>Document< 18th European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck, Germany

>DocumentDocumentDocument< is to examine artistic work as the document of a creative process." The increasing digitisation of pictures, and the discussion that accompanies it regarding their authenticity and perception, is clearly a subject with which many artists are currently preoccupied.

The entries, which were submitted from over 50 countries including Iran, Uganda, Colombia and Thailand, do not only show that "media art has firmly established itself as a form of art the world over," according to the curator of the exhibition, Alfred Rotert. What is more, the regional distribution of the entries emphasises the important role the EMAF plays as one of the most significant forums for modern media art.

Once again, this year's EMAF will present a number of international stars from the media art scene, including, e.g. Harun Farocki, the Berlin director, to whom a show will be dedicated. The EMAF will present a total of eleven of his works, in addition to Farocki's double projection "Auge/Maschine I-III" (Eye/Machine I-III), in which he links frames from war technology to those from the commercial sales world, thus shedding light upon the generally expanding system of technological control.

Santiago Sierra, a Spaniard resident in Mexico, is known for his performance-like installations. In 2003, for instance, he designed the Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He will be presenting "Linea de 250 cm tatuada sobre seis personas remunerada". This video installation shows a 250 centimetre horizontal black line being tattooed on the backs of six people standing in a row, who have been paid to do this.

Hartmut Jahn, media artist, demands us in his creation to "Switch off the TV!" (Schalten Sie den Fernseher ab!), an unusual portrait of a generation of artists. His multi-channel video installation makes use of interviews with Fluxus pioneers such as Ben Vautier, Carolee Schneemann, Wilem de Ridder and Emmet Williams.
In "The Tulse Luper Suitcases - The Game" the EMAF presents an excerpt of a mammoth project of the same name by doyen Peter Greenaway. In three motion picture films, 16 TV films, on CD-ROM, in books and 92 suitcases the Welshman meticulously documents the history of the last century. The centre of attention is his alter ego, Tulse Luper, who spends most of his life between 1928, the year in which uranium was discovered, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, behind bars, in which time he leaves behind 92 suitcases. The interactive game enables three players to follow the tracks of Tulse Luper simultaneously. Their "experiences" are projected back to the exhibition. In his guest appearance at the festival, Greenaway will report about the overall concept of his project.

The past and the future will also be the subject at one of the congress' roundtables. Under the title "Audiovisual Archives", media artists and representatives from media academies and archives will discuss the archiving and digitisation of media art, and the public's accessibility to them.

The retrospective of the film programme is dedicated to one of the most original American film-makers of the 60s and 70s: Owen Land. As a forerunner of Structuralism, Land was one of the first people to turn to the strips of film themselves in a humorous manner. The retrospective from the archives of the Austrian Film Museum, last shown at the London Tate Modern, will be presented by Mark Webber.

This year's co-operation partner of the `international student forum´ is the University of Fine Arts Kassel. Under the direction of Joel Baumann, professor of new media, and Bjørn Melhus, professor of "virtual realities", students following the degree programme "Visual Communication" will present their latest works. Baumann and Melhus, whose works have also been screened at EMAF on numerous occasions, consider the EMAF to be an excellent platform for their students to present their works to the public in a professional surrounding at a well-known festival.

The European Media Art Festival will take place from 20 to 24 April. The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche will be shown until 15 May.

For further information see www.emaf.de

Contact:
Frank Terhorst
[email protected]
tel: ++49-(0)541-21658
fax: ++49-(0)541-28327


The EUROPEAN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL is funded by

// nordmedia - Die Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH
// Osnabruck City Council
// Federal Ministry of Education and Research
// EU Commission - MEDIA Programme
// Ministry of Foreign Affairs
// VGS Unternehmensberatug GmbH
// pco Personal Computer Organisation
// hellmann worldwide logistics
// Canadian Embassy
// as well as donations from other sponsors.

The EMAF is a member of the European Coordination of Film Festivals E.C.F.F.