- LichtFaktor
SOUND:FRAME:REMIX
visualizing electronic music
SUNDAY SEP 13 - SATURDAY OCT 31, 2009
Within the past three years, Vienna has gained the reputation of being the audiovisual capital of the world. What began as a small exhibition in 2007 has since grown into a world-renowned annual festival known for its unique focus on audiovisual art forms. Musicians, visual artists, VJs (video jockeys), and DJs come together to meld sound and moving pictures and create new synergies. The sound:frame festival, which takes place for one month every year, brings to life large exhibits, numerous live events and performances, and a broad range of workshops, lectures, and panel discussions in various locations throughout Vienna and Europe. Within only a short time, this festival has established itself from a Viennese insider tip to a highlight of the international VJ and DJ scene.
- Pia Palme at sound:frame Vienna
With the exhibit sound:frame:remix, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York is presenting the best works from the festival that took place in Vienna in spring 2009. The exhibit features seven videos and installations by artists from Europe and the USA. The selection at the ACFNY emphasizes remixing, an artistic strategy that plays a central role both in electronic music and in its visualization. sound:frame:remix not only stimulates international discourse, but also aims to introduce new kinds of electronic music art forms to the public. Artists work with sound and video samples, reproducing, parodying, or refashioning already existing material.
The festival is curated by Eva Fischer, an active member in the electronic music scene. She brought sound:frame to life, creating an equilibrium between sound and vision through the medium of audiovisual art. Fischer herself is also a VJ who uses material that at times seems very familiar and at other times surreal and distant. She has created a festival that is an international platform for audiovisual artists to come together with an open-minded audience to explore artistic innovations in form and content.
- Still from Life Show (Channel-F Remix)
ARTISTS
Addictive TV (video/audio; UK)
Arjan Brentjes (video/audio; NL)
Lichtfaktor (video/audio; GER)
Lichterloh (video; AUT)/ Smacs & Patrick Kong (sound; AUT)
luma.launisch (video; AUT)/ CaTekk (audio; AUT)
MFO (video; GER) / Carl Craig, Moritz von Oswald (audio; US)
Robert Heel (video/audio; GER)
OFA (video/ audio; GER)
transforma (video; GER) / O.S.T. (audio; US)
UKO (video/ audio; AUT)
Uli Kühn and Synes Elischka (video; AUT) / channel f (audio; AUT)
Idea/conception and direction: Andreas Stadler
Curator: Eva Fischer
Exhibition Coordination: Elisabeth Haider
Exhibition Assistance: Miriam Brownstone, Manfred Kapper, Markus Lubej, Lisa-Maria Matzinger, Michael Merzlikar, Kerstin Schuetz-Mueller, Maria Simma, Florian Tanzer
Exhibition Visuals: Gabriel "Specter" Reese and Waylon Tait
- Anna Jermolaewa, stills, 2009
The AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM and the KUNSTHALLE WIEN in cooperation with the HUNGARIAN CULTURAL CENTER and the ROMANIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE present
1989: End of History or Beginning of the Future?
Video Art Comments on a Paradigm Shift
November 2 – 24, 2009
Within its fall focus on the significance of the year 1989, the Austrian Cultural Forum will present the video-based exhibition 1989: End of History or Beginning of the Future? Featuring 12 films from international artists, the show is on view from November 2 to 24, 2009. It will include three panel discussions revolving around various aspects of revolution and civil society. The opening reception takes place on November 11, 2009 from 6–8PM at the ACFNY, 11 East 52nd Street (between Fifth and Madison). Admission is free.
Who would have dared to hope it twenty years ago? The Iron Curtain came down as the dictatorial regimes of Central and Eastern European communism were swept away one after the other in the wake of mass protests. The collapse of the so-called communist Eastern Bloc ended what Eric Hobsbawm referred to as the “short twentieth century.” A major turning point for contemporary society, 1989 became a dividing line that changed the course of realpolitik and ideology and created an entirely new situation from the perspective of geostrategy, culture, and mass psychology. Within a few years, democratic constitutions and market economy structures were introduced. Even if most of the dividing lines within Europe have been dissolved by now, many borders still haven’t disappeared in people’s minds. Nationalistic ideologies and xenophobic and racist movements have surged alongside European integration and globalization. While new neighbors – long separated by the Iron Curtain – have begun to learn about each other, they have also started to experience new problems of migration and acculturation.
