Artistic Research Wanted

The Research Lab for Film & Television at the Academy of fine Arts Vienna is mainly devoted to Artistic Research with close alliance to research-connected education. The Academy therefore installed a newly and technically well equipped High-Tech-Video Studio with the potential to produce in High Definition (HDCAM, HDV and forthcoming formats). It is endued with a large number of video facilities, with an abounding space on offer and good conditions for postproduction.

For fathoming and advancing the artistic research – interlocked with theory and practice in the field of the new media – on an ultimate artistic and technical level, the Academy and the Research Lab assign annually one project including full access to all technical resources of the media lab.

Therefore the concept was developed to invite six curators, who were chosen by the advisory board of the Research Lab, to recommend an artist or and artist group for this project. The recommended persons present their work and propose a project on June, 5th to 6th in the Academy. One of the presented projects will be chosen by the advisory board to be realized in the context of the research lab.

„Artistic Research - Example Given # 1“

This is a series of lecture-presentations of artistic research projects. Accompanying the three level research structure of distinguished, advanced and junior researchers and research projects, we set up a public monitoring organized by the Research Lab for Film & Television. All projects have a system of nomination through the advisory board of the Research Lab, or a delegation system, like the described curator nominations. For the junior researchers students of the Academy of fine Arts will be nominated by professors. Out of these the external member of the advisory board chose seven students as junior researchers. They will present their work the same way like the advanced researchers.

For the first distinguished artistic research project Mark Lewis, a Canadian London based artist was chosen by the advisory board. His project and the artistic research progress dealing with rear-projection in HDCAM video format will be presented. A short view how research-connected education is practised in this case will be shown.

Timetable

Artistic Research Wanted

Thursday June 5th, 08

10:30 h Welcoming / Introduction:
Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen (Rector)
Andreas  Spiegl (Vice-Rector for Teaching and Research) Bettina Henkel (Head of the Research Lab for Film & Television)

Presentations

11:30 h Maïder Fortuné
12:30 h Sefer Memisoglu
14:00 h Lunch break
15:30 h Yael Bartana
17:00 h „Artistic Research - Example Given # 1“
Distinguished Research Project
Rear Projection (work title) by Mark Lewis
Bettina Henkel, Mark Lewis,  Ludwig Löckinger (DoP)

Friday June 6th, 08

10:00 h Amar Kanwar / live presentation online
11:30 h Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri

Participants

Ayreen Anastas (IL) and Rene Gabri (IR)
Collaborative works and projects by Ayreen and Rene have emerged through their extensive work together at 16Beaver. Their recent text, audio, web, and video works have focused on the evolving legal and discursive shifts around different notions of security and the subsequent effects on everyday life. Their work comprises over 40 videos, which employ a range of genres and open up a rich map of questions linking intimate concerns and experiences with pressing social and political problems.

Yael Bartana (IL)
All of Bartana’s works are characterized through its multi layered imagery and inimitable  practice of time editing while dealing with converting and transforming Israeli social congregations. The criticism of Bartana on Israeli society should be recognized as a portrait of a disappointed lover to its predicate, especially in recent works, in which sobriety is to be found in the observation of  Israeli reality.

Maïder Fortuné (FR)
lives and works in France. Her photography, video and graphic work concentrate on fiction revealed through her directing focus that cuts down the scenes to their bare essentials in which the aesthetic dimension is omni-present. The body takes the place of the story, which oscillates between tale and mystery.

Amar Kanwar (IN)
Emerging from the Indian sub continent, Amar Kanwar’s films are complex, contemporary narratives that connect intimate personal spheres of existence to larger social political processes. The films link legends and ritual objects to new symbols and public events, which trigger emotional and intellectual disturbances in the viewer. Finding a contextual relationship with diverse audiences, Kanwar’s work maps a journey of exploration revealing our relationship with the politics of power, violence, ecology, sexuality and justice.

Sefer Memisoglu (TR)
Memisoglu’s art practice is received as an attitude of personal experience that has been shaped through working with various media, which are interrelated with each other. The ‘time’ and process of his production is defined by the means of expression and relational imagery at stake. The imagination functions as a tool of speech act that has been influenced by that very practice of production. Hence, the image that gets embodied as an object, describes a knowledge-object that desires to communicate through information sourcing from complex concepts.

“For my project in Vienna I will be staging a number of narrative scenes in the high definition studio in front of rear projected video images shot on location in Vienna. The locations include a night scene in the park next to the Prater (eg the ‚Boxing Machine‘ and the ‚Running Path‘) and the Prospekthof at the Semper Depot. The finished work(s) will combine these location images with the staged scenes using a method reminiscent of the traditional Hollywood film technology of Rear Projection.“
Mark Lewis