n[ever]land
international meetings

second edition

MACRO al Mattatoio April 4th-5th-6th 2003

yesterday: first edition

today: preparation

Due to the refurbishing of Palazzo delle Esposizioni an alternative location for the second edition had to be found. Danilo Eccher, director of MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, whom we had met during last year's edition of n[ever]land, has shown great interest in hosting this year's event in the new pavilions of the museum in Mattatoio di Testaccio.
n[ever]land 2003 will repeat last year's 3-day formula, opening at 4 p.m. until 12 p.m., on the 4th -5th -6th of April 2003.

tomorrow: second edition

Leaving the three-area structure unaltered (Digital Screens, Digital Archives and Digital Classrooms) and considering the inevitable uncertainty that goes with this preparatory phase, we can nevertheless draw up a first draft of programme to include: from Brooklyn Museum of Art of New York, a showcase of Brooklyn International Film Festival, this year at its sixth edition, with a wide selection of digital productions presented in previous editions of this contest;
Continuing its long lasting world tour, RES Fest 2002, review of filmmaking sponsored by the very famous RES Magazine, for the first time in Rome after touring San Francisco, New York, Bristol, Los Angeles, Paris and Barcelona and on its way to London, Tokyo, Osaka, Seul, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro;
In collaboration with director Giulietta Fara, the Roman showcase of Future Film Festival of Bologna, the most important event in Italy dedicated to the new technologies applied to filmmaking, at its 7th edition, with a special screening of “Hotel” by Mike Figgis (2001), which has never been screened in Italian movie theaters, entirely filmed in MiniDV in the Venice Lido during the Festival, a film with an outstanding cast, including John Malcovich, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Burt Reynolds, Valeria Golino, Salma Hayek, Ornella Muti and many more;
For the second year, in collaboration with Cinecittà Holding, a presentation of the best three productions screened at this year's Cinecittà Digital contest;
in collaboration with Maria Grazia Mattei , ACM and MGM Digital Communications, most important events, both Italian and foreign will be presented during the meetings in Rome: first off, the 2002 edition of Siggraph (one of the most famous computer art events in the world, which this year has gathered talented artist from all over the world in San Antonio, Texas);
from Valenciennes, France, E-Magiciens - The European Gathering of Young Digital Creation, an important meeting that presents the development of the utilization of digital creativity in schools across Europe;
n[ever]land's first edition collaboration with Università degli Studi La Sapienza di Roma – Major in Tecniche dello Spettacolo Digitale, continues presenting a project in progress which gathers the Roman University, Paolo Grassi school of acting and Studio Azzurro in Milan;
collaboration with Prof. Luca Ruzza (professor of Digital Set design in la Sapienza University in Rome), presentation of Project Hyperopticon, developed with Digital Theatre Department of Aarhus university in Denmark and the symposium called ” The Space of Music “, organized with the Danish company Operanord, a collaboration with The Nordic Centre of Performing Arts and The Royal Danish Opera of Copenhagen, a work in progress which will be completed by June 2003;
with regards to Digital Archives, besides last year's guests, dr.Fausto Bernardini of Visual Technologies Department of IBM has been contacted for the presentation of some important projects, in progress or completed: Egyptian Cultural Heritage Web Project, working towards a digitalization of the Cairo Museum, in collaboration with the Egyptian Minister for Culture and for Communication and Technological Information;
Prof. Jack Wasserman of Temple University of Philadelphia and the Florence Pietà Project, a high-definition reconstruction of Michelangelo's most famous masterpiece through 3-D scanner; and finally an online presentation of the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
With regards to the extraordinary Russian museum, in collaboration with director Federico Greco, Mikado distribution and the Cultural Bureau of the Embassy of Russian Federation, director Alexander Sokurov has been invited with his “The Russian Ark ”, a film which is the first real total single take in the history of filmmaking, one 90-minute long single take filmed in the Hermitage oneiric labyrinth, an efford made possible by the development of digital technology applied to filming and its highly creative utilization.
Finally, as in the first edition, n[ever]land's programme includes different realities which cannot be properly placed in any of the three areas. For instance, digital technologies have caused a revolution in human rights: thanks to Witness.org, an organization created by Peter Gabriel among others, many movements defending human rights are provided with cameras to gather documentary evidence of violation of human rights in their own countries. These films will be used as evidence in legal suit.
A collaboration with New York's Kairos Theatre and Sam Gregory of Witness.org presents some of these very important documents.

The event is also sponsored by the Cultural Bureaus of the Embassies of countries involved, and will rely on the collaboration and partecipation of Cultural Associations and No Profit Organizations in Italy and from abroad which share an interest in spreading and investigating a digital culture in Italy as well as in the rest of the world, relating it to the most diverse uses in art and communication(i.e., from New York City, Kairos Theatre, GLB Presents and Casa Italiana Zerilli Marinò in NY University, Associazione Trio Alma MAHLER, Associazione Culturale OTTOBRE, LUXFERO and many others).