A Kind of Power: Forma & Focal Point
Top Credit: Alessandra Ferrini, Sight Unseen, 2019. Film Still. © and Courtesy the artist and Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo. Selected for AFI’26 by Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo.
FormaHQ Programme:
A Kind of Power Artist Film International 2026 Exhibition:
11-12 September 2026
11:00 - 17:00
A Kind of Power Artist Film International 2026 - ‘Snares, and partial answers’ Performance Josh Wirz, Viola Faye & Mariana Aristizábal Pardo:
11 September, 18:00-21:00
RSVP Here
A Kind of Power Artist Film International 2026 - Artist-led annotated screening of Sight Unseen with Alessandra Ferrini:
12 September, 15:00-18:00
RSVP Here
Free Entry, RSVP required
FormaHQ, Peveril Garden Studios
140 Great Dover Street
London, SE1 4GW
Focal Point Programme:
Focal Point's Big Screen Programme will be announced soon.
Artists Film International 2026: A Kind of Power
FormaHQ, London: 11-12 September
Focal Point, Southend-on-Sea: Autumn
A Kind of Power brings together a selection of international artists whose films renegotiate the fraught legacies of representation and respond to the conditions under which people, histories, and territories are made visible.
Curated and convened by Forma, in collaboration with a network of cultural institutions, the 19th edition of Artists Film International (AFI '26) is structured as a decentralised curatorial platform in which each partner nominates an artist from its local context.
For this year’s edition, Forma has partnered with Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea. The programme unfolds across both sites, with an exhibition and two public events at FormaHQ, alongside screenings presented as part of Focal Point’s Big Screen Programme. A distinct selection of AFI '26 films has been curated for each venue, by Nina Wong and Wade Osei Pryor as part of Forma’s fourth year of collaboration with the MFA Curating course at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Across the two sites, Wong and Osei Pryor have organised the programme into three thematic threads - looking, watching and witnessing - each of which investigates the role of the camera and visual media more broadly, as conduits of power in an increasingly surveilled and hypervisible era.
Historically, image-making has been instrumentalised to emphasise difference and promote processes of othering along lines of class, race, gender and other mechanisms of social stratification. Today, the camera and the gaze it represents remain powerful tools that influence the shape of human and more-than-human interactions.
Recognising that the power dynamics embedded within the gaze both shape and are shaped by dominant social and political structures, the programme uses the selected moving-image works to make more visible the power inherent in all acts of looking and to propose alternative forms of relation between the observer and the observed.
Of the 12 films presented across the wider AFI’26 programme, five will be shown on Focal Point Gallery’s Big Screen.
Josh Wirz, LIVE @ White Cart Water, 2025, Digital photograph. © and courtesy the artist. Refractive Artist Commission for Paisley Eco Pixels. Photo: Neil Scott
Marte Hodne Haugen, Content Moderator, 2022. Film still. Courtesy and © the artist. Selected for AFI’26 by Tromsø Kunstforening, Norway.
Video News, ONGOING PROJECT. VIDEO NEWS, 2018-2020. Film Still. Courtesy of the artists. Selected for AFI'26 by Sapieha Palace, branch of the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius
Josh Wirz, Xaromantor, 2024, Digital photograph. Lewisham Arthouse. © and courtesy the artist.
FormaHQ Programme
Friday 11th & Saturday 12th September
Exhibition, 11-6pm
A selection of films from A Kind of Power will be presented at FormaHQ throughout both days, divided into three thematic reels - looking, watching, and witnessing.
Friday 11th September
‘Snares, and partial answers’ Performance Josh Wirz, Viola Faye & Mariana Aristizábal Pardo, 6-9pm
The evening opens with screenings of two works: Marte Hodne Haugen’s Content Moderator and VIDEO NEWS, an ongoing project initiated by artist Ieva Kotryna Ski with Akvilė Kabašinskaitė.
The screenings will be followed by Snares, and partial answers, a live, telematic performance by Glasgow-based artist Josh Wirz, featuring Copenhagen-based artists Viola Faye and Mariana Aristizábal Pardo.
Responding to the programme’s wider questions around spectatorship and the gaze, the performance considers the shifting balance of power between spectator and subject within a virtual landscape increasingly shaped by social media and live-streamed content. It asks what happens when a technique for manufacturing suspense is lifted out of the streaming economy and handed to someone to hold.
For AFI’26, Content Moderator was selected by Tromsø Kunstforening, Norway, and VIDEO NEWS by Sapieha Palace, a branch of the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius.
