Syndicate: Ostranenie '97 review

[minx@bway.net (Perry Bard) (by way of abroeck@v2.nl (Andreas Broeckmann))]

[this review appeared in afterimage, March/April 1998]


MAKING STRANGE
Ostranenie '97 Electronic Media Forum
Dessau, Germany


In the spirit of the Bauhaus, Ostranenie '97 was a provocative inquiry into
the state of the electronic arts in Central and Eastern Europe. Two hundred
artists gathered in Dessau last November to view and discuss artwork that
critically examines issues about the remapping of Europe. This forum
differs from most media festivals in two important ways: first, it
encourages the presence of the artists themselves, aiming to create a
meeting point for vital conversation; second, in an effort to broaden the
base and knowledge about Eastern Europe, it sought out particpants from
isolated and under-represented areas. This year's roster included artists
from Albania, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Bielerusse - no small feat considering
the red tape involved in getting them there.

Due to bureaucratic delays, Natalya Petrova and Russlan Umarov arrived 2
days after the scheduled screening of their video CHECHEN'S ANCIENT LAND
(1997). Visas, a revenue ploy for governments in post-communist transition,
are required for travel into the "West". Artists must present an original
invitation (not a fax or copy) to obtain exit visas from their countries,
entrance visas into Germany - and then wait. This post-cold war situation
was best described as "post-what" by art critic Bojana Pejic, referring to
the expectations and promises that the term "post" implies versus the lived
reality of many of the artists present.

The forum originated 5 years ago when co-directors Stephen Kovats and Inke
Arns intitiated a festival to examine artistic and technological activities
in the former Eastern Bloc. As political boundaries began shifting, the
focus concentrated on the East/West delineations. Five years later, the
East/West focus persists. Common concerns among artists from locations as
distant as Bosnia, Bulgaria and Russia are new national borders, access to
technology, and support for independent media.

This year's forum  included installations, performance, video and a
NETLounge or digital salon, and was given an historical context. There was
an exhibit of works by original Bauhaus teacher Lazlo Moholy Nagy whose
dictum was the unity of art and technology. Lev Theremin inventor of the
first electronic musical instrument in 1920 (the theremin, played by waving
one's hands near metal antennae), was honored with a performance by Lydia
Kavina who mesmerized the audience as she grabbed music out of thin air.
Historian Dr. Velimir Abramovic (Belgrade) lectured on the visionary work
of Nicola Tesla, the father of radio transmission, whose experiments with
electromagnetic fields, according to Abramovic, were 120 years ahead of
their time. Tesla's 1898 patent for remote control, the basis  of
telecommunications, inspired a performance by Marco Peljhan and Carsten
Nicolai titled "Wardenclyffe Project No. 2", named after one of Tesla's
unrealized projects, a wireless broadcasting tower built on Long Island
which was expected to provide worldwide communications.

In his opening speech, theoretician and historian Lev Manovich
(Russia/U.S.A.) provided a critical framework for computer-based art by
arguing that the "new vision"of the 20's  which introduced aesthetic
techniques such as extreme close-ups, camera tilts and aerial views, is
embedded in the commands of computer software ( "zoom in", "magnify").
Since the techniques once used to reveal the underlying struggle between
the old and the new are now, by his analysis, basic work procedures, he
encouraged the exploration of new resources for artmaking such as the
website which can be approached from many different perspectives, e.g. as a
catalogue, or as an associative personal experience.

One of the critical issues facing artists from the former East is access to
technology . In St Petersburg there is no support for independent video.
Artists produce TV programs to gain use of  equipment, a solution that has
obvious plus and minus points. Iliyana Nedkova, in her introduction to the
video program Crossing Over, described a slowly evolving situation in
Bulgaria where computer-aided and interactive works are still considered a
novelty and few institutions offer technical support. As a result, aspiring
digital artists are often forced to turn to the advertising industry for
access to media and training. Bulgarian artist Petko Dourmana 's Net
presentation was notable for the description of his process, basically
working alone. His intention with his interactive game METABOLIZER
(http.//www.naturella.com/metabolizer) is to create a symbol for fighting
isolation.

