Found Futures 5: An Excavation into Arsenal Filminstitut’s Programming History / Arsenal Index

An Excavation into Arsenal Filminstitut’s Programming History
Presentation by Beatrice Zerbato (HaFI Residency)

As part of Found Futures – Archival Assembly #4, Beatrice Zerbato will present a short introduction to Nuova Orfeo, the experimental film and music programme she co-curates in Palermo with its founder, artist-filmmaker Beatrice Gibson, and reflect on the relationship between programming and archiving.

The presentation will be followed by the screening of Gioco di dama (1961–63) by Marinella Pirelli, a four-minute animated film restored and preserved by Fondazione Home Movies, Bologna. 

Marinella Pirelli (1925–2009, Verona) was an Italian artist who produced a unique body of work moving between painting, light installation and experimental film. Her interest in perception and duration brought her to experiment with the film medium in the early 1960s, exploring new ways of representing light, body and the natural environment through the camera. A retrospective of Pirelli’s work was presented as part of Nuova Orfeo’s programme in December 2025, co-curated with Lucia Aspesi in Palermo. Gioco di dama is Pirelli’s first film. 

After the presentation Beatrice Zerbato will be in conversation with Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Arsenal Filminstitut) and Clio Nicastro (Harun Farocki Institut). 

The presentation is part of Beatrice Zerbato’s residency with Arsenal Filminstitut in partnership with Harun Farocki Institute and Kultur Ensemble Palermo. 

Her research focuses on experimental cinema of the 1970s–90s, with particular attention to feminist practices, as well as overlooked, forgotten, or lesser-known works. Set within Nuova Orfeo, her residency aims to expand this research beyond national frameworks through a focused engagement with the Arsenal Film Institute’s extensive film collection and its programming history. 

Bianca Bozzeda earned her degree in philosophy from the universities of Bologna and Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, with a thesis focusing on the genius of the nomad and the loss of Heimat as a unique opportunity for creativity. She holds a master’s degree from the Institute for European Studies at the University of Paris VIII and was a scholarship recipient of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She has worked at various international institutions – including UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Institut français in Munich, and the Goethe-Institut headquarters in Munich – before joining the Goethe-Institut Palermo, where she serves as the representative for the Franco-German cultural institute "Kultur Ensemble."

Clio Nicastro is research assistant in philosophy and cultural studies at Bard College Berlin and one of the directors of the Harun Farocki Institut. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry, and she received research grants from the DAAD and the Volkswagen Stiftung. She holds a PhD in Aesthetics and Art Theory from the University of Palermo. She is currently working on a book on the representation of eating disorders in cinema, as part of her broader research on the history of the body and its "expressive forms". She is the author of the monograph La Dialettica del Denkraum in Aby Warburg (Palermo University Press, 2022) and co-editor of the volumes Violence, Care, Cure. Self/perceptions within the Medical Encounter (Routledge, 2025) and Over and Over and Over Again. Reenactment Strategies in Contemporary Arts and Theory (ICI Berlin Press, 2022). Together with Daniel Graziadei and Martina Bengert, she is currently curating a volume featuring translations of poems by the Italian feminist and art critic Carla Lonzi.

Beatrice Zerbato holds a degree in Cinema Studies from the University of Turin and has worked as a photographer, archivist, and independent researcher. Her research treats archives as active tools, preserving stories and generating new relations and political imaginaries. Since 2023, she has lived in Palermo, co-curating Nuova Orfeo, an independent experimental cinema and music program, with its founder Beatrice Gibson, focused on non-commercial, forgotten, censored, or lesser-known works, with a feminist lens.

Arsenal Index
Presentation by Samuel Bich (FILE NOT FOUND Residency)

During Archival Assembly, Teresa Althen, on behalf of FILE NOT FOUND, will publish the first chapter of its publication series, exploring the challenges archives face today and presenting 15 provisional steps for resistant archives, developed through collaboration with more than 20 archival initiatives from across the globe.

How can an archive become accessible without imposing hierarchies? I am producing an index poster spanning Arsenal Filminstitut's entire filmic collection – using the material itself to generate something enduring, yet translating it into a new temporal, material form for future engagement. Taking "Arsenal" literally as "house of making," these inventory-posters offer low-threshold access to unwieldy archives, sparking curiosity while helping me grasp vast bodies of material myself.

Teresa Althen is a curator and project manager at Goethe-Institut Portugal in Lisbon. She is responsible for the institute’s film programme and film archive and leads international cultural projects, festivals, and conferences. Among them is FILE NOT FOUND – Protect Archives. Defend Democracy, an international initiative that brings together archives, artists, and researchers to address threats such as political interference, censorship, manipulation, and erasure.

Samuel Bich studied art in Leipzig, Glasgow, and Vienna. He co-directs the project space oxfordberlin and founded the publisher Yours Sincerely. His practice explores exhibiting and publishing at the margins of institutions, investigating historiography, image production, and mediation. In 2024, he received the Cathrin Pichler Prize. His work has been shown at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg, Kunsthalle Wien, and Printed Matter, NY, and is held in the Getty Research Library and UdK Berlin Library.