Nowadays we are accustomed to living in symbiosis with our smartphone screens.

Looking at the phone and being sucked into a vortex of visual stimuli, heterogeneous and without hierarchy, is a way of “passing through the mirror” to an alternative reality consisting of pixels and arrays.

The historical moment in which we live is witness to the convergence of the real and digital worlds: whenever we use a navigator to get around or try an Instagram filter, we are seeing the physical world through a technological lens. 

Countless artists over the past thirty years have worked on this theme and developed works of art which, beginning with a critical reflection on the relationship between real and digital, construct a synthetic representation of the world in which we live.

Unreel is an exploration of digital art that is expressed through the production of videos, animations, and renderings posted on social media: ideally.

The exhibition venue is inside The Gate: two monumental technological installations with state-of-the-art high-tech screens that form a digital link uniting Bergamo and Brescia. A bridge between the two cities with a high technological and communicative content, capable of connecting the citizens and visitors of Bergamo and Brescia

The Gate of Brescia and Bergamo represents a gateway to a virtual reality, which coexists with the physical reality that surrounds us.

Unreel is a showcase of digital art created in public spaces, which everyone can enjoy.

The showcase is curated by Valentina Tanni: art historian, curator and lecturer, whose research has concentrated on the relationship between art and technology for more than 20 years, with a special focus on web cultures.

Unreel brings to Bergamo and Brescia a selection of young international artists of heterogeneous backgrounds and training, united by their work in digital media and the ability to present a different reality through the tools of computer graphics, 3D modelling and programming.

As part of the calendar of events for Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2023, Unreel represents an important moment of reflection on how cultural enjoyment of avant-garde content may intersect with public spaces and will be, in this sense, one of Italy’s most innovative experiences.