To fight isolation on a different level, the Syndicate, established by v2
East (http://www.v2.nl/east/) is a network that connects more than 170
people from 28 European and 3 non-European countries. Communication is
primarily on-line with meetings held at media festivals. Their aim is to
convince funding and governing bodies to lend support to independent media.

While the Net-lounge, given the rarity of Net projects in the East, was a
special feature of Ostranenie, video was the most inclusive and researched
category. Memorable videotapes from ex-Yugoslavia were presented in several
different sections of the program. Artist Enes Zlatar, introducing a
selection of tapes from Bosnia-Herzegovina, described the emergence of a
Sarajevo war "home movies" scene  - artists who picked up a video camera
for the first time to document what they were seeing and feeling. This
situation was a direct result of the war: the main video center had burnt
down and critics, curators and artists had fled leaving a gap for a younger
generation to fill. In contrast to the war footage we are accustomed to
seeing on commercial T.V., these tapes record moments of recognition and
acceptance tinged with humor, urgency and despair.

In HOBBY by Smail Kapetanovic (1993),  a young boy describes the ritual he
and his friends established after each bombing, racing out into the
streets, some of them getting wounded in the process, to collect bits of
shrapnel. His room, filled with these souvenirs, is his reward. SHOVEL
(Nebojsa Seric-Soba, 1997), is  one continuous shot: a man is seen leaving
his apartment, entering the basement, emerging with a shovel and digging a
hole - another wartime ritual. Enes Zlatar's 24 HOURS WITH BURE (1995) is a
video letter that documents one typical warday in Sarajevo, from waking up
and walking through the decimated streets to work to visiting the cemetery.
Each of these tapes becomes a testament to the will to speak out and to
remain productive in the most extreme circumstances. Jasmila Zbanic's
AFTER, AFTER (1997) picks up where the official story leaves off. The tape
reveals the affects of war on a young child who seems to be performing
normally. A roving camera observes, with subtlety and understanding, the
child's daily activities among other children at school, at play and at
home. The power of the tape comes from sensitive videography as the camera
rests just long enough on this smiling child for us to grasp her pain.

Equally poignant was OGAJ - LE DEUIL (1996) by Dragana Zarevac. The artist
learned to chant in the tradition of female mourners in order to perform
her own soundtrack. Using the lyrics of the Serbian medieval poem "The
Death of the Yougovic Mother" mixed with the musical theme of the "Solemn
Song" (which glorifies the communists of Yugoslavia) and stolen documentary
footage from the Serbian war, Zarevac weaves an uncomfortable fabric of
sound and image into a persistent and haunting rhythm of despair.

Yanko Baljac's THE CRIME THAT CHANGED SERBIA (1995) is a horrifying
documentary about the rise of the new mafia in the war/post-war
environment. A bunch of "normal"looking guys stare straight into the
camera, naively philosophizing their violence, differentiating their
concept of crime from the official war crimes that are being committed.
Their tales of killing and being killed (three of them died while the tape
was being made) are so preposterous as to seem scripted.  One has to wonder
whether to laugh or cry.

On the whole, the videotapes fell into two categories: one in which the
camera was witness (e.g., raw footage of protests in Belgrade and in Novi
Sad from1993-95 presented by Alexander Davic, showing an active resistance
movement that was ignored by the media ); the other, in which the medium
became a tool for personal expression (e.g. THE VIRGIN by Tsvetelina
Gancheva (Bulgaria, 1997) in which the artist humorously considers her
options for losing her virginity). In this area works that engage Dadaist
sensibility and the absurd were predominant in every country represented.
If there was one generalized response, it was the desire on the part of
audience members to see documentaries dealing with crises of war in
countries where this history is very recent. "Am I condemned to make all my
videos about the war?" was one impassioned reply.

