video feature
Havanna
Salon y Coloquio Internacional de Arte Digital
Victor Casaus
Havanna
Wilfried’s course of life has some particular characteristics, by coincidence he is entering relevant political and cultural processes – for a while the doors are wide open before they close again, and Wilfried is taking his chances when they appear. He entered in his particular way the process of the system change, the fall of the Berlin Wall 1989 and the German re-unification and became part of it, and another kind of historical moment was when Cuba opened its lockdown from the rest of the world, and it was allowed for Western people to enter the country. During such a phase of open doors Wilfried got contacts to Cuba and participated between 2002 and 2006 in total 5 times in Salon & Coloquio Internacional de Arte Digital in Havanna organised at Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau by Victor and Abel Casaus. Participating in this festival had something extraordinary exotic, because Cuba had been a prohibited area for the past decades.
Since 2002, each year it had been in the discussion how and whether Wilfried may attend the event in Havanna, but a travel to Cuba was not usual, there were no direct flights from Germany to Cuba, and the diplomatic relations to USA and other Western countries were still cut, and nobody was prepared to fund the travel.
But this year in 2006, for the first time a travel to Cuba via Panama City seemed to be feasable, Wilfried had to change the plane in Paris and Panama City, and then some days ago Wilfried arrived at Havanna International airport, where Victor Casaus was welcoming him. It was as if Wilfried was landing on an alien planet, everything seemed to be to familar and completely strange a like, and when Wilfried heard that he would not reside in a hotel, but had a private room in a Cuban family, he was very happy to learn something about the Cubans on a private scale. The house is located in a narrow street in the historical center of Havanna, which is currently under reconstruction, and this a again is a lucky coincidence because he experiences an unsual open and creative atmosphere and he has the chance to visit and explore many of the demolished but to be reconcontructed historical buildings. When Wilfried will visit Havanna again in 2012, nothing from this spirit was left, and the Cubans had become money-grubbing, thus within a shotrt time they had assimilated to Western capitalism.
But today, 17 June 2006 is the opening of the festival and behind the historical facade of Centro Cultural de la Torriente Brau a huge garden is opening at the backyard. It is a wonderful atmosphere to be among people which Wilfried usually would never meet, particularly participants coming from Central and Sounth America. That’s a really good experience, because not only Cuba was locked down, but the Western world, as well, because this lock down was vice-versa.
Wilfried recognizes another time how important it is for an international understanding that people meet each other and learn from each other, and the Cubans generally, not only the organisers of the festival, are extraordinary friendly and hospital people. It is a strange atmosphere to walk at night through the old city centre and on each corner a policeman is caring about the security, which, however, would be otherwise not be guaranteed obviously.
But Wilfried is not only participating with his works – The RRF Project, Women: Memory of Repression in Argentina and Message from behind a Wall, but also in the symposium and later on 22 June, Wilfried will have his presentation of “Selection 03” from VideoChannel at ICAIC – The Cuban Film Institute, where his explanations will find a fertile soil and recognition.
When Wilfried is walking a long the seaside, he is thinking, if he would be younger, he would emigrate to Cuba (for the sake of the beauty of this Caribbean island and the warmth of its inhabitans, but, of course, not the political system suppressing a free society). Dreaming is allowed, at least!
Victor Casaus
*IV SALON Y COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL DE ARTE DIGITAL 2002
17 June – 17 July 2002
Identity of Colour, Never WakeUp, Compressed Affair
View the work
“Identity of Colour”, 07:07:07, 2016
Film created by media artist Agricola de Cologne, based on the artist’s poem and voice performance of the same name created and executed in 2001.
The work combines DaDa like poetic texts, vector grafics and musical components created by the artist himself.
There is another version of “Never Wake Up” in mp4 HD using the footage related to most recent warfares
Never Wake Up
movie created by media artist Agricola de Cologne.
It is based on the artist’s poem of the same name.
Subject:
Loss of identity: Soldiers become distorted, veterans of war are not able
to be reintegrated in society.
