Ugo Petronin (b.1985, Aix-en Provence, FR) artist-filmmaker based in Rotterdam.
I try to make art that changes the way we interact and coexist with our natural and technical environment. I am particularly interested in imaging technologies and aquatic ecosystems. In practice, I like to play with the unknown, pushing imaging technologies to produce alternative perceptual and technical relationships with the biophysical world. The resulting artworks are often audiovisual hybrids of film, new media and sensory ethnography. How we make images is
always a central concern in my methodology. Therefore, the technical and the gestural are two of the most important dimensions in my process, and often the sites of my interventions. While this process can change depending of subjects and situations, it consistently balances optimism, subversion and criticism.
On the 2023-24 horizon? Writing and producing a science-fiction film on vision loss and body regeneration, a VR immersive experience driven by biofeedbacks.
I work in cycles, where I investigate a particular technique, phenomenon or place. I have three ongoing research cycles, Gestures of Opening which explores continuous exposure in cinematography, Shallow Cinema that delves into interactions between imagination and Dutch freshwater ecosystems, and Becoming Soma, a collaborative project that experiments with the mechanics of bio/neurofeedback in virtual reality.
My first film Abiding (2019) has been awarded and screened in several international festivals such as Kasseler Dokfest, Oberhausen, Ji.hlava, IndieLisboa, IFFR, GoShort (...). My work is distributed by Eye International, Doc Alliance Films and Blink Video. My ongoing projects are made possible thanks to the support of the Nederlands Filmfonds, Stichting Droom-en-Daad, TETEM, Fonds Kwadraat and Time Window.
I am the founder of the creative studio Leaving Space and a member of the Rotterdam-based art organisation Time Window. I hold a Bachelor in Cinema & Anthropology from Aix-Marseille University and a Master of Fine Arts & Design from the Piet Zwart Institute.
Curious? Come for coffee in the studio I share with filmmaker Ewan Macbeth at Time Window, Teilingerstraat 120, 3032 AW Rotterdam.
EDUCATION
MA Fine Arts & Design, Media Design: Lens Based, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, NL
BA Film Theory & Practice (honours), Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, FR
DipHE Sociology & Anthropology, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, FR
SHORT TRAININGS
Anthropology & Ethnographic Storytelling - Summer School Master Level, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL
Contemporary Photography Theory, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK
Storytelling for Filmmaking, Goldsmiths University, London, UK
FILMOGRAPHY
Ons Land: Reflections (four voices on decolonisation) | 2022 | research/education film | 45' | study case in "Shared Stories on Contested Histories" commissioned by Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCA) & Reinwardt Academie, in collaboration with Museum Sophiahof
Ninfa Fluida | 2022 | experimental documentary | 13' | supported by Stichting Droom en Daad
Abidings | 2022 | experimental tryptych | 3 x 6' | Independent
Abiding | 2019 | experimental | 5' | supported by Piet Zwart Institute
La Dérive | 2018 | Narrative Fiction (student film) | 18' | supported by Aix-Marseille University
DISTRIBUTION
Abiding (2019) distributed by Eye International, Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Abiding (2019) distributed by Doc Alliance Film, dafilms.com, CZ
Abiding (2019) distributed by Blink Video, DE
AWARDS
Best Experimental Film Abiding, Yale Student Film Festival 2020, Yale University, New Haven, USA
Winner Low Light, International Photography Competition - NOKIA x DAZED & CONFUSED, London, UK
GRANTS
2021-22
Stichting Droom en Daad, Makerslocket, Production Grant for the film Ninfa Fluida, NL
PPO, Werktuig voor Ontwikkeling, Professional Developement Fund for Anthropology Summer School, Vrij Universiteit Amsterdam, NL
Bekker-la-Bastide-Fonds, Study Grant, Master Media Design at the Piet Zwart Institute, NL
RESIDENCIES
TETEM Developement Week, Becoming Soma, Enschede, NL
SELECTED SCREENINGS-EXHIBITIONS-PRESENTATIONS
2022
(UPCOMING) Kasseler Dokfest, Distributors Program, Eye Film Selection, DE
2021
67th Oberhausen Film Festival, Distributors Program, Eye Film Selection, DE
Performing the Lens, Collective Exhibition, V2_Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam, NL
2020
Yale Student Film Festival 2020, Yale College of Art & Yale film Alliance, New Haven, USA
IndieLisboa Festival Internacional de Cinema 2020, International Competition, Lisbon, PT
GoShort International Film Festival 2020, Best Dutch Short Film Competition, Nijmegen, NL
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020 x Rauwkost Collectiv, Collective Installation, Rotterdam, NL
Revolution Per Minute Festival, Slice The Eye ! Program, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA
2019
Eye on Art Selected Artist 2019, Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Op de Grens van Landschap en Abstractie, Collective Exhibition, KUUB Gallery, Utrecht, NL
23rd Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Fascinations Competition, Ji.hlava, CZ
Museum Nacht @ M.A.C.A, Installation, NDSM Werf, Amsterdam, NL
Maquette, Photography & Moving Image, Collective Exhibition, Hilton Hotel, Rotterdam, NL
Yamagata University, Department of Film and Media Arts, Yagamata, JP
Pleinbioscoop 2019, En Plein Public, Rotterdam, NL
The Unseen Festival, Counterpath, Denver, USA
Expanding Bauhaus, Screening Series #03, Goethe Institute & Blink Video, Rotterdam, NL
MIASMA II Collaborative screening, Piet Zwart Institute & Royal College of Art, London, UK
MIASMA I Collaborative screening, Royal College of Art & Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, NL