BaseCamp, the Locarno Film Festival's interdisciplinary artistic research initiative, returns for its seventh edition. A temporary community of creative and thinkers, BaseCamp is a laboratory experimentation, encounters, and the ideas that will shape tomorrow.
A space for collective learning and experimentation
See the full Programme and follow us daily @festival_basecamp
Since 2019, the project has fostered interdisciplinary collaborations and collective learning through workshops, masterclasses, performances, and discussions, inviting artists and audiences alike to imagine new possibilities for cinema and culture.
Like wild grass pushing through cracks in the pavement, BaseCamp has steadily grown within the Festival, moving over the years from the former military barracks in Losone to the former convent of Sant'Eugenio.
This year, it arrives at the very heart of the Festival between the Castello Visconteo and Museo Casorella, bringing together diverse voices to coexist in the spirit of mutual respect and collective learning.
Throughout the ten days of the Festival, the castle and the museum will be home to BaseCamp’s continually evolving art exhibition and programme. Complete installations are exhibited along with films developed from previous BaseCamp residencies, as well as works that will gradually unfold during and after the exhibition. Each day, a performance invites its audience to complete it, a newly printed sentence responds to a moment in time, and a screening room becomes the site for a series of open questions. The space continually reshapes itself, like a repertoire that can never be performed in the exact same way twice.
A Living Programme of Art & Cinema
The programme features installations and performances spread throughout the museum and castle, accommodating and gently responding to the site’s existing structure and historical resonance: Obstruction, a solo exhibition by Caterina De Nicola curated by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen; a the group exhibition A Choir is a Garden at Museo Casorella featuring works by Ishita Chakraborty, Dimitri Gorbaty, Martino Santori, alongside a screening room curated by Future (of) Together conference that presents a rotating selection of audiovisual works set in dialogue with each other to reflect on the idea of togetherness.The project also includes the BaseCamp Library, an intentionally crafted reading space housing more than 300 books by international artists and publishers, with a particular focus on independent and self-published titles, freely accessible throughout the Festival. With the handpicked programme and many possible paths to follow, every day at BaseCamp unfolds a little differently. All events are free, and in the company of our bar run by Soleggiata, everyone is welcome to gather, pause, and see where the desire path takes us...
When was the last time you made a pinky promise?
A promise is a bond of trust, made in a moment of tenderness, with confidence in our ability to keep it and faith in the future. For seven years, we promised to respect the freedom of friends and comrades to play, create, experiment, and care for each other. Trust brought them to our grounds to share stories and practices. In a world that promises much along a straight line, that trust is often violated, leading to destruction, exploitation, and fatigue. This makes our wayfaring practices necessary, and community trust more valuable than ever. This year we reflect on this at Castello Visconteo, a place shaped over time from fortress to prison, school, museum, and now gathering space. Its walls also hold traces of anonymous drawings and graffiti—desire lines of others who passed through. Within these walls, we continue to honor our promise of respect and collective learning, carrying it beyond the castle into everyday life, building alongside what already exists rather than replacing it.
Exhibitions & Performance
Live concerts & Dj sets
Anna Simonetti, Caterina De Nicola (curated by Fredi Fischli & Niels Olsen), Dimitri Gorbaty, Guerrilla Spam, Ishita Chakraborty, Martina Casey (in collaboration with Refusés), Martino Santori, Sarah Baumgartner (in collaboration with Refusés), Simone Bozzelli, Sophia Schweizer, Weronika Wolińska. Vis-à-Vis / Twice Told: an audiovisual installation conceived within the framework of the Future (of) Together conference, featuring Äsel Kadyrkhanova, Felix Sobolev, Hira Nabi, Nitin Bathla & Klearjos Eduardo Papanicolaou, Rosa Menkman, Shaina Anand (CAMP), Ursula Biemann, Ute Holl & Peter Ott. Performances & Performances: BookOrchestra Expanded, CAMP / Shaina Anand, Caterina De Nicola, Hongxi Li & Lulu Wang, Lisa Laurent, Maryam Tafakory, NEOZOON. Conversations: 6ª Biennale Svizzera del Territorio; Ishita Chakraborty & Francesca Benini. Design: Studio Dispo, Hafner Büro, Flora Pagliarani, Dario Auget & Dario Erkelens.
BookOrchestra Expanded, Caterina De Nicola, Hån, Milla Pluton, Dia Beat (Fishnet Collective), Schulze b2b Paul Trona (Fishnet Collective), IZCO, Yakary, Heith, Sam Sala, Outer & Bod Kin (Future (of) Together), GaryChig0o (Transition Radio), Leonore Brunner (Transition Radio), Judy999 (Transition Radio), Talpah b2b Kenshiro (Hundebiss & Zero.eu), Jamira Estrada & Miao Zhao (Hundebiss & Zero.eu), Assyouti, Disse b2b Saetta (Fishnet Collective), DJ MAMIPAPI IMSOBABY
BaseCamp, the Locarno Film Festival's interdisciplinary artistic research initiative, returns for its seventh edition. A temporary community of creative and thinkers, BaseCamp is a laboratory experimentation, encounters, and the ideas that will shape tomorrow.