The selection of films for 1989: End of History or Beginning of the Future? has been inspired by the question of how artists, and in particular video artists, have reacted to these changes. Anna Jermolaewa tells her story as a Soviet refugee escaping to Poland in 1989. The same woman who helped her journey to the “West” then emigrated to Paris herself. Nedko Solakov provokes a debate about the system of spies and denunciation during the communist time, and how this legacy is being dealt with in post-communist society. Marcel Odenbach’s films deconstruct TV material, mostly from the German Democratic Republic around the collapse of the Berlin Wall. In a similar vein, Jonas Mekas and Harun Farocki with Andrej Ujica document the moments of change and the manipulation of TV and media. In his video sequences, Thomas Draschan takes a close look at the transformed meaning of symbols of communism and socialism. Former aggressive messages of political change have developed into consumerist pop culture items. Finally, artists like Pedro Reyes and Pushwagner unveil the illusions of our new era while Csaba Nemes points at the ugly face of nationalism.
Invited artists: Marina ABRAMOVIC, Josef DABERNIG, Thomas DRASCHAN, Harun FAROCKI with Andrej UJICA, Anna JERMOLAEWA, Jonas MEKAS, Csaba NEMES, Marcel ODENBACH, Marek PIWOWSKI, PUSHWAGNER, Gabriel REESE, Isa ROSENBERGER, Nedko SOLAKOV, et al.
Curators: Gerald MATT, Andreas STADLER
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
Wednesday, October 7, 6:30 PM, Austrian Cultural Forum
Achievements and Challenges for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe
in co-operation with the CZECH CENTER, the HUNGARIAN CULTURAL CENTER and the ROMANIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE
Martin Palous (Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the UN), Ambassador Emil Brix (Head of the Cultural Policy Section of the Austrian Foreign Ministry), and Saviana Stanescu (writer) in conversation with Corina Suteu (Director, Romanian Cultural Institute NY) focus on issues related to civil society in post-communist Europe, differences between countries, and common challenges related to the democratization of public space.
Thursday, November 5, 6 PM, Columbia University
Sneak Peek: Performing Revolution in Eastern Europe (1989-2009)
The sneak peek of a large NY festival commemorating events in 1989 brings together intellectuals and artists to discuss the role of the performing arts in post-1989 Eastern Europe. What have been the driving forces illuminating and directing intellectual and cultural dynamics? How have communist-era legacies shaped intellectual and cultural practices? What role have artistic communities played in shaping society and politics? With Jeffrey Goldfarb (The New School for Social Research), Elzbieta Matynia (The New School for Social Research), Robert Misik (journalist and writer), and Elena Stefoi (poet and journalist).
Tuesday, November 10, 5 PM, Austrian Cultural Forum
1989: Arts and Politics after the Annus Mirabilis
With Anna Jermolaewa (artist), Thomas Draschan (artist), Gerald Matt (Kunsthalle Wien), Michael Fleischhacker (Editor-in-Chief, Die Presse), and others. Welcome and introduction by Andreas Stadler (Director, Austrian Cultural Forum). To be followed by exhibition opening.
- Leopold Kessler, still from Depot, 2005
Videorama
Video Art from Austria
November 4, 2009 – January 24, 2010, Kunsthalle Wien
November 30, 2009 – January 16, 2010, Austrian Cultural Forum New York
Beginning on November 30, the Austrian Cultural Forum will bring Videorama, a new exhibition from Vienna’s Kunsthalle, to New York, presenting works culled from the Ursula Blickle Video Archive. The archive represents a cooperation between the Ursula Blickle Foundation, Germany, the Vienna University of Applied Arts, and Kunsthalle Wien. The archive of video art is open to the public and free of charge, and was conceived as a digital media library and a place for academic, scientific, and curatorial work. Its focus is on contemporary Austrian art from the mid 1990s to the present, and it features more than 1,500 works by about 400 artists.
Aside from its entertainment value, the moving image functions as a carrier of information and an illustrator of news, and sometimes even as a troublemaker in public and private spaces. Videorama’s presentation of images and technology opens our eyes and allows us to see. It shows images that provide pleasure and insight, in the tradition of l’art pour l’art. Videorama strives to penetrate both reality and virtuality by eradicating the division between the exhibition space and self-contained ephemeral works of art. The objective is to make us aware of the “reality” we move in on a daily basis in our 21st-century world. The space we live in was long ago appropriated by traditional media like TV, radio, telephone, and cinema, and we now also share our physical existence with the Internet, facebook, and blogs.
Together with curators Angela Stief and Gerald Matt, an international jury consisting of Sabine Himmelsbach and Edith-Russ (Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg, Germany), Massimiliano Gioni (New Museum, New York), and Ian White (Whitechapel Gallery, London) will choose the works to be shown in Videorama: Video Art from Austria. The participating artists will be announced at the beginning of September.
From November 30, 2009, to January 16, 2010, Videorama will be exhibited at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York.
Kunsthalle Wien
Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna
www.kunsthallewien.at
Open daily 10 am – 7 pm
Thursdays 10 am – 10 pm
