22/11/2025
OVER THE REAL – International Video & Multimedia Art -italy
is an international festival dedicated to video art and experimental forms of audiovisual creation. It explores the new frontiers of visual and sonic language, highlighting works that question our perception of reality, memory, and identity through the lens of digital technologies and contemporary artistic practices. The festival brings together artists from around the world and fosters a dialogue between established creations and emerging voices, offering audiences an immersive experience in visual, sonic, and interactive experimentation. Each edition is conceived as a space for discovery, exchange, and reflection on the contemporary challenges of video art and digital creation. Alongside screenings, OVER THE REAL offers meetings, roundtables, and workshops, promoting the sharing of knowledge and critical reflection on artistic practices, the production, and the distribution of contemporary audiovisual works. With a strong commitment to the international circulation of creations, the festival has become an essential platform for artists, curators, researchers, and art enthusiasts who wish to explore the new aesthetics of experimental cinema and video art.
For this special edition in Algiers, it presents “Once Upon a Time in Africa – Videoart Visions,” a program curated by Maurizio Marco Tozzi and Alessandro Romanini, which brings together emerging and international artists exploring the intersection of image, sound, and digital media.
Programme Highlights :
Covidentity – Abdoul-Ganiou Dermani (Togo)
Chumba 61 – Kazoka & Assenga (Tanzania)
Pfamba – Philani A. Nyoni (Zimbabwe)
Esu – Oladele Bello (Nigeria)
Gone and never back – Mai Mustafa Ekhou (Mauritania)
Le Si, Magique d’être – Imene Ghazouani (Tunisia)
Solitude vol.1 – Hossam Abu-elhassan (Egypt)
Natah – Islam Ahmad (Egypt)
Special Online Intervention: Maurizio Marco Tozzi will participate live to share his perspectives on the festival and the creations presented.
Maurizio Marco Tozzi is a contemporary art curator. For years, he has dedicated his research to audiovisual languages and the relationship between creativity and new technologies. He graduated in Cinema and Electronic Image from the University of Pisa and specialized in Net Art and Digital Cultures at the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara. He has curated exhibitions in important public and private cultural spaces in Italy and abroad: Torrance Art Museum (Usa), MuSA (Pietrasanta, Italy), Fondazione Ragghianti (Lucca, Italy), Festival Videoformes (Clermont Ferrand, France), Festival Les Instants Video (Marseille, France),
SPLIT Videoart Festival (Croazia), Video Art Festival Now&After, Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Russia), SHARE Festival (Torino, Italy), Athens Digital Arts Festival (Greece), Gebre Kirsots Desta Center Modern Art Museum, AVAF (Etiopia), MACRO (Rome, Italy), Museo del Lavoro e delle Tradizioni Popolari della Versilia (Seravezza – Italia), FIVAC (Camaguey – Cuba), Field Projects (New York), Areté Venue & Gallery (New York), Galleria LABottega (Marina di Pietrasanta,Italy), GAMC Lorenzo Viani (Viareggio, Italy), Fondazione Villa Bertelli (Forte dei Marmi, Italy), Palazzo Tagliaferro (Andora, Italy), Centro Culturale “Luigi Russo” (Pietrasanta, Italy). Since 2015, he has been the founder and director of Over The Real International Festival of Video & Multimedia Art, which is currently held in Lucca and Pietrasanta in partnership with the Lucca Film Festival. He participates in conferences on various contemporary art topics, which are also addressed in his essays, including: Gianni Melotti, art/tapes/22 video tapes production (Giunti Editore, 2017), La Videoarte Italiana (Danilo Montanari Editore, 2016), and Media Art. Towards a New Definition of Arts in the Age of Technology (aa.vv. Gli Ori, 2015). now He is lectuter in Audiovisual and Multimedia Art at the Art High School of Siena
Special Screening & Guest Intervention :
Le Chasseur et l’Antilope – filmmaker and producer Narcisse Youmbi
Narcisse Youmbiest is a Cameroonian author, director, producer, and entrepreneur. He grew up in Cameroon with an early passion for drawing and comics: as a child, he would tell stories in sequence on his slate, and in middle school, he became an avid comic book collector. One day, however, his mother discovered that his schoolbag was filled only with comic books and destroyed his entire collection. This shock didn't make him abandon his dreams: he simply redirected his energy toward other forms of expression, such as basketball… before returning to visual storytelling.
At the University of Douala, he joined the visual arts club and co-founded the satirical newspaper Caricaturas, which he printed through an arrangement with a printer: they worked for him at night in exchange for copies of the newspaper. There, he learned about printing, the production of a published item, and the economic realities of a cultural project. A controversy surrounding an article on homosexuality in positions of power led to the newspaper's suspension. Narcisse then decided to distance himself from politics to dedicate himself to stories that empower young people rather than expose them. With other authors, he later founded the association Trait Noir and launched K-MER Comics, the first Cameroonian monthly comic book. The project encountered difficulties in distribution and economic model, but an invitation to the 1st Algiers International Comics Festival (FIBDA) in 2008 changed Narcisse's trajectory: there he discovered animated cinema during a workshop, left with software on a USB key, and launched himself into self-taught animation. Now permanently settled in Algiers, Narcisse founded PRISM CREATIVE, a 360° global communication agency that supports companies and institutions in their image strategy, digital communication, and audiovisual productions. He also co-founded Dzawaya, a platform dedicated to Algerian cinema, conceived as a tool for preserving, promoting, and circulating the works and professionals involved. In addition, he hosts the weekly segment "Mama Africa" on Canal Algérie.
📅 Date : 29 November 2025
🕒 Time : 15:00
📍 Location : Fondation Culturelle Asselah Ahmed & Rabah – 29A Bd Zighout Youcef, Algiers Centre
An event organized by the Asselah Ahmed & Rabah Cultural Foundation, in collaboration with filmmaker Mourad Hamla, concept and Artistic Director of Connected Minds.
