The Tookit Festival is a project created by the artist Martin Romeo dedicated to interactive arts and its capacities of exploration, research and experimentation through the use of technology and its relationship with the audience. Since its first edition (Venice, 2011) the festival proposed a detailed mapping of the most contemporary researches in the interactive arts field. Over a short period of time it attracted attention and success in the local and national artistic community, involving numerous venetian institutions, as well as professionals in the field of New Media Art.
Realized in collaboration with the A plus A Slovenian Exhibition Centre of Venice, the Festival will propose three days of interactive exhibitions, concerts of experimental music and contemporary dance performances with in order to making this pathway more accessible to the audience. Running parallel to the various events, great importance will be attributed to the didactic aspects of the festival through the presence of two workshops kept by Milanese artists Otolab and Dotdotdot and through a talk dedicated to interactive arts with experts of the field.
More than two hundred artists coming from 34 different nationalities have answered the international open call. Since last year the festival witnessed an outstanding increase of international applicants coming from the United States, Mexico, Brazil, France, Ukraine, Turkey and South Korea. The third edition of the Toolkit Festival sets its sights on becoming increasingly international and to pull along side other events of cultural roots hosted in Venice during the course of the year.
The international artists that will participate to the festival have been selected by a jury made by Karina Smigla Bobinski, Polish interactive artist, Valerio Mannucci, curator and editor of Nero Magazine, Daniele Spanò, curator and representative of the Romaeuropa Foundation and Fausto Tomei, authour of the Volume Arte Interattiva. Teoria e Artisti.
As the previous years, the Festival will be hosted by various places in the city, first of all the A plus A Slovenian Exhibition Center, Palazzo Malipiero and the spaces offered by the Officina delle Zattere. Also the partners sustaining the festival are increasing: the Bevilacqua la Masa Foundation of Venice will host in the spaces of Palazzetto Tito an encounter on the thematics of New Media Art with experts of the sector, while the Ca’ Foscari Digital Week will collaborate with the Festival for the formative workshops.