Syndicate: European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck

[emaf@bionic.zerberus.de]

-------------------------------------------------
           EUROPEN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL
                   7-11 May
-------------------------------------------------

For the tenth time this year, Osnabrueck is going
to be meeting-place for the media-arts.

Between 7th and 11th of May, the European Media
Art Festival (EMAF) will present innovative
works from the world of film and video,
installation, performance, CD-Rom and the
nternet.
>From a total of 29 nations, we have received 970
entries for each of the festival divisions.
Traditionally well represented here are Germany,
the USA and Great Britain. In addition, and
amongst a broad range of contributions from
other countries, productions from New Zealand,
Japan, Rumania, Brazil and the Czech Republic
will be seen, all of which present a broad
spectrum of creative ideas and projects.

Film & Video

The international film and video programme will
be showing 110 entries which range contextually
>from pure narrative forms to visual
experimentation. Noteworthy are the very large
number of longer films where many of them leave
little room for conclusions to be drawn about
the initial material used or the subsequent
method of processing. In this respect, artists
today are starting to implement and combine the
aesthetic potential of film, video and computer
in ever increasing measures. Here in OsnabrÃ?ck,
the Working Circle of Film Journalists will
again be presenting the German Film Critic's
Prize for the year's best German experimental
film. In a retrospective programme, the prize
winners of the last ten years will be presented.

Retrospective

A comprehensive presentation is to be dedicated
to the work of film and video avant- gardist,
Stan VanDerBeek , who died in 1984. VanDerBeek
started off his carrier in the 1950`s with work
on abstract film, and was already working with
computer and video techniques in the early
1960`s. In his multimedia work he concerned
himelf with the development of new visual
effects, for which he designed special systems
of projection. The programme will be introduced
by the american film theorist William Moritz.

Internet

Web films staged in the Internet are to be
placed very much at the forefront of the project
division at the festival this year. Amongst
others, "My Boyfriend came Back from War," an
outstanding piece of work from the Moscow artist
Olia Lialina will be shown.

Viewing Distance is one festival project which
you are invited to take part in right away. Here
a new narrative is going to be constructed from
the screenshots sent in by participants.

One particular highlight of the festival will be
the virtual exhibition. Here objects and
projects will be shown and invoked in a 3D
environment. Furthermore the new project
"Dialogue Spaces", which will be realised in
cooperation with "artimage", Graz, will be
presented.

Workshops

Workshops on VRML, Real Audio and Real Video
will offer information on recent developments in
Net-Media, which are increasingly becoming more
important for film and video producers.

Electronic Cafe

At the festival`s Electronic Cafe, a wide range
of artistic network projects and new CD-Rom
productions will be shown. Amongst others, new
CD-Roms are going to be presented from Peter
Gabriel (GB), Simon Biggs (GB), Die Veteranen
(The Veterans) (D), The ZKM Artinintact III,
Collective Memory from Kristy Kang (USA) and On
a Clear Day, a co- operation from young British
and Australian artists.

Lectures

In a series of lectures taking Net criticism as
their central theme, coorganized with Heiko Idensen (D),
developments within the Net
and AV media will be critically reflected from a
variety of stand points. Amongst others, Network
theorists Geert Lovink (NL), Hartmut Winkler (D)
and Herbert A. Meyer (D) and the artists Marina
Grzinic (SLO) and Merel Mirage (D,NL) will take their place  
on the podium.

Non-Places - Fields of Activity in Urban and
Digital Experiential Space is the title of a
presentation to be given by Knowbotic Research,
Cologne.

Under the title, Games and Comics, High End
Games, the latest round of developments from
Japan are to be presented by Machiko Kusahara
(Tokyo.)

Specials

In a "Hong Kong Special," films, videos,
installations and Internet projects from this
metropolis of the Orient will be shown. During
several lectures organised in co-operation with
the Arts Center of the Hong Kong 4University of
Science and Technology and the Hong Kong Arts Center,
Hong Kong`s art and culture scene will be placed in
the spotlight. Characterised by the tensioned
relationship between Asian and Western
influences, and the present and notable course
of political events, a cultural scene exists in
Hong Kong which, astoundingly enough, remains
barely known in Europe.

