Sara Tirelli (1979) is an artist and filmmaker based in Venice.
She received her MFA in Visual Arts at Faculty of Human Science at University of Bologna, Department of Art, Music and Performing Art in 2003 and in the same year she obtained her Filmmaker Diploma at Scuola Civica di Cinema e Nuovi Media, Politecnico di Milano.
Her videos and artworks have been featured in several exhibitions such as Q16 Quadriennale d’Arte di Roma, Sonje Art Centre of Seoul, Rotterdam Film Festival among others.
In 2017 she won 3rd Prize of Deutsche Bank Award and in the same year she was
selected as Artist in Production in Residency in Sweden where she developed her first VR artwork “Medusa”.

 She has held various panel about her research within immersive storytelling among the others “Bodies, Movement and AI in VR” at Goldsmiths University of London and “Future Narrative” with Laurie Anderson at Film Festival Gothenburg. In 2019 she co-founded the VR Pavilion, an independent curatorial project launched during the 58th Venice Art Biennale preview days. 
Her artistic research explore the processes of visual perception and the links between technology, culture and media.
Her professional activity ranges from indipendent artistic projects to commisioned assignment as freelance director and author for broadcast production and documentaries. 
Artist Statement
I am an artist and filmmaker whose work lays along the border between Art and Cinema. I’m interested in the cinematic experience understood as perceptual and cognitive process and in how the collective imagery and technology shape and redefine the concept of “Reality”. My art practice approach technology not only as a means of representation, but as the object of investigation.
My work is often a critical reflection on media’s power to influence the forms of thought and it is moved by the will to search for historical and political reasons that are hidden behind certain narrative and aesthetic choices. I'm interested in the archeology of the media and the phenomenology of vision to research the processes that define "the act of looking”
and the links between "what is perceived" and "what is real “.
As filmmaker I explore unconventional modes of representation and storytelling  work with  tecnhologies of vision. both as means of exploration, both as means of interpretation and artistic representation.
I’m lately working with immersive fillmmaking with the freedom to experiment in order to speculate on new cinematic format. I see in VR  an artistic tool that speaks the same language of our conscious, thus opening uncontaminated scenario in terms of representation and communication.Throught a critical approach to immersive filmmaking, my work’s goal aims,  rather than an escape into an illusionary world, to open a space of self-awareness in the hyper-mediated perception we have of our society 