Alessandra Ferrini, On Iconographic Silences and Unruly Connections, 2024. Performance and lecture: Kunst Meran, Merano. © and courtesy the artist. Supported by Kunst Meran and Transart Festival 2024. Photo: Herbert Thoma
Alessandra Ferrini, Sight Unseen (III), 2019. Still from film. © and courtesy the artist. Supported by Villa Romana and Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC)
Alessandra Ferrini, Gaddafi in Rome: Anatomy of a Friendship (III), 2024. Digital photograph. © and courtesy the artist. Funded by Arts Council England.
Alessandra Ferrini, Sight Unseen, 2020. Installation view: Fondazione Sandretto, Turin. © and courtesy the artist. Supported by Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Saturday 12th September
Artist-led annotated screening of Sight Unseen with Alessandra Ferrini, 3-6pm
On Saturday, artist Alessandra Ferrini will present an annotated screening of Sight Unseen.
Joined by curator Wade Osei Pryor, Ferrini will offer insight into the film and its production. Together, they will explore the research underpinning the work, its historical context and evolving public reception, as well as Ferrini’s stylistic choices.
Taking the form of a conversational screening, the event will create space for audience interaction and exchange, bringing viewers closer to the artist and to the processes and contexts through which the work was made.
Sight Unseen by Alessandra Ferrini was selected for AFI’26 by Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo.
Artists Film International 2026 is curated by Forma in collaboration with arts organisations, who present the programme around the world.
Mila Turajlić, Non-Aligned Newsreels: Voices from the Debris [Algiers sessions], 2026. © the artist. Selected for AFI'26 by Kulturni centar Beograda (Cultural Centre of Belgrade), Serbia
Kiyo Gutiérrez, nepantlera, 2025. Film Still. © and courtesy the artist. Selected for AFI'26 by LACE, Los Angeles, USA.
Amaal Said, Open Country, 2025. Film still. Commissioned for The Open Road by Film and Video Umbrella, Forma and Three Rivers. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Courtesy of the artist. Selected for AFI'26 by Forma, London and Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, UK
Aqsa Arif, Raindrops of Rani, 2025. Film Still. Courtesy of the Artist. Selected for AFI'26 by Tramway, Glasgow.
Artist & Curator Biographies
Alessandra Ferrini is an Italian-born, UK-based artist, researcher, and educator. Her practice is rooted in lens-based media, anticolonial and critical whiteness studies, historiographical and archival practices. Experimenting with the expansion and hybridization of the documentary film, Ferrini’s work engages with ‘difficult heritage’, practices of resistance to systemic violence, and historical responsibility. She is the recipient of the Maxxi Bvlgari Prize 2022 and of the 2017 London Film Festival’s Experimenta Pitch Award. Recent exhibitions and screenings include: the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR 2025), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (solo show, 2025).
Josh Wirz is an artist based in Glasgow. He creates installations and live events that centre on the creative use of live-streaming technology. Wirz's work continues the formal exploration of streaming technology that was central to the performance industry’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, examining both the technology's creative potential and also its capacity to broaden access to live art. His work has been described as 'vulnerable yet heroic', 'a morbid curiosity', and 'an intense, slightly worrying, and very beautiful experience', Wirz's intention is to create work that is absurd, fragile and direct.
He is a co-director of Horsepower, an artist-run initiative in the East End of Glasgow and recently his work has been shown at PINK Manchester, IAC Malmö, The University of Cambridge, Refractive Collective, Lewisham Art House and Gossamer Fog.
joshwirz.com | @wirzwirzwirz
Viola Faye is an interdisciplinary artist and performer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her work unfolds across different media and centres around something as exceptional as presence and play; with the process, place and person in front of her.
Her work has been shown, and her performance included in various places, among: Avisen Live, DK, Kunstnerforening af 18. November, DK, Hydrosomatic Experiences Perth, AUS, and as a performer in Martha Mijuin exhibition at Copenhagen Contemporary, DK, and with Sisters Hope at Nicolaj Kunsthal, DK.
She studied at Glasgow School of Art, is educated as a facilitator in Systemic Constellations, and is on the board of the Danish Artist Union.
www.violafaye.com | @viola_faye_
Mariana Aristizábal Pardo is a Colombian theatre maker based in London. Mariana's work explores the intersections between cultures and languages through collaborative methodologies. She has presented work in Colombia, Canada, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, the UK, and The Netherlands.
