PRESS RELEASE June 2016
ARTNAKED PRESENTS ‘ART SHORTS’ At the Valletta Film Festival 2016
Still from “Green” by Sebastian Kite
Debut: Monday 6th June, from 10pm Café Society, 13 St Johns Street, Valletta VLT 1168, Malta Following the success of the inaugural edition of Valletta Film Festival (VFF) in June 2015, Film Grain Foundation presents the second edition of the festival from Friday 3rd to Saturday 11th June 2016. As a new sidebar to the programme, London-based curators Andrew Hancock and Tani Burns of ARTNAKED have chosen a selection of leading international visual artists working in the media of film to present as a series of ‘Art Shorts’. Submissions were received from around the world, and the final curation comprises an impressive roster of critically appraised and award-winning artworks, alongside several artists who have recently been shown in either art biennales or film festivals globally. All artwork to be shown as part of the ‘ARTNAKED Art Shorts’ series is previously unseen on the Maltese islands. Encompassing animation, puppetry, abstract and surrealist video artwork, ‘Art Shorts’ juxtaposes the gruesome with the serene, the political with the purely aesthetic. Christopher Gray’s new work, “Death by Chair”, recently announced winner of the prestigious XL Catlin Art Prize, portrays through puppetry the gruesome scene of a medieval torture chamber, in stark contrast to Bongsu Park’s “Lethe River”, a captivating vision of light and movement choreographed through the filming and manipulation of traditional Korean dance, the artist’s interpretation of the Grecian myth alluded to in the work’s title. Wu Xiaohai’s animated drawing, created during a time of social distress in the artist’s natice China, stands as a foretelling of China’s recent and current social issues, while Vasiliisa Forbes presents the objectification of women in pop art and media through a visual arts campaign, stylised in the manner of a 'fashion film'. Andrew Hancock, presenting a fresh cut of his 30 minute contribution to last year’s Moscow Biennale, refers back to the art world itself, a playful, satirical, colourful and illuminating piece, rich in Art History and the struggles of the contemporary arts. Shin Kiwoun, also, considers the notion of value – this time in relation to the value and power of modern commodities, both in their being and in their destruction. TBurnsArts | 18 Bishops Court, 54 Folgate Street, London E1 6UN | 0207 377 5665 | tani@tburnsarts.com