21. EUROPEAN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL

Exhibition until 25 May 2008

AWARDS:
// EMAF AWARD
// DIALOGUE PRIZE
// PRICE OF GERMAN FILM CRITICS
// DIGITAL SPARKS 2008

For five whole days, Osnabrück again was a lively, prominent meeting place for media artists, curators, lenders and gallery owners. This is the meeting place for specialists from the fields of art, culture and the media, as well as an interested international audience. Each year, the festival provides a current overview of the international media art scene. Around 300 current installations, films and videos were selected and shown at this year's festival from a total of around 2200 works submitted from 50 countries. With more than 16,000 visitors and 800 accreditated guests, who attended the screenings, performances, lectures and the exhibition the festival received very positive responses from both the media and the art world.
 

// EMAF AWARD

Winners:
Reynold Reynolds, Title: SECRET LIFE (Installation) Nicholas Provost, Title: PLOT POINT (B 2007, BetaCam 13:39 min)

Statement of the jury:
The jury jointly decided to split the EMAF-prize of 3000 Euro, awarding the installation "Secret Life" by American artist Reynold Reynolds, and the video "Plot Point" by Belgian artist Nicholas Provost.

Reynold Reynolds / "Secret Life" / two channel video installation / 2008

(Quote Reynolds) "One thing that I enjoy about dreams is the way that narrative collapses. Emotion and context replace the question of plot. The subconscious meaning of things becomes prevalent." Reynolds background in physics and philosophy, becomes apparent in both works presented in the EMAF exhibition. The jury decided to award "Secret Life". Set in an apartment, Reynolds frames reality in a laboratory, showing us to what extent our connection with real life is a very subconscious or even unconscious one.

Nicholas Provost / "Plot Point" / 13:39 min / 2007

The crowded streets of New York City turn into fictive, cinematographic scenery. Provost is playing with our collective memory, its cinematic codes and narrative languages _ questioning the boundaries between a staged, suggested reality and authentic fiction. Although for the most part filmed with a hidden camera, "Plot Point" presents a highly dramatic construction with overly sophisticated images and a subtle but tangible urge in the soundtrack.

 
// DIALOGUE PRIZE

Winners:
Julia Meltzer & David Thorne, Title: WE WILL LIVE TO SEE THESE THINGS, OR, FIVE PICTURES OF WHAT MAY COME TO PASS /USA 2007 / Mini DVD / 47:04
Neil Beloufa, Title: KEMPINSKI / F7Mali 2007 / DVD / 13:58

Statement of the jury:
The ministry for external affairs (Auswärtiges Amt) offers a 2.000 EUR dialogue prize for a work which supports the intercultural dialogue between different cultures and regions of the world. The jury selected two works. Each of them gets 1.000 €:

1) Neil Beloufa /"Kempinski" / 13:58 min/ 2007

The jury chose "Kempinski" by Neil Beloufa, who lives in Paris, for the Dialogue Prize because this work questions our expectations and projections of Africa in a very clever way and on a extremely high visual level. The story is set in a small village in Africa. It is night time with little artificial light. The villagers are talking directly into the camera, telling present-time stories of a futuristic, magical world which seems to connect to African culture.

2) Julia Meltzer & David Thorne / "We Will Live to See These Things, or, Five Pictures of What May Come to Pass"/ 47:04 min / 2007

"We Will Live to See These Things, or, Five Pictures of What May Come to Pass" is a political and yet poetic documentary in five parts, each stylistically autonomous and concise. The video delivers a kaleidoscopic and subtle portrait of Syria, opening up possible futures. In a very elaborate but simple visual language the work offers a different perspective on a place where people live between the competing forces of a repressive regime, a growing conservative Islamic movement, and intense pressure of the United States.
 

// PRIZE FOR THE BEST GERMAN EXPERIMENTAL FILM

This year's "Preis der deutschen Filmkritik" in the category "Experimentalfilm", conferred during the European Media Art Festival Osnabrück by the "Verband der deutschen Filmkritiker" goes to Sylvia Schedelbauer for her film "Falsche Freunde" (false friends).

Statement of the jury:
With the simple means of old black-and-white archive material and rather familiar, albeit slightly alienated horror soundtrack, the director manages to draw the viewer into the nightmarish atmosphere of the images by the unsettling rhythm of the cuts. "Falsche Freunde" takes place in the undefined space between video art and feature film narration. The oppressive tension never abates, even though the mysteriousness, which is reminiscent of David Lynch, of the dark - in both senses of the word - scenes do not look set to be deciphered.

 
// DIGITAL SPARKS 08

Honorary Mentions:

"Rechnender Raum (Calculating Space)" by Ralf Baecker
"Rückblende" by Nils Deneken
"SARoskop by Martin Hesselmeier & Karin Lingnau
"Schüchterne Lichter - Timid Lights" by Mey Lean Kronemann
"Sensisphere" by Benjamin Mayer and Martin Spengler
"Touched Echo" by Markus Kison

Award Winners:

"Wartende Maschinen - Zur Ästhetik des Hinterhalts" by Hannes Waldschütz
"Click & Glue" by Jana Linke
"Rauschen & Brausen" by Daniel Burkhardt

For more information please visit www.netzspannung.org .

// EXHIBITION "Young Identities - Global Youth"

The exhibition of the festival "Young identitities", will be shown auntil May 25th in the art gallery Dominican Church. Works by the following artists are shown: AES + F ("Last Riot"), Janet Biggs ("Airs Above The Ground"), Aline Bouvy + John Gillis ("Venusia"), Martin Brand ("Pitbull Germany"), Martin Butler ("The girlfriend experience"), Stefan Demming ("Where are the Cacos now"), Johanna Domke ("A Sunset Takes 7 Minutes"), Groupe Dunes ("Here, in this part of the world"), Markus Kison ("Ticker Cross"), Bjørn Melhus ("Deadly Storms"), Stefan Panhans ("Glow"), Franc Purg + Sara Heitlinger ("Privileged Tactics I"), Reynold Reynolds ("Secret Life"), Jeyo Rhii ("Liegen am Han-Fluss"), Anke Schäfer ("Rehearsal Last Supper"), Jeremy Shaw ("Best Minds Part One"), Andrea Sunder-Plassmann ("Les Enfant Bleus"), Jean-Luc Vilmouth ("Expert").

// CONCEPT AND FESTIVAL MANAGEMENT

Hermann Noering, Alfred Rotert, Ralf Sausmikat.

// SPONSORS

nordmedia - Die Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen mbH
City of Osnabrueck
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
German Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Culture 2000
EU Commission - MEDIA Programme, as well as funding from other sponsors.

// MEDIA PARTNER

arte
le monde diplomatique

// CULTURAL PARTNER

NDR-Kultur

// FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

www.emaf.de
info(at)emaf.de

European Media Art Festival
Lohstr. 45 a
49074 Osnabrueck
Tel. 0541/ 216 58
Fax. 0541/ 28327