Videoart feature
Selection from CologneOFF
9 February 2006
Today, Wilfried receives the invitation to attend VIII International Digital Art Exhibit and Colloquium to be held in Havana, Cuba, from June 19 to July 16, 2006 organized by Centro Cultural Pablo de La Torriente Brau. Wilfried who had participated in the digital art festival already the years before, recognizes the chance to visit CUBA – the Caribbean, which sounds magic and adventurous.
Cuba – Fidel Castros Communist republic is not only any island, but a place widely isolated from the rest of the world, it is not so easy to reach Cuba, at all – for Wilfried it is representing, however a challenge, because strangely he feels emotionally really much connected with Cuba and its inhabitants, which will be confirmed when he is traveling to the island in June. He is curious to meet in Havanna people from other Latin American countries, he usually would never meet elsewhere. 
Wilfried will spend more than 10 days in Havanna and leave Cuba afterwards with the remark – if he would be younger, he would immediately stay on Cuba, because in 2006 the country was in a kind of intermediate state, hesitantly opening to the rest of the world only, not yet too much influenced by Western materialistic values. Havanna is really a magic place, yet in 2006, when the old city centre is still under the reconstruction and the 1st renovated buildings are shining in a celestial light, giving an impression how the city might look like after the reconstruction. Later when Wilfried will be visiting Havanna 12 years later, it will have lost any magic and charm, the inhabitants will have become money-grubbing and rude, waves of tourists will be overwhelming the colourful city with their empty materialism. What a shame!
9 February 2007
Today, Friday, 9 February another edition of The Carnival of e-Creativity & Change-agents Conclave presented by The Academy of Electronic Arts @ India International Centre. Its initiator and director Shankar Barua will present the 2 first editions of Cologne International Videoart Festival. Although Wilfried will be participating in total 10 times in the exotic and exiting event, he will never attend only one edition in person. It is really pity, because there are so many places in India which are worth to be visited from Wilfried’s artistical point of view.
There are several reasons for hisitating to visit India, travelling and staying in India may be quite expensive, and visiting such interesting places for just 2 days does not make much sense, so a longer trip is required allowing to stay a reasonable time at least some of the magic places and come closer to the local people – yes, it will always take too much time, because in February, Wilfried is always preparing the launch of major projects later in a year, in 2007 it is CologneOFF III and numerous collaborations with other partners.
So, each year will be another reason why Will cannot visit India, and after Shankar will stop CeC in 2016, it simply will be too late, and Wilfried will feel additionally quite old for such an exhausting travel for a longer period in a subtropical country. Another missed chance! a complementary video selection
Unnur A. Einarsdottir (Iceland) – Toilet, 2005, – 3:00
Ane Lan (Norway) – Ane Lan, 2005 – 3:00
Risk Hazekamp (the Netherlands) – Gay King, 2005 – 3:00
Fred Koenig (France) – The International Love, 2005, 11:29
Capel, Mattieu (France) – Rupture, 2005, 4:44
*Gabriel Shalom (USA) – Small Room Tango, 2004, 3:40
*Jason Paul Cardot (USA) – Speye – 2:54
*Sinasi Günes (Turkey) – Gicir, 2006, 3:03
Mylicon/EN (Italy) – Stylaria, 2004, 4:07
Letitia El Halli Obeod (Argentina) – 2001, 2:33
*Sonja VUK (Croatia) – My Way , 2006, 1:00
Ann Rosen (Sweden) – Deputy Silence, 2004, 5:15
