[spectre] Recent Video Art from Germany at Sara Meltzer Gallery NY

[Geert Lovink]

> Sara Meltzer Gallery presents:
> Trans Video Express: Recent Video Art from Germany
> curated by John von Bergen
> Thursday, October 18th from 6:30 - 7:30pm
> Thursday, October 25th from 6:30 - 7:30pm
> Screenings begin promptly at 6:30pm.
>
> sara meltzer gallery - 525 - 531 west 26th street, new york, ny, 
> 10001, United States
>  
> Since its inception decades ago, video art has gradually become a 
> medium that can no longer be labeled  unconventional or Avant-Garde. 
> And although the German painting phenomenon has recently been a strong 
> export on the international art scene, conversations continue about 
> other forms of German art, including historical perspectives in video.
>
> Having lived in Berlin the last few years I began to notice the 
> possible ways in which cultural languages begin to change when 
> crossing The Atlantic. The idea of sharing some of the current video 
> works that I have recently seen in Germany to an American audience is 
> just one way to open a dialogue about what is happening in this part 
> of Europe at this time. But it would not be fair to suggest that these 
> evenings could offer a comprehensive overview of the video art coming 
> out of Germany (and this is by no means another Biennale). However 
> what is being presented is a small spectrum of projects involving 
> narration, abstraction, found footage, documentation, loud theatrics, 
> poetic discussions, and the breaking of some rules (and maybe even 
> some laws). One could say these positions may not yet be positions. 
> But the videos being presented still become vehicles for making a 
> comment, taking a risk, hitting a nerve, or simply trying to offer a 
> small glimpse at something beautiful.
>
> The artists are currently working in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, 
> Dresden, Leipzig, Stuttgart, and Karlsruhe, and many will be 
> presenting their works for the first time in The United States.
> Screening #1/October 18th:
>
> In Zweite Sonne (Second Sun), Marc Aschenbrenner struggles across an 
> Austrian landscape, while the helium balloon attached to his costume 
> grows to epic proportion. Kopffüssler (Head Walker), is a brief but 
> climactic situation when the artist wears an over-sized green head, as 
> he jumps, struggles, and reacts violently to a white-cubed room.
>
> Roland Schappert (in cooperation with the poet Michael Ebmeyer) 
> delivers us Bar/Vegetation, a short film where a poet’s voice blends 
> over ridiculous chance gestures and facial abstractions of a family 
> being interviewed.
>
> In City of Cool, The Dresden-based artist collective 
> REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT(whose German implications range from "Cleaning 
> Service" to “Purification Society”) work their way through Leipzig’s 
> working class district of Plagwitz, changing street signs into poetic 
> diversions. Locals and passersby are quizzed of the pros and cons of 
> their project, which inevitably opens up a larger discussion about the 
> current problems in Germany.
>
> Alicja Kwade's video No Light Left takes a low-tech approach towards a 
> sci-fi production. She creates a universe of tumultuous light-sources 
> as the screen shifts between the familiar and the uncanny.
>
> Christof Zwiener’s Brückenbau (Building Bridges) shows the artist’s 
> personal adventure of trespassing through a remote building site with 
> his camera, fabricating perhaps one of the world’s smallest and 
> never-to-be-noticed “public artworks”.
>
> Knut Klassen (a former collaborator with John Bock and the artist 
> group Gelatin) creates video works that cannot be so easily 
> categorized as art films, nor as documentaries. In Lis, he has 
> developed a language of conditions that depend on unscripted actors 
> engaging in both private and social rituals. Incomprehensible 
> performances are intertwined with the monologue of a young actress, 
> while revealing glimpses into Berlin’s off-space theatre scene.
>
> Screening #2/October 25th:
>
> Pablo Wendel re-creates himself as one of the oldest sculptures known 
> to man in his video Terra Cotta Warrior, proving what can happen to an 
> imposter as he attempts to blend in with the other 7,000 warrior 
> statues displayed in North Western China. Eventually Wendel is 
> discovered by confused security guards, yet maintains his inanimate 
> posture as he is dragged off the scene.
>
> In Stefan Panhan’s film Sieben bis zehn Millionen (Seven to Ten 
> Million), an androgynous youth speaks to us in front of a slowly paced 
> snowfall, as we experience a rapid-fire monologue (with rapid-fire 
> subtitles) about consumer obsessions.
>
> Susan Schmidt and David Buob present Dad's Cellar, where a strange and 
> dreamy dialogue is heard from the artists as double-channeled holiday 
> scenes suggest a serene but chilling nostalgia… a glance at the 
> relationship between individual and space.
>
> Wolfgang Oelze’s work Old Painful collects a range of Hollywood 
> moments that deal with cinematic themes pertaining to suicide. 
> Juxtaposed scenes lead us through a labyrinth of contemplations, and 
> create a network of circumstances that suggest desperate motives from 
> unconventional points of view.
>
> Julia Oschatz creates a romantic, humorous, and tragic environment 
> with her film Cut and Run. Partially referencing Caspar David 
> Friedrich’s Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, we witness a play between sense and 
> nonsense, as her ambiguously headed character stages paralyzing 
> actions in a post-production reality.
>
> In a more documentary fashion,  Peter Jap Lim's work Gehen Üben 
> (Practicing Walking) involves a private session in which Jap Lim had 
> hired an actor to teach a group of Germans literally how to walk. The 
> exercises border self-conscious acts of absurdity, as adults re-learn 
> the basics of moving around each other.
>
> Johannes Wald’s untitled film is a short but definitive finale, as the 
> artist strolls through a park at dusk, lighting up a street lamp from 
> what appears to be an inventive act of vandalism.
>
> John von Bergen was born in Connecticut in 1971, and received his 
> B.F.A. Degree with Honors at The School of Visual Arts in New York. In 
> 2003 von Bergen moved to Berlin with an invitation from the Berlin 
> Senate for Culture. Since living in Germany, von Bergen's work has 
> been exhibited in various galleries and venues including Halle 14 in 
> Leipzig, Wilhelm Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen, Kunstraum Innsbruck in 
> Austria, and The Brno House of Art in Czech Republic. This last spring 
> he was invited for a residency at "7. Stock" in Dresden. In September 
> von Bergen opened a solo exhibition titled "THE ITCH" at Galerie Lena 
> Bruening in Berlin, and was also recently profiled in the book "Berlin 
> Art (No. 1)" by Stefan Maria Rother. Upcoming projects include a 
> presentation at "Elektrohaus" in Hamburg, and a collaborative work 
> with the writer Jonathan Lethem.
>
> The screenings will also be on view during regular gallery hours
> Tuesday through Saturday, 11am - 6pm
> October 23rd through November 3rd. 
> Programs will alternate hourly.
> The gallery will be closing at 3pm on Saturday, November 3rd.
>
> for more information please contact:
>
> Sara Meltzer Gallery
> 525-531 West 26th Street, 4th Floor
> New York NY 10001
> 212 727 9330
> www.sarameltzergallery.com