19es INSTANTS VIDEO, Marseille, France

07-11-2006


Presentation November 7 by Ramon Coelho and Gaby Wijers

Geomania, 1987 from Steina Vasulka

Over the past ten years time based media art installations have become a mainstream art form representing some of the most important and exciting art of our time. The nature of installation works of art differs from traditional art objects. The works incorporating time-based media, such as audio-visual & electronic media, net.art or performance are understood in terms of their behaviours as much as their component parts. The works often anticipate an active involvement by the spectator (interactivity) and evoke a multi-sensorial experience (sound, vision, touch and smell). The works are often created for site and time specific occasions, and demonstrate specific vulnerabilities both in terms of the contexts and technologies on which they are dependent. In order to be able to display these works in the future it is important to understand what is important to preserve. Gaby Wijers and Ramon Coelho, will present inside information about the documentation, preservation and archiving aspects of Geomania from Steina Vasulka. Focusing on safeguarding this work so that it can be experienced by future generations.



Geomania
is a structure comprising 10 monitors, placed on top of each other so as to form a pyramid. Two tapes are played on the monitors at the same time. Each tape can be seen on an alternate monitor and shows images of landscapes and natural phenomena that were recorded in Iceland and in New Mexico. They are uncultivated, rugged, 'geological' landscapes of, among other things, geysers and rock formations. Steina has made an impressive collage of dynamically changing images and perspectives, in which the rhythm of the montages and the two different images visible over the ten screens, alternating with each other in a duet of images, induce a remarkable, contemplative mood. Geomania can be viewed as a 'total spatial entity but one that is wholly imbued with perceptual and symbolic contradictions....

19es INSTANTS VIDEO
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