Abandoned art and the “mini-festival” in Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival organized a three-day “mini film fest” as a “declaration of love” for culture. The organizers want the festival to help the region in tough times and an encouragement for the cinema industry. In the absence of most international movie stars, the spectators were invited to walk the famous red carpet. The organizers plan to hold the next edition in May 2021, as it was usually done, and they hope it will have a usual, full program. It remains unsure whether it will be possible.

A group of artists initiated a project that would map all the abandoned art events of 2020. They intend to create a time capsule that keeps a record of the cultural activities that were lost due to the pandemic. It allows the page visitors to click on the given project and learn about it. The idea is to show what we’ve lost during that year in terms of artistic value, as the world usually focuses on the economical one. The research made in Australia in April 2020 showed that even 75% of those employed in the creative and performing sectors might lose their jobs.

Alarm Will Sound is an American music ensemble of artists from five states who used online tools to give a web concert together. Each of the performers had to be logged to two different video conferencing applications at the same time to implement the project, feed the sounds with the external tools to ensure quality and work with delays, and… face the lack of score in front of the musicians. Tyshawn Sorey, the composer and conductor had to write and draw signals on the index cards. The video is accessible via the YouTube webpage.