21st EUROPEAN MEDIA ART FESTIVAL
Festival 23-27 April 2008
Exhibition 23 April – 25 May 2008
// YOUNG IDENTITIES – GLOBAL YOUTH
This year’s exhibition at the 21st European Media Art Festival is completely devoted to youth. In their contemplations and subjective interventions, international media artists grapple with the world of youth in very different ways. How are the life situations of adolescents reflected in Media Art? Here are just a few examples: in "Venusia" the Belgian artist duo Aline Bouvy and John Gillis develop an outrageously colourful film collage of consumer goods and body parts from advertisement images that promise prestige, eroticism and luxury. In "Where are the Cacos Now?" Stefan Demming displays a meeting with the ‘Cacos’ (thieves), a group of youths in Neza, a suburb of Mexico City. In Franc Purg and Sara Heitlinger’s audio project "Privileged Tactics I" street kids from Kiev give advice to adolescents from richer countries on how to become a successful shoplifter. In "Expert" the Belgian Jean-Luc Vilmouth documents why a boy from the Cambodian hinterland becomes an expert in anti-personnel mines from the USA, China or Japan.
The exhibition will be shown at the Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche in Osnabrück from 23 April to 25 May.
// List of artists
AES + F ("Last Riot"), Janet Biggs ("Airs Above The Ground"), Aline Bouvy + John Gillis ("Venusia"), Martin Brand ("Pitbull Germany"), Martin Butler ("The girlfriend experience"), Stephan 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").
// CONTOUR SPECIALS
The internationally renowned media artists Reynold Reynolds and Bjørn Melhus are currently creating two elaborate new installations for the European Media Art Festival 2008. These works will premiere in Osnabrück, after which they will be exhibited in a large number of European cities.
The starting point for Bjørn Melhus’ installation "Deadly Storms 1-3" is Rupert Murdoch’s news channel FOX NEWS, one of the most powerful and influential news networks in the United States. FOX NEWS claims to be fair and balanced, but the Republican propaganda machine creates an atmosphere of permanent alert as part of the ‘War on Terror’ and a policy of fear.
For Reynold Reynolds, the protagonist’s mind in "Secret Life" is at the same time a prison for her thoughts: caught up in a minute world, she feels as though her cognitive walls cannot be surmounted. Without the context of space and time, her mind collapses and deletes her horizon of experiences, leaving her with only emotions.
The multimedia artists Madeleine Chiche and Bernard Misrachi (Marseille), who perform as the Groupe Dunes, create dense installative realms of experience. Their installation "Here, in this part of the world" will be exhibited at the EMAF. In complex surroundings consisting of video, sound, neon lights and coloured lighting, they unveil and accentuate life and the places where they perform, exploring concealed everyday life.
The works exhibited by Reynold Reynolds and Bjørn Melhus and by Aline Bouvy and John Gillis and the Groupe Dunes were created in cooperation with Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand, and rendered possible by the Contour support programme, financed by the European Union within "Culture 2000".
// DIGITAL SPARKS 08
This year, the award-winners of "digital sparks 08" will be selected at the EMAF. Students from 47 higher education institutions, academies and universities from Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as German exchanges students from Boston and Bolzano took part in the competition. 144 entries were submitted and 66 projects were nominated. The digital sparks competition has been realised since 2001 by the MARS-Exploratory Media Lab of the Fraunhofer IAIS under the direction of Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
// PROGRAMME
Scintillating programme elements, which we will cover in our next newsletter, also await you in the fields of:
// CINEMA
// PERFORMANCES
// CONGRESS
// REGISTRATIONS
If you don’t want to miss it, register now. Detailed information can be found at www.emaf.de. Make use of the special conditions we have arranged with a number of hotels. We are, of course, also happy to help you plan your trip, and will guide you through all of the festival dates once you arrive. We look forward to hearing from you. Please note: final registrations will be accepted on 11 April 2008!!!!
// CONCEPT AND FESTIVALMANAGEMENT
Hermann Noering, Alfred Rotert, Ralf Sausmikat.
We hope we have aroused your curiosity, and would like to warmly invite you all to visit the festival.
The Festival Team
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// The next EMAF Newsletter 03-2008 will brief you on the FilmVideo-Programme, performances and the EMAF Congress..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// 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 PARTNERS
arte
le monde diplomatique
// CULTURAL PARTNER
NDR-Kultur
// 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