Photo: Realism by Artur Żmijewski, part of Art Directions

47th International Film Festival Rotterdam

24 January- 4 February 2018

Rotterdam, 23 November 2017

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) breaks the boundaries between film and art by complementing its film programme with a cutting-edge selection of exhibitions and installations entitled Art Directions, transecting the entire festival. New ingredient: Frameworks, an annually recurring presentation format shining light on new work by emerging visual artists.

With Frameworks, IFFR intensifies its ties to the art world. From 2018 onwards, the festival will annually invite two renowned visual artists to propose several emerging talents deserving of a larger audience. A jury will then select two Grant Award Winners (referred to as ‘Acolytes’), who will each receive a grant of €10,000 to finish a single-screen audio-visual artwork which will premiere at IFFR.

This year’s Acolytes were put forward by Thai visual artist and Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Cemetery of Splendour) and Chilean conceptual artist Alfredo Jaar (The Sound of Silence). Respectively, they nominated Grant Award Winners Pathompon Tesprateep (Endless, Nameless), a Bangkok-based filmmaker, and Grada Kilomba, a Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist whose solo exhibition Secrets to Tellis currently on display at MAAT, Lisbon. Both emerging artists will present their new work in Rotterdam.

Frameworks makes the implicit dialogue between artists explicit through public talks and presentations during the festival. Each edition will also seek to bring together visual artists, filmmakers, producers, distributors, critics, funds, foundations and collectors to discuss the intersection of film and visual arts.

Within the Art Directions trajectory, the 47th edition of IFFR will feature several new video installations by renowned artists, as part of a range of thematic programmes. In the multi-screen Journey to Russia (1989-2017), Italian artists Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi attempt to recover the history of the Russian avant-garde of the 1920s and ‘30s, and with the international premiere of Realism (2017), thought-provoking Polish artist Artur Żmijewski challenges our conceptions of disability. Żmijewski will be receiving even more time in the spotlight as IFFR 2018 features a comprehensive retrospective of his films from the 1990s to now.

From the moment of arrival at Rotterdam Central Station, visitors can experience the cross-over of art and film in a special film booth jointly installed by IFFR and the Art Rotterdam Week, which screens the audiovisual work Plot Point by Nicolas Provost. From there on out, Art Directions acts as a guide leading visitors along several artworks in the public space and through the many art institutions IFFR has partnerships with, including V2_, TENT, LP2, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Nederlands Fotomuseum and Het Nieuwe Instituut.

IFFR is embracing art in more ways than one, through collaborations with the art world and many unexpected exhibitions and performances throughout the festival. More artists and exhibitions will be announced shortly.IFFR takes place from 24 January to 4 February 2018, in Rotterdam.

The film booth will remain at Rotterdam Central Station from the first day of IFFR until the last day of the Art Rotterdam Week 2018, which takes place from 8 to 12 February.