She is co-director of the award-winning company MarianaMalena Theatre, a channel to amplify female and Latinx stories in the UK.
@mariana.aristizabalp
Wade Osei is a queer Black American writer and curator based in London. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Italian and Sociology from Harvard University, a Master of Architecture degree in Sustainable Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, and he is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Curating from Goldsmiths.
Wade Osei’s curatorial practice is centred largely around excavating the intertwined legacies of colonialism, ecological degradation, and racialised capitalist exploitation. By highlighting the connection between the Colonial Era and the present-day climate crisis, he aims to both reframe common understandings of how the modern era came to be and draw attention to the often-paradoxical landscape of cultural production.
@toyboi4000
Nina Wong is a Portuguese-born Macanese curator and writer based in London. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Curating at Goldsmiths and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins, where she was nominated for the MullenLowe NOVA Award. Her curatorial work has been featured by multiple organizations such as Art Monthly and Kensington + Chelsea Art Week.
Nina’s research focuses on the anthropological and sociological development of internet culture. Currently, as founder of Arc 2 Research, she aims to investigate the purpose and implication of fiction in today’s society. By analyzing fictional media and how they are used, Nina aims to facilitate cross-disciplinary discussion towards the arts, and to speculate the utilitarian possibilities of contemporary art spaces.
@k1tscar1bur
Artists Film International is a prestigious global film programme, originally founded in 2008 by Whitechapel Gallery and since its inception has seen 34 international venues collaborate. Since 2024 the programme has been convened by London based arts organisation, Forma. AFI is an alternative, lateral programme that exemplifies non-hierarchical, borderless and collaborative curatorial models. Responding to urgent global topics, the programme cultivates collective practice and cross-cultural dialogue, fosters the exchange of ideas and perspectives, and provides wide reaching visibility for artists. Previous AFI iterations have considered the ways in which solidarity can be enacted; how we care for one another; highlight the environmental crisis; explore the impact of technology; investigate the debate surrounding truth and fake news; and ponder on what it means to collaborate. In 2025, Artists Film International saw films screened in four continents, with presentations spanning months of 2025.
artistsfilminternational.com
Focal Point Gallery is South Essex’s only public contemporary art gallery, open to all. Offering an exciting and ambitious programme of largely free workshops, talks, outdoor film screenings and offsite projects, we also present four major exhibitions a year featuring both international and local artists. We believe in building a community and a safe space to enjoy art and the creative process, where everyone is valued. Our aim is to inspire curiosity by producing and presenting thought-provoking art made today that explores our locality, sense of self and the importance of communities through investigating current concerns that resonate internationally.
@focalpointgallery
Forma is a contemporary art organisation, charity and National Portfolio Organisation, supported by the Arts Council England, that champions ideas and artists who address the social and political questions of our times. Through a discursive process, we nurture artists’ creative vision and grow their ambition in order to develop collaborative projects that are career-defining and lead to new major opportunities around the world. We pride ourselves in being an organisation that artists want to work with.
We offer commissioning, fundraising and production expertise, and as a non-gallery based organisation we present projects in partnership with cultural institutions across the UK and Internationally. Recent artists we have collaborated with include Oliver Frank Chanarin, Alberta Whittle, Lawrence Lek, Abbas Zahedi, Cécile B Evans, Sung Tieu, Amartey Golding, R.I.P. Germain, Sophie Hoyle, Benedict Drew, Josèfa Ntjam, and Himali Singh Soin.
forma.org.uk | @formaartsmedia
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from the Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision.
artscouncil.org.uk | @aceagrams
Top Credit: Alessandra Ferrini, Sight Unseen, 2019. Film Still. © and Courtesy the artist and Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo. Selected for AFI’26 by Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo.
FormaHQ Programme:
A Kind of Power Artist Film International 2026 Exhibition:
11-12 September 2026
11:00 - 17:00
A Kind of Power Artist Film International 2026 - ‘Snares, and partial answers’ Performance Josh Wirz, Viola Faye & Mariana Aristizábal Pardo:
11 September, 18:00-21:00
RSVP Here
A Kind of Power Artist Film International 2026 - Artist-led annotated screening of Sight Unseen with Alessandra Ferrini:
12 September, 15:00-18:00
RSVP Here
Free Entry, RSVP required
FormaHQ, Peveril Garden Studios
140 Great Dover Street
London, SE1 4GW
Focal Point Programme:
Focal Point's Big Screen Programme will be announced soon.