Selected Exhibitions and Screenings
2021
Reality Check. VR Imerzivna Stvarnost, curated by Mara Prohaska marković, 8 - 16.9.2021
14. BELDOCS IDFF , Belgrade, Serbia
Robot 12, curated by Elisa Trento, 18-20.6.2021, DumBO, Bologna, Italy
Immensiva VR, curated by Alejandro Martinez, 21 - 26.06.2021 Espronceda Art Center,
Barcelona, Spain
BID 21. Biennale Internazionale delle Donne, curated by Gabriela von Habsburg e Pamela Barry, 12.05 - 30.07.2021 Magazzino 26, Trieste, Italy
INTRA MUNDI curated by Dores Sacquegna, 16 -30.6 2021 Fondazione Palmieri, Lecce, Italia
2020
The Eye of the Storm, curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini,  1.12 - 31.12.2020, Blitz, Valleta, Malta
Litosphere,
curated by Cristiana Perrella, 24.10 - 7.02.2021, Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy
Nowtilus live, curated by Alice Ongaro Sartori, 10.10.2020, Ocean Space by TBA21, Venice
Involving Immersion, curated by Katarina Balunova, 13. - 29.08.2020, Kunsthalle, Hala Umenia Košice, Slovakia
Hydra,
solo show curated by Celia Prado, 12.3 - 5.4. 2020, Konstnärhuset, Stockholm, SE
31. Trieste Film Festival, VR official selection, 
17 - 22.01.2020, Teatro Rossetti, Trieste, Italy
2019
Libere Tutte, curated by Daniele Capra and Giuseppe Frangi, 23.11.2019 - 16.2.2020,
Casa Testori, Novate Milanese, Italy
Yoni Fest,
9.11.2019, Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles, USA
Barcelona International Short Film and Video Festival,
6-7.10.2019, Barcelona, Spain
Longing , curated by Haraon, 9.8 - 24.8.2019, Chameleon Gallery, New York City, USA
Lago Film Fest, curated by Carlo Sala23.7.2019, Revine Lago, Treviso, Italy
VR Pavilion Launch,
a demo floating  project by Sara Tirelli and Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Commisioner:  The Nordic Art Association 9.5.2019 @ 58th International Art Bienal Off,  Venice, Italy 
A Vanish World ,
screening by Beatrice Bulgari for the In Between Art, curated by Paola Ugolini, 12.4 - 7.4.2019  Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy
Medusa. A VR Experience in 2 acts,
solo show curated by Jonatan Habib Engqvist, 31.1 - 11.8.2019, Borås KonstMuseum, Sweden 
2018
Etherea, curated by Derrick de Kerchove, Viana Conti, Virigina Monteverde, Mediateca Santa Teresa, Milan, Italy
Fragmented Vision,
curated by Vanina Saracino, Musrara Mix Festival, Jerusalem, Israel
The Body Link,
curated by Sonia Arata, Red Stamp Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Antidiluviano,
curated by Laura Lecce, Pelagica, Milan, Italy
13 Festivalen, curated by Jill Lindström and Anne Carlsson, Konstepidemin, Gothenburg, Sweden
Open Ocean Space TBA21 X COP23 curated by Vanina Saracino, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
2017
Edge Effect, curated by Jenni Nurmenniemi and Bora Hong, Sonje Art Center, Seoul, South Korea
Imprevedibile,
curated by Cristiana Perrella, Fondazione Golinello, Bologna, Italy 
Macht Kunst! City Video Future, presented by UFA and Deutsche Bank, Long Night of Museums Berlin, Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany
Impossibility of an Island,
curated by Vanina Saracino, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk, Poland 
Etherea, curated by Virginia Monteverdi, Derrick De Kerckhove and Viana Conti, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy 
GstaadFilm Festival, curated by Marc Rome, Centro Cultural Terminal Goes, Montevideo, Uruguay
Dryphoto
, curated by Chiara Ruberi, Dryphoto Arte Contemporanea, Prato, Italy 
Edipo Re, curated by Kino Roma, 74.Internationl Film Festival Venice, Italy
Nctm e l’Arte, curated by Gabi Scardi, Studio Legale Nctm, Milan, Italy
Biennale del Cortometraggio, curated by Andrea Bruciati, Vicenza, Italy
Landscape,
curated by Anna Daneri, Start Premio Matteo Oliviero, Antico Palazzo di Saluzzo, Italy
2016
16.Rome Quadriennale, curated by Marta Papini, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, italy Finalists of Eneganart, Palazzo Bastogi, Florence, Italy
Aesthetic of Power, curated by Denis Maksimov, IKONOTV, Berlin, GermanyA/Rrivederci Roma, curated by Vashti Ali, Maria Elena Ciulio, Marta Federici e Maria Giovanna Verga, Rome, Italy
Fast Forward, curated by Valeria Farill, Florence, Italy
Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival, curated by Daniela Manzolli,Venice, Italy
2015
Lo schermo dell’arte - opening video, curated by Silvia Lucchesi, Cinema Odeon, Florence, Italy
Viva la Dimanche! curated by Gino Giannuizzi, Casa Bianca, Bologna, Italy
Art Souvenir, curated by Cecilia Tirelli, La Fenice Galleri, Venice, Italy
2014
Video Art Mieden Festival, curated by Jose Vieira, Kalamata, Greece
Souvenir from the Earth, curatedy by Alec Crichton, Paris, France
Cologne OFF V-kunst, curated by Wilfried Agricola, Cologne, Germany
Pitchfork Art & Music Festival, London, UK
2013 
Fest Film Festival, Espino, Portugal
Cà Foscari Short Film Festival, curated by Daniela Manzolli, Venice, Italy
L’altro Sguardo, curated by Giovanni Gastel, Triennale di Milano, Italy
2011
Opera 2010, curated by Angela Vettese and Stefano Coletto, Fondazione Spinola Banna, Turin, Italy
Collettiva Giovani Artisti, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy
2010
12. International Architecture Biennal, Studi Carminati Venice, Italy
IFFR, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Expanded Cinema, Rotterdam, NL


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