The premise of this exhibition is to develop a specific perspective onto the rich and complex history of video art. Uses of film and video in the visual arts initially developed as a type of informal or “amateur” cinema, one that differentiated itself from studio film production by the poverty of its means and the ingenuity of its experiments. The artists in this exhibition have been chosen from two different time periods: the late sixties and seventies (i.e. the first years of video art) and today. In both cases, these are works that develop their own forms of “production,” ones that are often very close to contemporaneous forms of amateur or home cinema. (Julien Bismuth)

Am 09.03.2010 um 09:00 schrieb misha stroj:

lieber emanuel, hoffe es geht dir gut und du hattest beste zeiten drüben in der wunderbaren stadt. oder hast gar noch? deine anfrage freut mich zweifach: weil der julien eine sehr sympathische erscheinung, hatte auch mit ihm wenig gelegenheit zu ein wenig austausch…aber gut, war wie immer ein wenig viel auf einmal in aller kürze- rund um diese eröffnung. zum zweiten freuts mich weil tatsächlich film und oder video kürzlich wieder ganz nach oben gerückt sind auf meiner prioritätenliste–insofern womöglich die new york arbeit eine dunkle vorahnung? die arbeit vom julien dort jedenfalls ermutigend wieder mal eine kamera aufzustellen! klingt spannend das vorhaben mit der ausstellung, wie wann wo solls denn stattfinden? was meinerseits das schon gemachte an filmchen anbelangt weiss ich in dem moment nicht ob ich relevantes beitragen kann. ich hatte vor meinem diplom einiges ausprobiert mit video, wobei das zeug irgendwo in einer kiste , richtig “amateurhaft” vermutlich dieses bestellte “self-portrait”, damals noch mit zwei vhs-recordern über einen abgefilmten mini-monitor geschnitten und dabei gleich mit dem kassettenspieler life vertont. gewagt immerhin. eher zugänglich und einige davon publik sind vermutlich die arbeiten die ich mit ewa einhorn gemeinsam gemacht habe, einige kürzere kommentare zu diversen aktualitäten und auch epische animationsfilme in fragmentarischer ausführung. mit sowas hatten wir uns kürzlich in oberhausen eingeschlichen. in dem fall lots of laughter. da müsst ich sie fragen ob davon noch was frisch und zeigbar vorhanden–bzw. zugänglich ist. jedenfalls du merkst: bin ganz am anfang in dem bereich–hatte ursprünglich all meine eskapaden “vorstudien zum abendfüllenden film” genannt. aber langsam.

muss ich mal tiefer schürfen

derweil bestens

misha

(…)

hi julien,

i’m fine and imagine you busy, as i heard. they promised that spring will arrive here in vienna- not later than tomorrow! it was a pleasure for me too, felt a little sorry that there was not more time and relaxedness around solace to get some closer ideas of the new york peoples lifes. guess, or hope, i will be back.

e-mail is fine, my helpless battles with the words, here the written ones, always helpful in sorting out. give me a second, have to let this idea of the return of the moving image arrive—started looking around in those folders related to past considerations of the video and the film–to, like always, begin with the obvious i picked this image that might be the closest to the literal understanding of the word amateur–so i send you this. for now (of course this was done before i turned into the grown up that i am).

am back in a minute

misha

(anhang kairos just one day)

lieber emanuel,

new york ist tatsächlich eine belebung. unwiderstehliche ansteckungen lauern an jeder ecke, hoff ich auch mal mit einem ausdauernden auftrag dort mich einlassen zu können. die solace-arbeit war jedenfalls eine ausbaufähige einstimmung. danke mal für das material heisst die vorahnung, ich hab auch grad ein mail vom julien entdeckt–lass das mal kurz ankommen und übelege ob und wie eine beteiligung realistisch wäre. schreib ich dann gleich an euch beide der einfachheit halber. was rauskommt bei der überlegung.

so gleich

misha

julien! emanuel!

