The heart of cinema has always been the joy of collaboration and exchange, shaping stories together that in turn shapes us continuously throughout our lives. BaseCamp is an experiment to nurture this spirit, testing how spontaneous connections and critical dialogue between us can unfold at a leisurely pace within the atmosphere of Locarno Film Festival.
Taking the form of a multidisciplinary artistic residency and a co-learning platform, we welcome emerging talents who would like to engage with the festival meaningfully, not only with cinema but with other forms of art, humanities, science, nature, and everything in between. Over the 11 days of the festival, 200 participants will share space and time with each other and will be free to carve their own path through BaseCamp’s curated program which consists of workshops, masterclasses, artistic productions, performances, and public discussions.
We allow our curiosity to follow diverging threads that lead to fortuitous encounters. In the past, these have included a collective writing session by the creek, foraging natural ingredients to create a perfume scent, organizing a 24-hour talk on the future of attention, and many more. This form of knowledge-making through participation and dialogue is what we hope to spark between BaseCampers, and for it to become a formative part of their creative wayfaring.
In a large, vibrant festival that often creates barriers for a diverse range of people to engage deeply with one other, it is crucial to have a public space where connections and free learning can take place. During the festival, the space of BaseCamp is open for all who wish to join our public programs. Under the tree shades, among the relaxing lounge chairs and beanbags, and within the echoes of castle walls, boundaries between creators and spectators dissolve, a branch of idea bears its fruit, a surprise dinner is served, and everyone leaves the garden with something precious to take home with them.
In a way, we recognize this ecology of relationships that happen among diverse elements, and it can grow into something unpredictable and beautiful if given space. Reflecting on our journey since 2019, we decided to look towards gardening as a method that encapsulates the way we have been caring for this space: the cultivation of spontaneous growth and an attunement to natural rhythms, rather than the imposition of rigid and extractive geometries.
A garden is never set in stone, a constant oscillation between intentions of care and other unpredictable forces that lends a hand to its growth. In each edition, BaseCamp’s shape and form has been constantly in flux, as we are directly shaped by the echoes and actions of everyone and everything who takes part in it.
As we commune under the warmth of sun, trailing towards green spaces and bodies of water scattered around Locarno, we acknowledge our entanglement with environment, politics, and other nonhuman forces that will always be greater than us. As a tiny garden inside of a film festival, we wish to extend the dialogue between cinema and the rest of the world.
“When my friend sent me this opportunity—without sounding cheesy—I felt like I was meant to be in that space, being stimulated by other creatives, especially given the transitional period I'm in right now."
“The dazed 3 a.m. bus rides after dancing the nights away, watching strange comedies in the pouring rain beneath leopard-print ponchos, and drinking espressos to stimulate ethical thinking—it’s all so far removed from my usual life that it feels like something that happened to someone else. Yet I keep looking back over the Instagram highlights of the stories I posted (149 in total!), which remind me: no, we were right there, living the movie magic.”
"No words can describe how groundbreaking it was for this stage of my career - I am beyond grateful to have been selected, and the entire team is legend forall the warmth you’ve shared with us. I will never forget this experience, from the first day of chopping some of the most delicious
tomatoes of my life.”
“The program! The curation! The soft hand lending the threads for us
to weave them together! Between the radio, the library, the stage, the
bar, the tent, and this middle tree that witnessed so much, there
are few places that can claim to be a beating heart as much as
BaseCamp. And it was sexy too! (in the sense that you’d never
know what would happen, but chance would always find a way to
stroke you)."
“Did you ever see 8,000 people crying at once because of a movie?
Every day, when we asked ourselves how life was, we had one answer:
Life is good.”
BaseCamp is part of
This project is possible thanks to
Creative Partner
With the support of
In partnership with
Locarno Film Festival main Partners
Institutional Partner
Destination Partner
The heart of cinema has always been the joy of collaboration and exchange, shaping stories together that in turn shapes us continuously throughout our lives. BaseCamp is an experiment to nurture this spirit, testing how spontaneous connections and critical dialogue between us can unfold at a leisurely pace within the atmosphere of Locarno Film Festival.
Taking the form of a multidisciplinary artistic residency and a co-learning platform, we welcome emerging talents who would like to engage with the festival meaningfully, not only with cinema but with other forms of art, humanities, science, nature, and everything in between. Over the 11 days of the festival, 200 participants will share space and time with each other and will be free to carve their own path through BaseCamp’s curated program which consists of workshops, masterclasses, artistic productions, performances, and public discussions.
We allow our curiosity to follow diverging threads that lead to fortuitous encounters. In the past, these have included a collective writing session by the creek, foraging natural ingredients to create a perfume scent, organizing a 24-hour talk on the future of attention, and many more. This form of knowledge-making through participation and dialogue is what we hope to spark between BaseCampers, and for it to become a formative part of their creative wayfaring.
In a large, vibrant festival that often creates barriers for a diverse range of people to engage deeply with one other, it is crucial to have a public space where connections and free learning can take place. During the festival, the space of BaseCamp is open for all who wish to join our public programs. Under the tree shades, among the relaxing lounge chairs and beanbags, and within the echoes of castle walls, boundaries between creators and spectators dissolve, a branch of idea bears its fruit, a surprise dinner is served, and everyone leaves the garden with something precious to take home with them.
In a way, we recognize this ecology of relationships that happen among diverse elements, and it can grow into something unpredictable and beautiful if given space. Reflecting on our journey since 2019, we decided to look towards gardening as a method that encapsulates the way we have been caring for this space: the cultivation of spontaneous growth and an attunement to natural rhythms, rather than the imposition of rigid and extractive geometries.
A garden is never set in stone, a constant oscillation between intentions of care and other unpredictable forces that lends a hand to its growth. In each edition, BaseCamp’s shape and form has been constantly in flux, as we are directly shaped by the echoes and actions of everyone and everything who takes part in it.
As we commune under the warmth of sun, trailing towards green spaces and bodies of water scattered around Locarno, we acknowledge our entanglement with environment, politics, and other nonhuman forces that will always be greater than us. As a tiny garden inside of a film festival, we wish to extend the dialogue between cinema and the rest of the world.
“Did you ever see 8,000 people crying at once because of a movie?
Every day, when we asked ourselves how life was, we had one answer:
Life is good.”
“The program! The curation! The soft hand lending the threads for us
to weave them together! Between the radio, the library, the stage, the
bar, the tent, and this middle tree that witnessed so much, there
are few places that can claim to be a beating heart as much as
BaseCamp. And it was sexy too! (in the sense that you’d never
know what would happen, but chance would always find a way to
stroke you)."
"No words can describe how groundbreaking it was for this stage of my career - I am beyond grateful to have been selected, and the entire team is legend forall the warmth you’ve shared with us. I will never forget this experience, from the first day of chopping some of the most delicious
tomatoes of my life.”
“The dazed 3 a.m. bus rides after dancing the nights away, watching strange comedies in the pouring rain beneath leopard-print ponchos, and drinking espressos to stimulate ethical thinking—it’s all so far removed from my usual life that it feels like something that happened to someone else. Yet I keep looking back over the Instagram highlights of the stories I posted (149 in total!), which remind me: no, we were right there, living the movie magic.”
“When my friend sent me this opportunity—without sounding cheesy—I felt like I was meant to be in that space, being stimulated by other creatives, especially given the transitional period I'm in right now."
BaseCamp is part of
This project is possible thanks to
Creative Partner
With the support of
In partnership with
Locarno Film Festival main Partners
Institutional Partner
Destination Partner
