Secret Art Cinema is a video art event first presented in the context of Rotterdam Contemporary Art Fair 2016. The first edition proposed a selection of works by Rotterdam-related emergent video makers, with a special focus on digital culture and the relation human-machine.

Secret Art Cinema is a new, Rotterdam-based initiative that aims at bringing Video Art back into the spotlight. This initiative was set out in Bob Smit Gallery with a preview and now extends to become a side event of Rotterdam Contemporary that shows film and video works by Rotterdam-based video artists. Set on the background of the city of Rotterdam, the selection of works will highlight the consequences and the strenghts and weaknesses of the relation between human bodies and digital influence. Each of these recent, authentic works will cover a specific aspect of this relationship. They’ll range from a satirical portrayal of how the digital influences our sexuality, to an intimist view of how the anonymity of a telephone call can provide the means for human consolation. It will investigate the never ending dynamics between mass and machinery: on the one hand it will present the struggle of an individual within mass movement, on the other hand it will almost poetically portray machinery as a living organism. Finally, a pinch of irony will desacralize human agency by showing how we allow the digital to manipulate our existence.