Video Brasil

Solange Farkas, director of the largest Latin
American video arts and multimedia festival in
Sîo Paulo will present the prize winners from
the last festival.

Performance

Communion - Le Partage des Peaux II, from the
Canadian artist, Isabelle ChoiniÃ?re documents
the encounter between the real and the virtual
body. The performance itself is a multimedia
ballet, in which dance movement is amplified by
implementing video and computer images. Sensors
distributed around the body, on arms, legs and
the torso, record movement and steer digitised
pictures of the dancer, which surround her and
create a virtual interactive stage set. By
replacing the dancer`s body with images and
sounds, the artist is capable of confronting the
actual and the virtual body within an electronic
ritual of life.

Student Forum

As an intrinsic part of the festival, the
International Student Forum is considered the
international meeting place for young artists.

This year we will be showing work in a new and
very interesting exhibition area, the
BÃ?rgergehorsam, a tower right out of the middle
ages. A number of the entries for computer and
video art will be shown here.

A group of young artists from the Academy of
Fine Arts - Saar, who all came together under
the direction of the Performance and Creative
Training programme from Professor Ulrike
Rosenbach will be presenting an evening of
performance.

Additional student entries in the form of film
and video can be seen in a special programme
block. The variety of working methods at
international media academies will also be
documented here.

Exhibition

Between 7th and 25th of May, video installations
and interactive objects can be seen at the
exhibition hall Domnikanerkirche.

Under Lock and Key is an impressive installation
>from Beth B (USA), taking the central theme of
her own artistic work as its subject: violence
acted out on victims and offenders. Staged in
four narrow cells, and barely lit by a single
naked light bulb, the monotonous voice of a
prisoner can be heard reflecting upon his life
behind bars. Behind the cells the visitor is
confronted with two video projections with
statements from both victims and offenders
alike.

The Japanese environmental artist, Keiichi
Tanaka, creates a totally different kind of
experiential space. With his laser installation,
LUMINOUS COSMIC RAYS, he leads the visitor
through an imaginary world of light and sound.
Using a Geiger counter, both cosmic rays, and
those given off by substances and objects of a
more earthly origin, are measured and
transformed into a symphony of laser lights and
sound effects.

In the installation from Clea T. Waite,
spatiality and non-spatiality is one of the
subjects of her work. In her spectacular
stereoscopic video installation, Kur, she
demonstrates 3D effects which only work with the
aid of a special pair of glasses.

Here the visitor is surrounded by four
life-sized stereoscopic projections depicting
dancers. The actors move in and out of the 3D
field of projection and sometimes even enter and
cross the inner space itself, breaking through
the edges of the projection screen and melting
into both worlds.

In addition to the installations described here,
the most recent work from Sera Furneaux (GB),
Luke Jerram (GB), Pamela Hawkins (USA),Karen Murphy (GB)
and A.P.Konen(NL) and including artists groups from Hong  
Kong (curated by Danny Yung and Ellen Pau) will also be  
shown.
--------------------------------------------------------
Festivalorganisation: Alfred Rotert
                      Hermann Noering
                      Ralf Sausmikat
                      and
Int. Student Forum:   Marion Guenther
---------------------------------------------------------
Funding by:  Niedersaechsisches Ministerium fuer
             Wissenschaft und Kultur, Hannover
             Stadt Osnabrueck,
             Auswaertiges Amt, Bonn,
             Bundesministerium fŸr Bildung Wissenschaft,      
             Forschung und Technologie, Bonn,
             European Commission, Brussels,
             and
             contributions made by other supporters

----------------------------------------------------------

European Media Art Fetival
Postbox 1861
Lohstr.45 A
D-49008 Osnabrueck

Tel.: 49/541-21658 or 25779
Fax:  49/541-28327
Internet: http://www.emaf.de
e-mail: emaf@bionic.zerberus.de

For more programme details, tickets, hotels etc. please
visit our web site: www.emaf.de
-----------------------------------------------------------
End