V-F-X Ljubljana
5th Festival of Experimental AV Practices
13–17 May 2025
Venues:
Slovenian Cinematheque, Miklošičeva 28, Ljubljana
Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Trg prekomorskih brigad 3, Ljubljana
Aksioma | Project Space, Komenskega 18, Ljubljana
V-F-X LJUBLJANA: Is It Future … Or Is It Past?
We will open the fifth edition of the V-F-X Ljubljana festival at three venues: the overture will take place at the Slovenian Cinematheque with a surprise screening preceded by The Future Ahead Is Going To Be Weird AF, Part 1 (2024), a short film by Silvia Dal Dosso, a researcher of digital technologies and memes. The screening is part of our partner cooperation with Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, as is the multimedia exhibition EVA (Evil Vibrant Astute) 2.0 by Joanna Bacas and Socrates Stamatatos, which will open at Aksioma Project Space.
The V-F-X Ljubljana festival will officially open at Kino Šiška with Asbu, an AV performance by the duo SYNSPECIES (Elías Merino and Tadej Droljc), which will be followed by the opening of Droljc’s AV installation Fracture Point, whose aesthetic is characterised by laser structures that, as a superior force, affect the genesis of a new digital world.
The main part of the festival will then unfold at the Slovenian Cinematheque, where the horizons of the gaze will be examined through a two-part programme of Australian contemporary films and videos titled Composite Landscapes and curated by the guest curator Sam Mountford. The programme presents the ways and practices with which the artists resist and deconstruct the colonialist (and neoliberal) image of Australian nationality.
A special experience in the Silvan Furlan Hall will be provided by Phosphène, an AV performance by Armand Lesecq, a French interdisciplinary artist and composer. Through it, he explores the concept of expanded cinema by way of an inversion – for the projection, the film screen is replaced by the audience’s closed eyelids.
Also on view will be two works by the acknowledged French artist Boris Labbé. Glass House is a multi-award-winning audiovisual spectacle that was inspired by Sergei Eisenstein’s unrealised idea and reflects the artist’s response to the new digitally intertwined reality of 21st-century society. Labbé also explores the same subject in this year’s VR Point with another award-winning work – Ito Meikyū.
One of the festival constants is the programme section Vistas, curated by the festival team. Its first two programmes titled Is It Past? and Is It Future? show film/video works that explore the materiality of the medium and thereby direct the gaze towards various coordinates of social memories and play with the innovative potentialities of new media. The third programme of the section titled Is It Timeless? has been prepared by our guest curators, who work for important European film archives and film festivals. They will also participate in the panel discussion titled Archives and the Search for National (Film) Identity.
Another programme constant worthy of particular mention is the section What’s Cooking?, a curated programme of films by students of four Slovenian art academies (UL AGRFT, UL ALUO, AVA, AU UNG), which show a particularly attentive and innovative spirit of young artists. As part of the festival, the results of the pre-festival workshop for students From Analogue to Digital, led by artist Neža Knez, will be presented in the café of the Slovenian Cinematheque.
The festival will be complemented by Between Body and Space III: Vertical Horizon, a programme in which SCCA Ljubljana and the Slovenian Cinematheque have, since March, been presenting the video/film oeuvre of the visual artist and filmmaker Nataša Prosenc Stearns as part of their regular cooperation. We will conclude the festival with the Slovenian treat Alpe-Adria Underground! (2024) by Matevž Jerman and Jurij Meden, which recalls the marginalised or forgotten history of experimental cinema from the time of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia.
