Video art festival opens in Moscow and Samara

The international festival of video art, Now&After, has kicked off at both Moscow’s Museum of Gulag History and the Victoria Gallery in Samara, featuring work that explores this year’s theme of memory. Videos exploring how memory is passed on from generation to generation and across time will be screened as part of a multi-channel video installation in both museums. This year’s theme is linked to the location of the festival in Moscow’s Museum of Gulag History with many of the videos looking at memory and trauma.

In an interview with The Calvert Journal, Marina Fomenko, the curator of Now&After, said the festival received more than 1,000 submissions. She added: “We dedicated the festival to the concept of memory, in particular related to gulags, because this symbolises one of the most tragic pages in Russian history. We focused on memory because it migrates from generation to generation, from person to person, between social groups and nations.”

The exhibition features work from video artists from around the world who explore topics such as childhood memories of Father Christmas, Japanese comfort women during the Second World War, the relationship between photography and memory, and the human need to conserve memory.

Now&After will be in Samara until 20 April and Moscow until 30 April, after which the festival will go on tour to the Angelholm International Video Art Festival in Sweden.