Stories is composed of anonymously collected passwords and stories behind them, read by young actors between 12 and 16 years old. Each of them stands in front of a red backdrop and reads from a single sheet of paper personal confessions, childhood memories and clichéd rationalities. These are thoughtful, humorous, and emotional stories about a chosen word that often discloses personal information, which is the antithesis of its purpose.
Jonna Kina is a multidisciplinary artist who works with photography, video, sound and text. She has studied in Helsinki, New York and Jerusalem. Kina’s works have been presented in numerous exhibitions such as Museo Amparo, Puebla (2016), Gallery AMA, Helsinki (2016), Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago (2016), Kunsthalle, Helsinki (2016), Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne (2015), Finnish Museum of Photography (2015), Finnish Institute, Stockholm (2014), Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid (2014) and Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg (2014). In 2013 she received a special mention from the jury of Photo Levallois Award and was nominated by the by Hasselblad Foundation’s Victor Fellowship Award and in 2014 by the Source Cord Prize.
Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival, 15.–19.11.2017, Florence, Italy
More information: Lo Schermo dell’ Arte FF