Valletta Film Festival Presents Cooked Snow

As a new sidebar to the programme, London-based curators Andrew Hancock and Tani Burns of ARTNAKED have chosen a selection of leading international visual artists working in the media of film to present as a series of ‘Art Shorts’. Submissions were received from around the world, and the final curation comprises an impressive roster of critically appraised and award-winning artworks, alongside several artists who have recently been shown in either art biennales or film festivals globally. All artwork to be shown as part of the ‘ARTNAKED Art Shorts’ series is previously unseen on the Maltese islands.

This year’s VFF will include a number of new elements intended to enrich the audience experience and expand it, including a curated strand of video art sourced from around the globe. ARTNAKED, the London-based curators, have been invited by the directors of VFF to curate this series of ‘Art Shorts’, a loop of video or filmic art to be shown in the heart of the city during the festival. Following their recent successes and contributions to the burgeoning art scene and cultural landscape of Malta – including the cultural sponsorship and part-curation of the Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale (November 2015 – January 2016), ARTNAKED’s Directors Andrew Hancock and Tani Burns, are delighted to return to the islands to present new, exciting and unseen content to such a discerning audience. The loop – debuting on Monday 6th June at Café Society in Valletta – will be presented in various public places in Malta’s capital city, Valletta, which gears itself ever more to take on the mantle of European Capital of Culture in 2018.

Cooked Snow (2011) illustrates the limitations of conveying accurate thought (and therefore creating a seamless expression of ‘the self’) when speaking in a third language. ‘Cooked Snow’ shows tableau broken by text, beginning with a serene lake superimposed upon a woman’s torso, moving to a landscape with a fried egg sunset cooked on a buttered stomach. A narrative voice speaking a combination of German and gibberish explains that snow melts and a stomach needs to be shaved. During this descent into the inexplicable, distance is created as the meaning of the voice recedes further and further. The systemic return to disconnected text further implies abstract meaning that attempts to convey sensations beyond the realm of language. Selected in partnership with China Culture Connect (UK) www.chinacultureconnect.org.