For the tenth time this year, Osnabrück 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 Internet.
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 Osnabrück, 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.
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 himself 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.
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 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.
At the festival`s Electronic Café, 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.
In a series of lectures taking Net criticism as their central theme, 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 and the artist Marina Grzinic (SLO) 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.)
In a "Hong Kong Special," films, videos, installations and Internet projects from this
metropolis of the Orient will be shown. During several lectures given by renowned scientists,
and organised in co-operation with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,
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.
Solange Farkas, director of the largest Latin American video arts and multimedia festival in
Sào Paulo will present the prize winners from the last festival.
Communion - Le Partage des Peaux II, from the Canadian artist, Isabelle Choinière
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.
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 Bürgergehorsam, 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.
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.. .will also be
shown.
European Media Art Fetival
Postbox 1861
D-49008 Osnabrück
Tel.: 0541-21658
Fax: 0541-28327
Internet: http://www.emaf.de
e-mail: emaf@bionic.zerberus.de
Program Overview
