Found Futures 5: Beatrice Zerbato (HaFi-Residency) - An Excavation into Arsenal Filminstitut’s Programming History / Samuel Bich: FILE NOT FOUND - Arsenal Index

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

Beatrice Zerbato’s research focuses on experimental cinema of the 1970s-90s, with attention to collective and feminist practices as well as overlooked, forgotten, or excluded works left out of dominant narratives. Set within Nuova Orfeo, an independent screening programme founded in Palermo in 2021 by artist-filmmaker Beatrice Gibson, the residency period aims to expand the existing research on Italian feminist filmmakers through a focused engagement with the Arsenal Filminstitut’s extensive film collection and its programming history.

FILE NOT FOUND - Arsenal Index
Presentation by Samuel Bich

During Archival Assembly, 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.

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.

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.