feature
Visions in the Nunnery 2007
House of Tomorrow
Videoart from Great Britain –
VideoChannel selection
London
Today, Visions in the Nunnery 2007 is starting a two days lasting video art exhibition organised by Tessa Garland, Darshana Vora and Cinzia Cremona at the Bow Trust’s Nunnery Gallery in London, including Wilfried’s video
Wilfried has a particular relation to Great Britain, starting already as a child when he liked to read English literature. Of course, he was a fan of the Beatles, they were accompanying him during the high school years, before he was turning to Rhythm & Blues as his favourite popular music. In the 80ies of the past century he was realising an exhibition project travelling through England and Scotland including numerous smaller museums as venues. On this occasion he was visiting Great Britain for the 1st time starting in the South in Tunbridge Wells, afterwards London, Nottingham, Glasgow and Ayr, Sunderland, Beverly, York and Durham – he was impressed by the cathedrals at these places and the landscapes lying in the innocence of the Spring sun, and unusually kind, open and supportive people, but in Scotland he felt really strange as if he had been there many times, he felt at home while looking on the deserted landscapes and, he met never before or later friendlier and more accomodating people than in Scotland – if Scotland wouldn’t be so far distant, Wilfried was thinking, he would love to live here at the perifery of Europe. At that time, Great Britain wasn’t part of the European Union, yet and a lot of mentality was changing meanwhile – to the worse, however.
Wilfried is understanding nowadays, that he was a pioneer at that time being confronted with a kind of open system, an historical moment for some years, but sometimes the doors were closed.
Great Britain became relevant only again in the new millenium, some of the successful netartists are British- and later, when he started curating videoart many British video artist were participating in his projects – it was again a kind of open time, and again after some years, the doors were closing slowly again. There seems to be a kind of wave movement of hate and love up and down relationenship in the relation between the British ande the others.
All these considerations are now the occasion to show a selection of videos by British artists from the years 2007-2014, these years when Wilfried was realising during 10 years Cologne International Videoart Festival.