video feature
CologneOFF 2011 selection
Sevilla
Art Channel
Sevilla
Today in 2006, Wilfried is participating for the 2nd time in Zemos 98 – Festival Audiovisual Sevilla/Spain, after he had participated in 2005 already and will do it next year in 2007 in the 9th festival edition, but is not attending the festival, and therefore he never visited Sevilla – unfortunately!
The “scene” of videoart has two components reaching a physical audience, public museums and galleries and festivals, whereby the festival, respectively participating in a festival is offerering the artist more perspectives, because there are much more such festivals than opportunities in the field of exhibitions in museums or galleries.
The festival in Sevilla is typical for a whole festival scene which is in a permanent crisis due to the lack of finances, and in this way also the whole genre of “moving images” is in a permanent crisis, especially in the field of videoart / artvideo – differently than in visual arts, there does not exist a commercial market, and for an artist the occasions for selling such an artwork are more than rare. 
Additionally, much more than in the dogmatic conservative field of museums, the festival scene is reacting on current technological, economical, social, political developments – encouraging, even enforcing artists to follow certain trends generating particular dynamics, and at the same time public budgets cut the money for culture not only occasionally but permanently, it is a miracle that after cutting the budgets during many decades only one cent is left for culture.
There is a recognizable contradiction between the available money and the floods of continuously uprising initiatives of subsequent generations, so that in the end only a few already established organisations receive support and funding, and these organisations feel the need to defend themselves permanently against the younger competitors, and “kill” them, if possible.
When Wilfried established himself in 2000, he was born in such an escalating situation, when such established instances recognized Wilfried as such a competitor who might have the potential to take away their priviledges, but each subsequent initiative has to fight for its own survival, because the “establishment” is always defendig its priviledges.
Zemos 98, founded 1998, like the name is indicating, is such an initiative which was looking and finding its way, by changing the aims of the organisation. So, it is still existing, but that type of festival it was organising during the 1st decade on 21st centure does not exist any longer.
Festival Audiovisual Zemos98_7 – 1-6 March 2005 – meeting, 2004, 1:00
Festival Audiovisual Zemos98_8 – 14-18 March 2006 – House of Tomorrow, 2005, 3:00
Zemos’98 – Videofestival_9 – 19-25 March 2007 – Orfeo Negro, 2006, 4:30
view a complementary selection of videos
Art Channel Paris
Another typical project on the net is Art Channel TV Paris by Milan Atanaskovic – active around the years 2006 – 2013 // ART CHANNEL – TELEVISION AS ART
Art Channel is an innovative concept in visual arts: TELEVISION AS ART. For the first time in the history of art we have an artwork that consists of modular media construction of digital video works that are broadcast via orbital satellites above the huge territories of Europe, Asia and Africa, aimed at large audience.
Television is the most dominant media of our time. Its development has reached unexpected proportions: television created its own reality which exists in parallel with the real world. Images created by television are convincing and expedient, its “truths” are more powerful, its capability to shape the public opinion is awesome. The consequences of its influence are universal and global (McLuhan). Television is the product of reality that generates its own, artificial, “TV reality”. It operates by its own set of rules that are very different from those of the “real” reality experienced by our own senses. Those are the rules of illusions (Baudrillard). In its beginnings firmly dominated by the mechanisms of governmental control, television today, prompted by digital technology development, enters the phase in which its progress adopts many different aspects of interactive and computer technologies, thus generating ever growing semblance of freedom of creativity and content………..etc.
Wilfried is participating in ArtChannel Paris @ Videoformes Clermont-Ferrand/F 13-17 March 2007 – presenting 3 art videos – Inability of Being Nude, Truth-Paradise Found and House of Tomorrow – and the same will be presented later @ ArtChannel Paris – “13Sévigné” Gallery Paris 14-23 June 2007 and further ArtChannel Paris @ MAC -Manifestations d’Art Contemporain Paris November 2006,
ArtChannel Paris @ Emergences Festival Paris September 2006.
Afterwards the contacts will be not continued until in 2011 they will be reactivated, when Wilfried is contacted by Art Channel for a collaboration with CologneOFF which is documented here
CologneOFF 2011 – videoart in a global context
Art & the City: A Matter of Space
Albert Merino Gomez (Spain) – The City and The Other, 2010, 3:09
Ezra Wube (Ethiopia) – Amora, 2011, 2:26
Sai Hua Kuan (Singapore) – Space Drawing No. 5 – , 2009, 1:02
Mohammed Harb (Palestine) – Without Windows, 2009, 5:00
Johanna Reich (Germany) – A State of Crystal, 3’19, 2010
Wilfried hadn’t made any negative experience, neither when Art Channel was streaming his own videos 2007, nor concerning CologneOFF 2011, but strangely he felt never comfortable when the communication was active, therefore after the new attempt to install a longer term collaboration, it will not happen. In 2013, Art Channel Paris obviously will stop its activities.
By regarding the traces which are still left on the net (not too many), Wilfried supposes, that behind Art Channel Paris was once a business idea to make money by becoming sponsored. As far as Wilfried know, no artist had been asked for paying fees for being included in the online TV programs, and there are also no reports that it tried to sell illegally artists’ videos. So, it can be supposed, that the failing of this business idea was the reason to discontinue this online TV.
But there are many such platforms on the net, which try to establish artvideos as TV programs online. In fact, it is no bad idea, he will try it another time with Transfera TV Madrid, which will be the topic of another article, but Wilfried is principally sceptical concerning his own video works, and even more curated video programs, because such activities, whether online or offline cannot be controlled and mostly also the financial intensions are not transparent, and – sooner or later these platforms vanish from the net due to wrong concepts – some artists report about the misuse of their submitted and uploaded videos, something which Wilfried did not experience, yet. Now and then, Wilfried is asked by artists collegues whether he can recommend certain initiatives or platforms – that’s actually a crucial issue, especially if Wilfried has no personal experiences, but he gives advice to be very careful.
