Micro-cinema of attractions: GIF art imageries and creative techniques
‘Micro-cinema of attractions – GIF art imageries and creative techniques’ is an exhibition project realized in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Nicolas Boillot
Curatorial Statement:
The experience of early silent cinema unfolds as a cabinet of curious cinematographic techniques and spectacular fictions. The exhibition draws an analogy between the concept of Tom Gunning ‘cinema of attractions’ on the early phase of silent cinema (1907-1913) and GIF art.
Cinema of attractions refers to the nascent features of silent films which captivated viewers with striking moving images, before its liaison with the diegetic formats of theatre and literature did take over the medium. It is an era of creative imagery productions, where exhibitionist and unconventional fictions were less of telling stories than experimenting with moving images in their extreme potential.
‘Micro-cinema of attractions’ explores new concepts of space and time which are being formed in contemporary GIF art, focusing less on typical storytelling modes and more on GIF artworks as self-enclosed aesthetic micro-worlds.
GIF art employs radical and unusual creative techniques and imageries, reinforcing obsolete cinematic and artistic forms, applying avant-garde concepts, freely copying, decontextualizing and defying or defining norms, while also generating a highly shareable content which is massively propagated through social networks.
‘Micro-cinema of attractions’ -Exhibition catalogue
‘Micro-cinema of attractions’ is a collaboration between ARTos Foundation and the Moving Silence Platform. The project is taking place within the framework of the Con-temporary Urbanity programme as part of the broader initiative Artecitya Nicosia, with the support of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Goethe-Institut and the Creative Europe Programme.
The exhibition catalogue is published in printed, electronic and interactive epub format (GIFs displayed in motion) (link to download). It presents GIF artworks of the invited and participated artists together with curatorial texts about GIF art and an insight into the programme that included a GIF exhibition in the space of ARTos Foundation, a drop in workshop on how to design analogue GIFs and an urban tour with pop-up projections of GIF art in the old city of Nicosia. With a view to foster GIF creation, the programme included also an open call and an award.
