The Australian Internatinal Video Festival, 1991.
[This entry is edited from the AIVF '91 catalogue entry and a Press Release. - SJ]
Video Creation and Television in France
Screening at the Art Gallery of NSW - Wed 13 Nov. 1:00pm
Introduction:
Since the mid-eighties Paris has developed into one of the leading European centres for new and creative television. Therefore, it is not surprising that the programs selected under the above title have been produced in Paris.
Advance Sur Image (1988 - 89) part one of this screening presentation was one of the first programs produced in France that mixed a television magazine style production with video art works. The program was developed by EX NIHILO a dynamic and creative company established in 1984 by Patrick Sobelman and Herve Nisic. EX NIHILO are world renowned as producers of creative programming and specials for television.
The second part of this presentation called The Empty Set is a special program by Fearless, an artists' electronic studio, established in 1990 with the vision of video artist Dominik Barbier (a Festival guest in 1987). Barbier has gathered together some of France's leading video artists as part of this unique project.
Advance Sur Image No. 13 - (Transmission date Sunday 15 January 1989)
Direction Artistique: Alain Burosse et Jean-Marie Dukard
Generique de Patrick De Geetere
Presentation concue par Agathe Labernia
Realisation: Bertrand Merino Peris
Chronique De La Revolution, Marc Caro (1988), 1:02, colour.
K.O.K., Regine Chopinot (1988), 3:30, colour.
La Revolution Francaise - Tetes et Chronique, Michael Gaumnitz 1988, 0:50 colour.
The World Within Us, Terry Flaxton (1988), 14:40 colour.
VLAST, Z. Barisic (1988), 2:13, colour.
The Empty Set - (prepared by the FEARLESS video artists studio project, Paris)
Fearless is now one year old and ready to showcase some of this year's productions. The works in this compilation program are in fact by four of its seven founding members, namely Dominik Barbier, Cathy Vogan, Robert Cahen and Yann N'Guyen Mirth. These works indicate to some degree the extent of image research and composition we are trying to make possible through our project. This essentially means increasing the accessibility of the online suite to artists and creative directors, both in terms of budget and technique, providing lowcost up and down-time rates (only for artists!) which begin with an (optional) training period if the artist wishes to work "hands-on" with the equipment.
Cracking the vicious circle of having to rush post-production as it is so ridiculously expensive because the machines which make it fast and Zappy are ridiculously expensive, obliging the studio to charge more and more each time it buys some new marvellously competitive push-button effects unit won't be easy, because we've all grown accustomed to the glossy logic of a video-universe, and tend to want access to the superior magic that a well equipped broadcast studio offers. But offering TIME - and that's the most important tool "chez Fearless" - we hope to encourage an exploration of the poetry of the complex image as well as its shine...
Each tape in this collection is surprisingly different, because each world therein is surprisingly new. Our worlds are TV reborn as a psychological rather than public space. Welcome to the tabula rasa, the empty set.
The Fearless collaborators
L'ile Mysterieuse, Robert Cahen (1991), 15:00 min colour.
An island of mystery crossed by light and colour, where one finds oneself face-to-face with "the dawn of humanity": a presence of children who seem to be its first inhabitants.
A Bedful oF Strangers, Cathy Vogan (1991), 9:00 min, colour.
I scream to the quicksand and the walls relax...
CX/FIN, Yann N'Guyen Minh (1991), 5:00 min colour.
It is a world that is dark, hidden, secret. A world where we surrender ourselves to the quest for the forbidden pleasures, disguised perhaps in a discreet grey overcoat, eyes hidden by a pair of dark glasses. A world where we wallow with delectation in corrupt pleasure, letting ourselves be gobbled up between the tentacles of the obscene octopus of sensuality. Then putting on again that wall-grey overcoat, we step back into the light of other people's worlds, pretending nothing's happened, being so hypocritically normal.
Twice the Universe, Dominik Barbier (1991), 23:00 min colour.
This is precisely about Australia. About Dreaming about Australia.
The AIVF gratefully acknowledges the support of EX NIHILO and the Artists.
