The following program
of video works by Austrian artists produced between 1982 and 1992 is grouped
around two focal points:
The first one we
call the mechanics of music. Here what the selected videos have in common is
that their creation began with an existing music piece. The visual 'score' has
been framed by the music through a partly mechanical structure. Using this mechanical
structure, which is reproduced in each of the videos by different means, the
pictorial composition takes on a kind of 'auditive basic structure' through
reiteration and modulation. At the same time this kind of mechanics guaranties
a relative autonomy of the images from the music by preventing a depicted fiction.
Through this auditive mechanic the images remain bound to their presence on
the screen, either by refracting the narrative images in their repetitive dissolution
(Graf & Zyx, Gassinger) or by detaining the images like photograms in an
electronic image machine (Kowanz, Schipek, Wiener, Brunner-Szabo) or by relating
the visual to a formal order (Langoth, Stadlmann).
Under the second focal
point, the significant sound, we have selected video works in which the sound
generates meaning or the sound even provides impetus for the video. The differences
in the videos in this part of the program result from their respective sound
sources. The original sound with its realistic barg leads to special inversion
games, for example: pushing the original sound itself gradually into artificiality
(Dewald), or revealing the distance between remarking the original sound and
perceiving its actual surroundings on the screen, as part of the extreme perspective
of the viewer (Mathes/Lewetz). On the other hand, 'noise' is often the audio
source for very short, fragmented videos like 1-minute clips or installation
loops. Sometimes this 'noise' may be synthetic in origin. The asyncronous pulsating
creates now and then an irritating stereo effect of image and sound (Schatzl,
Steininger)
At least a particular example of this type of dominating sound collage as it
is characteristic in film and video essays is demonstrated in the tape 'The
Time, Young Man, Has Given Us both a Lecture' (Wölfl/Scherz/Schuster).
Programm
The Mechanics of Music, 50:06
Just like you (1986)
Inge Graf& Zyx 3:00
Pas de Tango (1991) Michael Langoth 5:36
Eisenherz (1990) Ilse Gassinger 2:42
There is so much I can tell you (1988) Karl Kowanz 5:52
Linoleum (1984) Dietmar Schipek 15:00
Donauwalzer (1984) Zelko Wiener ca. 10:00
Flash dance (1991) Helmut Stadlmann ca. 6:00
Liebe & Anarchie IX (1992/93) Eva Brunner-Szabo 1:56
The Significant Sound,
32:30
Present (1992) Bernadette
Dewald 18:00
Die Zeit junger Mann hat uns beiden eine Lektion erteilt (1988) Robert Woelfl/Klaus
Schuster/Wolfgang Scherz 6:30
Farrago Nr. 1- 4 (1982 - 1987) Leo Schatzl 4:00
Fall für 2 (1991) Anna Steininger 1:00
Ausschnitte aus
Wienminuten (1991) Gabriele Mathes/Hermann Lewetz 1:00
Anna Steininger 1:00
Ilse Gassinger 1:00
Länge des Programm: 1:22:36
MEDIENWERKSTATT WIEN
The Medienwerkstatt
Wien is a non-profit artist-run media center, founded in 1978 to encourage and
facilitate the alternative use of video and related technologies. It provides
access to video production and post-production facilities, technical personnel,
a tape library as well as artists´ workshops and lectures. The Medienwerkstatt
Wien also organizes screenings presenting the wide range of international video
art and video documentaries and promotes and exhibits the works of Austrian
video artists through distribution, curation and publications.