On Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at 4:30 p.m., MAR will host the meeting “The Birth of Video Art” with Carmine Fornari, one of the leading figures in video experimentation in Italy in the 1970s.
The event is part of the Il MAR delle Arti conference series, promoted by the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna in collaboration with the MAR. The program brings together contemporary artistic practices, theoretical research, and the professional world, involving students, cultural operators, and contemporary art enthusiasts.
What will be discussed
The meeting will explore the birth of video art and the evolution of the technological medium up to contemporary languages.
Through his direct experience, Fornari will recount the cultural climate of Florence in the 1970s and the role of audiovisual experimentation in the development of conceptual art.
In the 1970s, Fornari created twelve video art works in collaboration with artists such as Jannis Kounellis, Vito Acconci, and Vincenzo Agnetti. The works, produced by the historic Art/tapes/22 in Florence, were awarded at the Cologne Art Festival and are now part of the collection of the Venice Biennale.
A central point of the conference will be the conception of video art not as simple documentation, but as a shared project between artist and director: an autonomous language capable of visually rendering the concepts of contemporary art.