A space for collective learning and experimentation
See the full Programme and follow us daily @festival_basecamp
Since 2019, the project has fostered interdisciplinary collaborations and collective learning through workshops, masterclasses, performances, and discussions, inviting artists and audiences alike to imagine new possibilities for cinema and culture.
Like wild grass pushing through cracks in the pavement, BaseCamp has steadily grown within the Festival, moving over the years from the former military barracks in Losone to the former convent of Sant'Eugenio.
This year, it arrives at the very heart of the Festival between the Castello Visconteo and Museo Casorella, bringing together diverse voices to coexist in the spirit of mutual respect and collective learning.
Throughout the ten days of the Festival, the castle and the museum will be home to BaseCamp’s continually evolving art exhibition and programme. Complete installations are exhibited along with films developed from previous BaseCamp residencies, as well as works that will gradually unfold during and after the exhibition. Each day, a performance invites its audience to complete it, a newly printed sentence responds to a moment in time, and a screening room becomes the site for a series of open questions. The space continually reshapes itself, like a repertoire that can never be performed in the exact same way twice.
A Living Programme of Art & Cinema
The programme features installations and performances spread throughout the museum and castle, accommodating and gently responding to the site’s existing structure and historical resonance: Obstruction, a solo exhibition by Caterina De Nicola curated by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen; a the group exhibition A Choir is a Garden at Museo Casorella featuring works by Ishita Chakraborty, Dimitri Gorbaty, Martino Santori, alongside a screening room curated by Future (of) Together conference that presents a rotating selection of audiovisual works set in dialogue with each other to reflect on the idea of togetherness.The project also includes the BaseCamp Library, an intentionally crafted reading space housing more than 300 books by international artists and publishers, with a particular focus on independent and self-published titles, freely accessible throughout the Festival. With the handpicked programme and many possible paths to follow, every day at BaseCamp unfolds a little differently. All events are free, and in the company of our bar run by Soleggiata, everyone is welcome to gather, pause, and see where the desire path takes us...
When was the last time you made a pinky promise?
A promise is a bond of trust, made in a moment of tenderness, with confidence in our ability to keep it and faith in the future. For seven years, we promised to respect the freedom of friends and comrades to play, create, experiment, and care for each other. Trust brought them to our grounds to share stories and practices. In a world that promises much along a straight line, that trust is often violated, leading to destruction, exploitation, and fatigue. This makes our wayfaring practices necessary, and community trust more valuable than ever. This year we reflect on this at Castello Visconteo, a place shaped over time from fortress to prison, school, museum, and now gathering space. Its walls also hold traces of anonymous drawings and graffiti—desire lines of others who passed through. Within these walls, we continue to honor our promise of respect and collective learning, carrying it beyond the castle into everyday life, building alongside what already exists rather than replacing it.
Exhibitions & Performance
Anna Simonetti, Caterina De Nicola (curated by Fredi Fischli & Niels Olsen), Dimitri Gorbaty, Guerrilla Spam, Ishita Chakraborty, Martina Casey (in collaboration with Refusés), Martino Santori, Sarah Baumgartner (in collaboration with Refusés), Simone Bozzelli, Sophia Schweizer, Weronika Wolińska. Vis-à-Vis / Twice Told: an audiovisual installation conceived within the framework of the Future (of) Together conference, featuring Äsel Kadyrkhanova, Felix Sobolev, Hira Nabi, Nitin Bathla & Klearjos Eduardo Papanicolaou, Rosa Menkman, Shaina Anand (CAMP), Ursula Biemann, Ute Holl & Peter Ott. Performances & Performances: BookOrchestra Expanded, CAMP / Shaina Anand, Caterina De Nicola, Hongxi Li & Lulu Wang, Lisa Laurent, Maryam Tafakory, NEOZOON. Conversations: 6ª Biennale Svizzera del Territorio; Ishita Chakraborty & Francesca Benini. Design: Studio Dispo, Hafner Büro, Flora Pagliarani, Dario Auget & Dario Erkelens.
Live concerts & Dj sets
BookOrchestra Expanded, Caterina De Nicola, Hån, Milla Pluton, Dia Beat (Fishnet Collective), Schulze b2b Paul Trona (Fishnet Collective), IZCO, Yakary, Heith, Sam Sala, Outer & Bod Kin (Future (of) Together), GaryChig0o (Transition Radio), Leonore Brunner (Transition Radio), Judy999 (Transition Radio), Talpah b2b Kenshiro (Hundebiss & Zero.eu), Jamira Estrada & Miao Zhao (Hundebiss & Zero.eu), Assyouti, Disse b2b Saetta (Fishnet Collective), DJ MAMIPAPI IMSOBABY