UM showcases and presents international and experimental intermedia art practices. The works selected for UM focus on our contemporary worlds, cultures and lifestyles. Emphasis is placed on how technology and digital craft mediates, reveals and extends our senses, emotions and perceptions.
Approach
UM focuses on the aesthetic expression and communication of ideas. Within the exhibition, club and performance programme, this is acheived through the presentation of work by establisehd and emerging artists and musicians. Contributions from other fields such as science, architecture, design, the humanities and social science are presented in the talks and workshop schedule.
UM is realised with the support of various funders and in partnership with artists, producers, curators and promoters who work across formal and independent artistic spaces, cultural and educational institutions.
Each year the festival is guided by a theme, which influences the type of work selected. Themes to date:
2008: Gesture
2009: Landscape: Using Your Illusions
2011: Desire
History
Established in Lisbon, in 2008, the first and second edition of UM took the form of a four-day festival, plus a three week exhibition, which included – opening exhibition, workshops, talks, concerts, performances and public art commissions.
In 2011 the festival format changes, given the emphasis on desire and it’s fleeting, momentary quality. In saying ‘yes’ to the instant, we say yes to the potential fullness and messiness of our existence. For this reason the event will run as a concentrated, one day and one night only event.
UM 2011 will take place in two new cities, attracting new audiences and working in new spaces in Dublin, Ireland and Oporto, Portugal.
UM is directed by Teresa Dillon, Polar Produce.
