Dream States — the 18th edition of Artists’ Film International — explores dreaming as both a transformative state and a radical act, challenging perceptions of reality and opening pathways to alternative futures. Curated by Forma with 16 cultural institutions across four continents, this year’s edition showcases a remarkable cohort of artists, each selected or commissioned by an AFI’25 partner and presented in diverse formats, including exhibitions, festivals, and screenings throughout 2025.
At the intersection of personal consciousness and external realities, Dream States explores the emancipatory potential of dreams, altered states, and cinematic illusion. The programme foregrounds artists who disrupt linear time, blur fact and fiction, and navigate the boundaries between memory, myth, and fantasy to reimagine the world anew. Using an array of visual strategies, from analogue footage to CGI animation, layered archival materials, special effects and AI-generated imagery, these works harness moving-image to destabilise dominant perspectives. Reflecting upon shared histories, the artists’ eclectic and surreal dreamscapes – utopian and dystopian, intimate and collective – position cinema as the crucible of dream-making and a vehicle for changemaking.
Southwark Park Galleries is partnering with Forma to present the UK premiere of Turner Prize and Jarman Award shortlisted artist Sin Wai Kin’s The Fortress (2024) in Dilston Gallery alongside the full AFI’25 programme in Lake Gallery. The Fortress, co-commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation and Forma, examines the fragmented nature of human existence and critiques the notion of our singular, homogenized experience.
Artists’ Film international 2025 co-curation and co-presentation partners:
– argos centre for audiovisual arts, Brussels, Belgium
– Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan in eXiLe e.V., (CCAA in EXiLe), Frankfurt Germany
– Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
– Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
– Forma, London, UK
– Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina
– Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC), Bergamo, Italy
– Istanbul Modern, Turkey
– Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Los Angeles, USA
– Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila, Philippines
– MMAG Foundation, Amman, Jordan
– Project 88, Mumbai, India
– Sapieha Palace, branch of the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania
– Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK
– Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
– Tromsø Kunstforening,Tromsø, Norway
– Video-Forum of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k), Berlin, Germany
Featured artists include:
Sin Wai Kin, Heesoo Kwon, Mykolas Valantinas, Ahmet Rüstem Ekici and Hakan Sorar, Elinor O’Donovan, Isabelle Nouzha, Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, Cocoy Lumbao, Anette Gellein, and Babu Eshwar Prasad.
Launch Gallery
