Continuous Movement. German Experimental Film and Video (1994-2004)

19 january, 2007 - 4 february, 2007
Place
Sabatini Building, Auditorium
Curatorship
Siegfried Zielinski and Jochen Coldewey
Christoph Giradet y Matthias Müller. Beacon, 2002
Christoph Giradet y Matthias Müller. Beacon, 2002

The marginal nature of experimental film and video in terms of production and directing has also affected the distribution and exhibition circuits. These types of works have found friendlier projection spaces on non-commercial screens, in specialist festivals, galleries, museums and contemporary art exhibition spaces. Now they are also making good use of the Internet, something that has undoubtedly given this type of film greater visibility and swelled the ranks of audiences that are increasingly devoted to what the members of the early avant-garde called ‘pure cinema’.

Germany has a long tradition of experimental film and video art with respect to the production and dissemination of pieces. This can be seen in festivals like the Oberhausen festival, which dates back to 1954, and the Kassel documenta, which together have championed the innumerable and suggestive relationships between art and technology for more than half a century. The German experimental film and video created between 1994 and 2004 serves as a witness to this. This series offers a perspective on the continuous mutation in German audiovisual work as a consequence of the steady evolution in technology and the numerous artistic perspectives in the medium.

The programme is brought to a close with the concert Xerrox (which takes its name from the original Xerox photocopier) by Alva Noto, the stage name of the German audiovisual artist Carsten Nicolai (Karl-Marx-Stadt, 1965), a key figure in the development of what is being called ‘microscopic electronics’, whose philosophy and aesthetics obey the idea that ‘less is more’. Alva Noto brings processes into play that reveal a musical discourse where there appear to be only accidents and errors, exploring unexpected sound forms and textures.