The poem/movie uses some fundamental images:
The soldier= metaphor for the human individual
War=metaphor for life, respectively the fights of all day life
Veteran of War=the human being who can not rid of the Shadows of the Past.
The work is developed according the principle of SAMAC
(Simultaneous Associative Media Art Composing) which describes Agricola’s individual way of experimental electronic writing: words, sound, images, animation, music and voice performance are developed simultaneously –depending on each other – in one long single process.
Voice and sound performance by Agricola de Cologne.
The movie is directed and produced by Agricola de Cologne in 2001.
Compressed Affair by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne, interactive, 2001
Enter the work here
16-20 June 2003
Watch – Seconds Forever, 2001, 3:20
Surveillance can become an obsession for those who observe and those who are observed. For the victim captured and tortured, seconds are never ending.
Synopsis
Video based on a poetic text by Agricola de Cologne inspired by the Central Station of Milan (Italy).
Metropolis: sunday morning, between open end and twilight, between hope and resignation, between following a dream and returning that night to the home town or village outside.
Coming from the disco, full of the impressions of that juicy girl or that horny boy, doubtful of whether preserving innocence or following the instinct for an outstanding erotic adventure.
It is the moment of not yet knowing, vacillating between yes or no.
It is a same ritual each week-end, even if decisions are made once.
It is a game between identifying and identity.
The work describes the urban landscape as a scenario of a play, where the protagonists are embedded in without any chance to escape.
VII SALON Y COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL DE ARTE DIGITAL – 17 -30 June 2005
Digital video inspired by a visit of Thessaloniki.
The work describes the principle of “code” or “coding” in form of an allegory, a metaphoric story as a ritual of meeting, dominating and resigning. The code is identified as a state of the static, dogmatic and conservative, which asks for obedience, but gives no chance to escape.
Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau
Angel Alonso
Fernando Asián
Exhibition
enter –>The RRF Project 2006
enter—> Women: Memory of Repression in Argentina 2004
The segregation wall in Palestine is a fact. In November 2004, an artistic action against the wall ended, taking place at six different places in Palestine where walls were under construction, initiated by Palestine artists by inviting artists from different countries to paint an artistic message on the concrete.
When Agricola de Cologne was in Bethlehem in February 2005, he visited several places where the Israeli were erecting the wall. The part of the wall he was filming, is situated in opposite of the AIDA refugee camp (UN), and was at that time a temporary playground for children. And these children made their own contribution to the huge wall paintings.
“Message from behind a Wall”is transporting different messages, but the main message represents the action of children’s innocence.
The moving picture is a unique document of the day of 17 February 2005. Meanwhile, the construction of the wall in Bethlehem is since long time completed, and the area around the wall does not motivate children to use it further as a playground.
Coloquio
ICAIC – Cuban Film Institute
22 June Cuban Film Institute Havanna – presentation VideoChannel
including videos by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne, Rafel Alcalà, Empar Cubells, Calin Dan, Li Hyung Kim. Dana Levy, Daniel Lo Iocono, Christina McPhee, Margarida Paiva, Jens Salander / Mikael Strömberg
1. Daniel LoIocono (Germany) – Digital Snapshots, 2003, 2:30
2. Jens Salander/Mikael Stroemberg (Sweden) – Colossus by the Sea, 2003, 10:00
3. Christina McPhee (USA) – Salt, 2004, 9:26
4. Empar Cubells (Spain) – Infern domestic, 2003. 7:50
5. Calin Dan (Romania) – Sample City, 2003 10:00
6. Dana Levy (Israel) – Time With Franz, 2003, 10:00
7. Agricola de Cologne (Germany) – Truth – Paradose Found, 2004, 3:00
8. Margerida Paiva (Portugal) – No title, 2003, 3:40
9. Rafael Alcala (Puerto Rico) – Smoke, 2003 3:00
10. Li Hyung Kim (South Korea) – Wo-men, Wo-rld, 2003. 3:34
Wilfried together with other participants in the Colloquium
