feature
Launch
4th edition of NewMediaFest2020
Launch of 4th edition of NewMediaFest2020. It is the 1st edition of the 1st Corona Festival. It is the aim of each festival edition, to present the diversity of digital art creations in a retrospective (2000-2020).
Actually, in April 2020 two collaborations – with Over The Real Video Art Festival Lucca/Italy and Torrance Art Museum Los Angeles – were meant to represent the physical venues, but they had to postponed to a later stage, of course, due to the Corona crisis.
In order to honour the three collaborations with Torrance Art Museum before 2020, Wilfried thought, it would be a great idea to install on NewMediaFest2020 in April the virtual Torrance’ “Darkroom” by presenting online the screening programs of the previous collaborations in 2014, 2016 and 2018 – comprehensive compilations of artvideos, and give, at the same time, the online user the opportunity to participate in a 24 hours lasting videoart screening program, which is complemented by the relaunch of CologneOFF I – Identityscapes – 1st edition of Cologne International Videoart Festival, launched in April 2005 – dealing thematically with “gender identity”.
Further a curatorial feature, curated by Calin Man (Arad/Romania) is focussing on Kinema Ikon as a platform for experimental film in the times of Ceauacescu’s dictatorship over Romania, video creation as a kind of internal resistance against the system.
Featured Video Artist of the month April 2020 is: Albert Merino, and his imaginative video creations using digital video as the basis for most individual imaginary narratives. The feature encompasses in total 10 videos originating from the years 2009-2018.
Featured Netartist of April 2020 is: Jody Zellen who is looking back on more than 20 years netart creations starting already in 1998 with “Ghost City”. The changing urban environment, the perception of this environment and the memory of its inhabitants are basic topics of her creations. Although Jody Zellen is working in different physical and virtual media, the feature is honouring Jody as one of premiere netartists, not only at the high time of netart 1998-2005, but also nowadays, because the works, selected for the feature are as “fresh” as at the time of creation, not only in these terms, that all her creations are still available for online use, the applied technology is still working and the topics seem to be ageless, because they are as current as they had be at their time.
Like the festival editions before, the feature is complemented by exemplary individual works by netartists whose work is still online – Reiner Strasser, Sachiko Hayashi, Raúl Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet, Katie Bush, Santo_file, Simon Fildes & Katrina McPherson, Talking Birds.
Also this month, there is a sonic art feature: SoundLAB I, the 1st edition of a series of annually realizes international soundart projects. Originally created as SoundLAB Channel for Wilfried’s “THe [R][R][F] Project” as it was released and installed on 1 September 2004 at BEAP – Biennale of Electronic Art in Perth/Australia, the feature is presenting “only” a selection, the curators involved in “SoundLAB I” will be honoured at a later stage separately.
