19. UNDER|DOX 10-16 OKT

Viewing of Videotapes?

The New York conference “Open Circuits: An International Conference on the Future of Television” opened in 1974 with the program item “Viewing of Videotapes”. First see what you’re talking about. And that was quite new. 8- or 16mm films had long been established in the art world, but they had established in the arts, but to record, erase and re-record so easily, as had been known until then from audio tapes, meant a new creative freedom. And many lines of development for making ephemeral image material into an artistic medium continue to this day. Painting, performance, photography, conceptual art – video can be a goal, its technical basis or social significance can also be the subject of artistic reflection.
The shift from analogue to digital, once unimaginable miniaturisation and limitless distribution, have made video a defining and ubiquitous aspect of daily life, a network that influences and forms social attitudes. Reason enough to be excited and on guard. Video artists of the early days did not have to fear too much. The medium was hip and rare. Today, it’s about finding islands in a sea of moving images where video art becomes visible. This does not have to be a real place. Some works are suitable to be viewed and traded exclusively online with the right know-how. But the web undercuts the synaesthetic aspect, the social experience of visiting spaces. Gallery or online, cinema or online – both are possible. Movida, the other place, new encounters, Together only exist offline.
Animations, political and feminist self-empowerments, computer-generated reality, sensory surprises, artificial intelligence, reduced graphics, media-historical reflections, a movie-look-alike and a performance-based work. For thirteen days there will be a parcours of audiovisual works to experience together in the artists’ gallery and to compare different positions. Much of this is technically possible only today, but some approaches are familiar from the early days of media art, because there are questions that every generation confronts anew. For the fifth time, VIDEODOX gives visual artists* who see the moving image as an essential or their primary means of expression the opportunity to present works beyond the cinema hall in the attractive context of the UNDERDOX Film Festival. Felix Burger (visual artist, BBK e.V.), Dunja Bialas (curator and film critic, UNDERDOX festival management), Matthias von Tesmar (curator and author) and Kay Winkler (visual artist, curator) have selected the works from a good 80 submissions by artists working in Bavaria. BBK München und Oberbayern e.V. is the host and cooperation partner of this presentation, which is sponsored by the Cultural Department of the City of Munich and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and Art. One of the works on display will be awarded a prize by a jury of three: Jörg Koopmann (photographer, curator), Daniela Stöppel (LMU) and Renate Wiehager (author, curator). The VIDEODOX sponsorship award is endowed with 1000 Euros. The prize sponsor is once again media artist and filmmaker Peider Defilla of B.O.A. Videofilmkunst. “B.O.A.”, long since a standing term and internationally known media company – founded in the decade of “Open Circuits” as a laboratory for experimental media art. – Matthias von Tesmar