[spectre] VIDEO ART\e-monitor 15 - Media Art Preservation a.o.

[Torben Soeborg]

    VIDEO ART\e-monitor 15 - THE DANISH VIDEO ART DATA BANK

April  29, 2003

Content:

1.	Lars Movin: Videologier 2 - new book, this time about
European Video Art
2.	<http://www.mediaart-preservation/>www.mediaart-preservation
- New web site from The DATA BANK
3.	Problems in Haderslev: DFI's Video Workshop
4.	404 Object Not Found: Congress concerning
production/presentation/preservation of media arts


  1. Lars Movin: Videologier 2 - New Danish Book about European Video Art

  In VIDEO ART\e-monitor No. 8, November 28, 2001 I reviewed Lars
Movin's book about American video art - 33 essays and interviews
written between 1988 and 2000 (1). and originally published partly in
Danish magazines and newspapers or as catalogue texts but thoroughly
revised before published again in this book.

  As I pointed out then no one in Denmark has written and published
more about video and video art as Lars Movin and now he has collected
other 33 essays and interviews - this time about European video art
(2).

  It's also this time a pleasure to read - or reread - these texts and
also this time you must state that it is a petty this book is
published only in Danish and only can be read by a Scandinavian
public because it is a valuable contribution to the history and
development of European video art.

  Lars Movin has focused on the period between 1990 and 2002 but the
overall structure is the same as in the first book- 33 texts that
each and one strike on a tendency, an artist, a video work, but
together they are - to quote Lars Movin - "Š a mosaic and a line of
bids on the multiplicity of strategies, possibilities and expressions
of the actual video-based art." (3)

In the book Movin reprints interviews with Marina Abramovic & Ulay,
Peter Land, Georgina Star, Teemu MŠki, Breda Bedan & Hrvoje Horvatic,
Pipilotti Rist, Ane Mette Ruge, Marie JosŽ Burki, Richard Billingham,
Kutlug Ataman, Gitte Villesen, Soeren Martinsen, Matthew Buckingham &
Joachim Koester, Alexander Krivonos, Pierre Huyghe, Douglas Gordon,
Runa Islam, Joachim Hamou, Ejla-Liisa Ahtila, Ange Leccia, Michael
+ quite a few more is mentioned in essays about video and
performance, the new video-documentary subjectivity and
scratch-video. The interviews are very detailed and most of the
artists are very well articulated which gives you a vivid insight
into the artists' strategies. It seems important for Movin to
emphasise that most of the artists also work with other media than
video and don't call themselves video artists. I don't find anything
astonishing about that - of course an artist would work with
different media, but anyway for me it is like Helge Krarup express it
in his review of the book in the Danish newspaper Information (4)
that he will "regard artists' work with video as video art, whether
they call themselves video artists or not".

  Of course I have to admit that some of the names don't mean much to
me - and of course I also have to admit that I miss quite a few to
give a full picture of European video art: Fabizio Plessi, whom I
personally consider one of the best - if not the best - European
artist working with video, but also artists like Marie LaFontaine,
David Hall, Antal Lux, Mariki Hakola, Madelon Hooykaas & Elsa
Stansfield and Niels Lomholt.

  Š but of course "non of the books pretends to be video art
histories, and you should in this way not expect that all kinds of
video art is treated exhaustive and at the same time accuse the books
of omissions" as Helge Krarup points out (4)

  Also this time I have some reservations concerning the book. As I
already said: It's very fine to have these writings collected and
(re)published, but like I pointed out with Videologier 1 you many
times "sit back with the feeling that you would like to know how
things and viewpoints developed after the essays/ interviews were
made. And you would like to confront viewpoints expressed by one
artist with viewpoints by other artists" (5) - just one example: the
interview with Simon Biggs is from 1995 and now 8 years old. In these
eight years Simon has not "stand still" and it would have been
interesting to know how his viewpoints have developed (but of course
you can go to his web site and read more).

  A real problem for me is the same problem I had with Movin's first
book so let me quote what I wrote then (5): " Š the book is not
supplied with a proper notes/references section! - except for
information about when and where the essays/interviews originally
were published ".

In many cases Lars Movin quotes from other books/essays/magazines
what others have said about artists and videos or he refers to
statements by the video artist. This is fine except that there is no
references to where you can find and verify or elaborate these
reference. This is quite amassing for  a book like this. It somehow
"devaluate" the use of the book - and I am close to call this absence
an unforgivable, inexcusable "mortal sin" Š" As also Helge Krarup
states: "this restricts its use as a reference book which otherwise
would have been evident".

  Too bad that Movin hasn't done it better with book 2, because except
for my reservations I also this time find it of great value to have
Lars Movin's writings through more than 10 years about European video
art collected an made available - at least for readers in Scandinavia
- and I find the book a fine supplement to his first book.