havent forgotten the return of the idea to imagine the making of the moving image–but a little swallowed by some moving activities i am–new flat, hopefully new studio–etc. practically perfect moment to move the work too. of course i imagine all kind of steps “before” the achievement of the fullest version of a “movie”—starting from the sculpturers point of view—but may i again postpone a little the announcement of a fuller thought on this and ask: how does the timetable for this adventure look like? till when you have to know, till when you have to see?

sorry for the pragmatics, so much moves move moving me

hope you are both at your best spring spring

misha

ah, von da aus dacht ich das lächter zum loss in beziehung zu setzen:

(att:makshelf)

dear amateurautorists!

from a berlin bed back to the vienna table!

i sit and continue combining: image+moving. who said image?

its either a question of volume or duration- how many minutes/meters do we have to be filled?

cordially

misha

here we are testing light and cast:

julien! less and less i am able to cheat, so it will be a humble but hopefully nonetheless precise and actually urgent gesture that i will try to donate to our enterprise. i get an idea that your curatorial expertise is open ended like your patience–so i will keep my experimental moods–to soon materialize. in right scale. hopefully in perfect scale.

for now i found the lets say autorenfilm-alternative of the a little bit hollywoodesque scenery testing cast and light. lets say here we already went deconstructing le dispositif.

the amateur

misha

(att:humantracechile)

Sounds great, I am not sure what it is nor what it means but I feel like it is getting clearer as it gets blurrier. Can we get the cows to come for the opening? Maybe we should just have the opening for the cows, everybody else can stand outside…. 

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

julien! the cows- actually are sheeps! which makes your vision of the opening even more precise. but how to convince them? i feel a little bit using your patience, but honestly enjoy my hesitating fights–enjoying the worlds view through the camera-display–but hardly dare to use the record-button. some deepest naiv but intense iconoclast pleasures. respecting the opaqueness of the world, i consider a valid contribution: all the films that i did not make.

i am working on this smaller object, which should pay back (!?) my not yet (?) fullfilled vision of me myself catching the perfect moments, beautifully choreographed as much as soaked with the really real weight of the-life-out-there’s significance. in scale of an amateurs love.

means i am close, although the object develops a little humble. although:  as today i feel so strong (recently a little weaker) i imagined how a more brave statement would look like and for a second i gave up my till now title: “neuerdings die freiheit” and thought about this older object which we used to call “Der Verrat”–in our context we may call it “Director’s Cut” (made out of chairs). am sending a view.

am close! and thankful for the chance to bring my filmmaker’s ego down to earth.

hope that finds you at best

misha

(att:derverrat)

dear julien and emanuel,

i was reflecting your suggestion to consider my e-mail-straying as a potential contribution to manifest the authors amateurism. i wonder how that could materialize in the show in a convincing and consistent (short) way- and hardly allow myself to imagine any solution. it seems to necessarily stay out of reach for myself to imagine those solutions (as if i intended to let the messages work for me?). any form of presenting the glowing core of these e-mails can, i guess, only be a “curatorial gesture”–in this case anyway artistic…

but i also wasnt lazy and imagined the dark side of those reflections- as in the end its part of the job- tried to articulate my discomfort with the pressing of the record-button, by in the same time keeping the button pressed–in the hopefully most obvious way. a little too fresh to evaluate the result–but there is one–and actually in this case it serves more as a platzhalter for any other possible result, demonstrating the established method: direct cinema of our times might be best done with an internet-browser and a camera facing the screen, of course, i am afraid. to then let it flow- till the soon exhaustion. i did one try with highest ambitions-prefer to not comment now–the title says:

“Wetube10.1 By The Whoevertries Committee”.

This could be an adaequate something in the context of our authorbecoming amateurism—the threat of being misread we should consider–as, like always, a chance. (in case interested—would probably need one of those little screens for watching films on the road–probably best hang on the wall next to a piece of metal- i do have a little collection here)

we consider

TWC