This talk is presented in association with the exhibition DECODER: selected works from the 3rd Contour Video Biennale (Mechelen, BE, 2007). Elisabetta Fabrizi will address relationships between legacies of experimental film and artist’s video and the specificities of exhibiting screen-based art works in the context of the British Film Institute's new exhibition venue. The talk is a timely intervention in local media debate and art world discussion as a new moving image centre based on the collection and archive of renowned Lithuanian expatriate filmmaker Jonas Mekas recently opened in Vilnius. And a feasibility study about developing the Mekas centre into a large-scale institution – as a partnership between Lithuanian agencies, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Russian State Hermitage Museum – is currently underway.

Elisabetta Fabrizi is Head of Exhibitions at the British Film Institute, which launched a new exhibitions centre in 2007. Fabrizi studied Art History and Film at the University of Bologna, Italy graduating with distinction in 1998 with a dissertation on the influence of the visual arts on Serguej Paradjanov’s film work. While at university she worked on several exhibitions and film projects and was an arts journalist. In 1998 she moved to London where she went on to complete a Masters degree in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, continuing to explore the relationship between art and film. Before joining the BFI she held curatorial positions at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and Milton Keynes Gallery.

Elisabetta Fabrizi’s visit has been supported by the British Council.