Cinéstesia is a new initiative by Espoo Ciné dedicated to the crossroads between cinema, the visual arts, and the rich, ever-shifting territory in between.
Its activities span a curated screening programme developed each year in collaboration with an invited international curator, a two-day International Seminar on Film and Visual Arts, and an active strand dedicated to international exchange. Cinéstesia brings together artists, filmmakers, curators, programmers, researchers, and institutions working at the expanding edges of the moving image.
Supported by the Saastamoinen Foundation, the inaugural edition of Cinéstesia will take place as part of the Espoo Ciné International Film Festival from 21–30 August 2026, across venues in Helsinki and Espoo.
Developed in collaboration with Erika Balsom, Cinéstesia unfolds across two screening sections that bring together filmmakers and visual artists whose practices inhabit the porous territory between cinema and the visual arts. Artists in Focus is dedicated to the work of Ben Rivers and Nour Ouayda, offering an in-depth encounter with two distinctive voices in contemporary moving image practice. Archives revisits pivotal moments in artists’ moving image and avant-garde cinema through rarely screened works by Jean Matthee and Isaac Julien – a pioneering artist whose poetic moving image works reimagine Black histories, queer identities, and the legacies of colonialism – alongside a tribute to the legendary EXPRMNTL 4 festival, whose 1967 edition achieved near-legendary status.