The Festival team
PROGRAMME
TUESDAY, 13 May
5 — From Analogue to Digital, exhibition opening @ Slovenian Cinematheque Café*
6 pm — Silvia Dal Dosso: The Future Ahead Is Going To Be Weird AF, Part 1, Overture + Surprise Screening @ Slovenian Cinematheque
WEDNESDAY, 14 May
4 – 9 pm — VR Point / Boris Labbé: Ito Meikyū @ Slovenian Cinematheque (lecture room)*
6 pm — Joanna Bacas, Socrates Stamatatos: EVA (Evil Vibrant Astute) 2.0, exhibition opening @ Aksioma | Project Space*
7 pm — What’s Cooking? (a curated selection of student films, participating: AVA, AU UNG, UL AGRFT, UL ALUO) @ Slovenian Cinematheque
9.15 pm — SYNSPECIES: Asbu, AV performance @ Kino Šiška (Katedrala Hall) / Festival opening
10 pm — Tadej Droljc: Fracture Point, AV installation @ Kino Šiška (Komuna Hall)* / Festival opening
THURSDAY, 15 May
12 –8 pm — Tadej Droljc: Fracture Point, AV installation @ Kino Šiška (Komuna Hall)*
4 – 9 pm — VR Point / Boris Labbé: Ito Meikyū@ Slovenian Cinematheque (lecture room)*
5 pm — Vistas I: Is It Past?, curated by the festival team @ Slovenian Cinematheque
7 pm — Composite Landscapes I: Contemporary Australian video/film (curator Sam Mountford) @ Slovenian Cinematheque
9.30 pm — Armand Lesecq: Phosphène, AV performance @ Slovenian Cinematheque
FRIDAY, 16 May
4 – 9 pm — VR Point / Boris Labbé: Ito Meikyū@ Slovenian Cinematheque (lecture room)*
5 pm — Vistas II: Is It Future?, curated by the festival team @ Slovenian Cinematheque
7.30 pm —Boris Labbé: Glass House@ Slovenian Cinematheque
9 pm — Composite Landscapes II: Contemporary Australian video/film (curator Sam Mountford) @ Slovenian Cinematheque
SATURDAY, 17 May
3 pm — Archives and the Search for National (Film) Identity, panel discussion* @ Slovenian Cinematheque
4 – 9 pm — VR Point / Boris Labbé: Ito Meikyū@ Slovenian Cinematheque (lecture room)*
5 pm — Vistas III: Is It Timeless?, curated by the guest curators @ Slovenian Cinematheque
7 pm — Nataša Prosenc Stearns: Between Body and Space III: Vertical Horizon @ Slovenian Cinematheque
9 pm — Matevž Jerman, Jurij Meden: Alpe-Adria Underground! @ Slovenian Cinematheque
_______
Admission according to the Slovenian Cinematheque price list: 4,80 € / free for unemployed people and persons with disability.
Event at Kino Šiška: 10 €
*Free admission
Exhibition From Analogue to Digital on view throughout the festival during the Cinematheque’s café opening hours. It opens an hour before the first screening of the day.
More info at the festival website vfx-ljubljana.si.
Festival Programme Team: Anja Banko, Vesna Bukovec, Peter Cerovšek, Matevž Jerman, Robert Kuret, Gašper Milkovič Biloslav, Varja Močnik, Igor Prassel
Slovenian Cinematheque Team: Anja Banko, Kaja Bohorč, Matevž Jerman, Gašper Milkovič Biloslav, Igor Prassel, Kristina Ravnikar, Nadja Šičarov, Marko Turkuš, Tine Vrabič
Visual Identity and Catalogue Cover Design: Brina Vidic
Catalogue Design: Vesna Bukovec
Catalogue Editors: Anja Banko, Robert Kuret
Proofreading in Slovene: Mojca Hudolin
Text Translation: Maja Lovrenov
Film Translation and Subtitling: Maja Lovrenov, Janina Kos, Diana Jenko
Photos: sodelojoče_i avtorice_ji
Festival Photographer: Asiana Jurca Avci
Video Documentation: Olga Michalik
VR Point: Roman Rus
Website Design: Brina Vidic
Social Media: Juca Bonaca, Lara Plavčak
Production: SCCA-Ljubljana/DIVA Station
Co-production: Slovenian Cinematheque
Festival is supported by: Slovenian Film Centre, a public agency of the Republic of Slovenia; City of Ljubljana – Department of Culture.
VR Point is part of the Open Videosphere project, which is supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana – Department of Culture.
AV performance SYNSPECIES: Asbu is supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.
Festival Partners: Aksioma, AU UNG, AVA, Slovenian Film Database (BSF), CUK Kino Šiška, French Institute in Slovenia, UL AGRFT, UL ALUO
Media Partners: Mladina, Radio Študent
Thanks: Rok Govednik, Jasn Hribernik, Matjaž Ivanišin, Janez Fakin Janša, Jasna Jernejšek, Andrej Kamnik, Društvo Ljudmila, Marcela Okretič, Peter Rauch, Tina Smrekar, Sanja Vatič, Simon Tanšek
