Flatform, That which is to come is just a promise, 2019
Quello che verrà è solo una promessa (That which is to come is just a promise), 2019, digital video, 2K, 22 mins Selected by GAMeC, Bergamo
Land and water are the protagonists of That which is to come is just a promise (2019) by Flatform, at least as much as the people and the things that suffer their changes. In a long sequence through Funafuti, one of Tuvalu archipelago’s islands where the sea rises from the ground and floods it, the state of drought and flooding alternate fluidly, and without interruption. The places and the actions of the inhabitants, in the constant and smooth movement from one state to another, set-aside two recurring situations in the island: anticipation and surprise.
Artist Q&A
Where are you from and how did you become interested in moving image work?
Flatform is an Italian collective artist. For us, moving images are a medium that corresponds perfectly to Flatform’s poetics. That is to say, it is the most exhaustive possible medium of an artistic research aimed at the detection of the non-exhaustive. In other words, moving images interest us for their possibility of allowing us to bring out the Real by composing and decomposing reality.
What inspired/influenced you to make the work?
The possibility of showing the always dazzling transition from anticipation to surprise in a place defined by an irreversible situation.
What are you working on at the moment?
We are working on a new project that will have to be realized in the place where a natural effect, unique in the world, shows how the atmospheric affects the possibilities of vision in an extreme and unifying way.
Flatform is a collective artist based in Milan and Berlin, founded in Milan in 2006.
Works by Flatform have been shown in many museums and institutions including, among others, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, MAXXI Museum in Rome, EMPAC Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center in Troy NY, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Argos Centre for Arts in Bruxelles, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, MSU-Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Cineteca Matadero in Madrid, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, Museu da Imagem e do Som in San Paolo, PAC in Milan.
Flatform has been invited in several film festivals including, among others, Quinzaine des Realisateurs de Cannes, Venice Intl. Film Festival, IFFR in Rotterdam, BFI Film Festival in London, LOOP in Barcelona, Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, Lo Schermo dell’Arte in Florence, IFF in Melbourne. Selected Awards: Go Shorts in Nijmegen 2020 and 2016; Nashville Intl Film Festival 2016, Jihlava Intl Doc Film Festival 2015, Lago Film festival 2010 in Lago, 25FPS 2009 in Zagreb, Screen Festival 2008 in Oslo.