Torben Soeborg

Notes:
(1) Lars Movin: Videologier. 33 tekster om amerikansk  videokunst,
364 pages, Skolen for Mediekunst, Det Kgl. Danske Kunstakademi,
Copenhagen, 2001
(2) Lars Movin: Videologier 2. 33 tekster om europaeisk videokunst,
404 pages, Skolen for Mediekunst, Det kgl. Danske Kunstakademi,
Copenhagen, 2003
(3) Lars Movin, ibid, p. 13
(4) Helge Krarup: Video - en aabning til ny kunst, Information,
Copenhagen, March 20, 2003
(5) VIDEO ART\e-monitor No. 8, November 28, 2001,
<http://www.videoart.suite.dk/e-monitor>www.videoart.suite.dk/e-monitor


  2. <http://www.mediaart-preservation/>www.mediaart-preservation  -
New Web Site from The DATA BANK

  In our VIDEO ART\e-monitor newsletters THE DANISH VIDEO ART DATA
BANK has often treated the problems about the preservation,
conservation and restoration of video tapes. The DATA BANK has now
collected these texts on a new web site:
<http://www.mediaart-preservation/>http://www.mediaart-preservation

  The DATA BANK will also in the future treat the problems of
preservation of video and media art and add and update the content on
this new web site - so check it from time to time!
(PS: You can also get to the content through our "old" web site
<http://www.videoart.suite.dk/>www.videoart.suite.dk).


3. Problems in Haderslev: DFI's Video Workshop

  The Danish Film Institute has since the 1970'ties  had a video
workshop in Haderslev in the Southern part of Jutland. This has been
a "joint venture" between the Institute and the municipal of
Haderslev  but since our conservative-liberal government is cutting
down on support to social welfare and culture and don't allow the
local authorities to raise the taxes Haderslev wanted to cut there
support to the workshop. Personally I think the Institute saw this as
an opportunity to close the workshop - although they said that they
might want to move it to Odense on Fuen. As a representative for the
Danish Video and Film Workshops in the Contact Committee of the
Danish Film Institute I protested - together with many others -
against this decision. Oddly enough so did also the ministry of
culture and now the Institute, the ministry and the municipality as
agreed upon not to close or move the Video Workshop but organise it
as an independent, self-governing institution with financial support
from both the Institute and the municipality.

  For once a happy ending!


  4. "404 Object Not Found: What remains of media art?"

  It is very good to see that the problems with preservation of video
tapes and other forms for immaterial variable and unstable media art
works is getting more and more attention.

Reasently both the Danish and Swedish national papers Politiken and
Dagens Nyheter has reported about the problems and also the German
art magazine ART. Das Kunstmagazin refers to the problem of “Das
unaufhaltsame Flimmern" at page 119 in no. 4, April 2003.

And now the medien_kunst_netz dortmund in Germany is organizing an
international congress, June 19-22 in Dortmund, concerning the
production, presentation and preservation of media art - asking the
question: "What remains of media art"? The congress will give
particular attention to problems concerning the production,
presentation and preservation of multimedia installations, net art
and software art and also focus on investigating media art in terms
of art theory with aspects of its processual and "unstable" nature,
its embeddedness in space or a specific context as well as its
philosophies of a multiple or open authorship. The congress have a
web site - <http://www.404project.net/>www.404project.net - where you
can find more details about the congress and where the program will
be regularly updated.

  We can strongly recommend to participate in this congress. You can
find registration forms at the web site. Participation requires
written registration and advance payment of the conference fee:
Before or on May 15, 2003 at a reduced fee; from May 16 on at the
standard fee.

  Torben Soeborg


  THE DANISH VIDEO ART DATA BANK is a non-profit agency for promoting
Danish video art outside Denmark

  The VIDEO ART\e-monitor is an e-mail edition of the former printed
newsletter "monitor". Both were and are published with irrugular
intervals - "monitor" from 1985-86 up to no. 48 in december 2000 and
"VIDEO ART\e-monitor" since February 2001. Editor:  Torben Soeborg
(<mailto:soeborg at inet-uni2.dk>soeborg at inet-uni2.dk ).

  You can find the earlier editions of VIDEO ART\e-monitor on
<http://www.videoart.dk/e-monitor>www.videoart.dk/e-monitor . If you
want to  receive VIDEO ART\e-monitor (free) send an e-mail to
<mailto:soeborg at inet.uni2>soeborg at inet.uni2

  THE DANISH VIDEO ART DATA BANK
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Denmark
tel: +45-56.31.21.21
<mailto:soeborg at inet.uni2.dk>soeborg at inet.uni2.dk
<http://www.videoart.suite.dk>http://www.videoart.suite.dk