Listen to the 2017 BFI London Film Festival salons on artists’ film

BFI Experimenta Salon with Anne-Marie Copestake and Shambhavi Kaul
Credit: Stuart Wilson

During the 61st BFI London Film Festival, as part of the Experimenta strand we invited artists and filmmakers with work in the programme, and other festival guests, into the BFI Studio to meet the audience in a series of conversations hosted by our Experimenta programmers. These sessions offered audiences a chance to explore themes and concerns across different films in a relaxed and engaged atmosphere, and in more depth than the post-screening Q&A typically allows. 

The events programme also included a symposium organised in partnership with British Council and Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, University of Westminster, which considers contemporary and historical artists’ film in Asia. 

You can listen to recordings of all of these events below.

Experimenta Salon with Anne-Marie Copestake and Shambhavi Kaul

For the first of the BFI London Film Festival’s 2017 Experimenta Salons we invited two artists featured in the programme, but who have never met, to discuss their work with Experimenta programmer and director of LUX Benjamin Cook. The Salon explored potential points of connections in Anne-Marie Copestake’s (A Blemished Code) and Shambhavi Kaul’s (Hijacked) work in the context of contemporary moving image practice and in relation to the wider Experimenta programme.

Experimenta Salon with Filipa César and Narimane Mari

Questions of how international artists’ film engages with political realities and histories were the focus for this Experimenta Salon bringing together artists Filipa César (Spell Reel) and Narimane Mari (Le Fort des Fous) in conversation with Experimenta programmer Helen de Witt. The conversation explored legacies of violent expansionism by European colonial powers, questions of migration and the failure of current economic systems.

Experimenta Salon with Chen Zhou in conversation with Erika Balsom

Join NEW:VISION Award-winning artist Chen Zhou in conversation with art critic, researcher and senior lecturer at King’s College London Erika Balsom. This salon takes Chen’s Life Imitation as a starting point for a conversation about identity, subjectivity and desire in a technologically mediated world where the fragility of the self intersects with the hyper-stereotyped gender roles of online representations.

Experimenta Salon: Anatomy of an artist’s film production with Andrea Luka Zimmerman

Focusing on Andrea Luka Zimmerman’s creative process in making her new long form work Erase and Forget, this salon event examines the production history of the film. Chair Experimenta programmer Helen de Witt is joined by the artist, and members of her team, producers Ameenah Ayub Allen, Gareth Evans, Marta Michalowska, and editor Taina Galis for an illustrative conversation that forensically examines the complex production journey of the incredible Erase and Forget.

BFI Experimenta Symposium: Artists’ film in Asia

A wide-ranging discussion on the past, present and future of artists’ film in Asia with curators and artists active in the region. The symposium explores current initiatives, considering the national contexts in which the panellists work. Chaired by writer, curator and academic May Adadol Ingawanij with Hung Tran Duy, writer, curator and producer (Vietnam), Manshur Zikri, curator and researcher (Indonesia), Shai Heredia, artist and director of Experimenta India.