One of the more ambitious installations was presented in the Dessau train
station by a group of German artists called the Active Men. Three video
monitors placed in an open tent screened variations on the exercise theme
demonstrated by humans assuming impossible positions with inflatable
bodies. Posing as a fitness ad, the piece drew a lot of attention from
people going about their daily routines and addressed one of the central
concerns of Bauhaus thinking: art integrated in society.

Moving theory into practice, CYBERKNITTING, a performance/panel conceived
by Nina Czegledy, Iliyana Nedkova, Branka Milic-Davic and Denis Neumand,
was the most unresolved yet most interesting event of the forum. Using the
title as a metaphor for human and artistic linkage and as a means to
explore gender and identity issues on the Net, panelists sitting in a
semicircle on a dark stage with videos projected behind them were
continuously interrupted by performers from the Novi Sad group Baza ,who
crisscrossed their paths, rearranging their chairs. Performers crawled
under seats in the audience, grabbing legs, physically knitting spectators
together with red wool. While this event clearly had a contemporary
noise/activity level and an apparent desire to debunk traditional roles and
definitions, that breakdown didn't quite occur, leaving a perplexed
audience wondering how to respond. In his 1916 essay "Art as Procedure",
Russian Formalist Victor Shklovski characterized art as a process of
ostranenie, "making strange"...a procedure that increases the difficulty
and duration of perception since in art the process of perception is an end
in itself." If Ostranenie '97 is aspiring to this definition, CYBERKNITTING
was right on target.

Also on target was the intensity of the interpersonal exchange. My lasting
impression of Ostranenie will be the Bauhaus cafe animated by continuous
conversation among artists who formerly couldn't share a meal.

Perry Bard

Perry Bard is an artist and writer living in New York City. Her video, MY
LITTLE BOX OF NAZIS (1997) was screened at Ostranenie.





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Dessau, Germany
OSTranenie 97   5.-9. November
Das Internationale Fourm Elektronischer Medien
Kathy Rae Huffman  (for Telepolis online Magazine www.heise.de/tp/)

The 1997 Ostranenie festival videotapes and Forum sessions took place in
the Bauhaus Aula, which was filled to capacity (160 persons) for most
program of the festival.  The central space of the festival, and the
site of the famous Bauhaus architecture/design collective --which found
it necessary to disband under the dictates of Hitler in Nazi Germany--
the setting was an inspiration to all.   Perhaps because of this,  my
personal interest in video, which I have dismissed in favor of
Net.surfing for the past three+ years, was renewed.  It was my first
visit to Dessau, and although I knew it well from the previous
catalogues, had not been able to attend in former years.  It is
sometimes spelled OSTranenie, giving emphasis to its focus on the
development of media in Central and Eastern European countries and
issues surrounding the East/West =84transformation=93 and the resulting
cultural relationships made possible by the melting of the cold war, and
the opening of borders into the east.  It was a true meeting place of
media artists who normally live in the grey area of their newly emerging
cultural situations at home.

It all began =84small=93 in 1993 as a =84project=93, according to Stephen
Kovats, a Canadian who came to the Bauhaus with an architecture
background for research and to lead a workshop in media art.  He started
the festival concept as a personal exploration to find out more about
the role of the media in the =84revolution=93 against Communism (and Russian
control) that began throughout East Europe during the early 1990s,
making headlines around the world.  With no real experience or financial
support, Kovats personal energy, along with the participation of
numerous advisors, has developed Ostranenie into a major international
event.  In the beginning, it was very orientated towards video art, as
that was the experience most of the event=92s first advisors, which
included Keiko Sei (Prague), Marina Grzinic (Ljubljana), and Alexander
Koprin (Moscow).   The event was launched with approximately 120,000 DM
cash, raised from the regional and local sources, most of which was used
to bring artists to Dessau, and lots of in-kind support.  Inke Arns was
co-director of the first event, which Kovats jokes was organized from
phone booths.  But, the result provided the first major meeting, a
celebration so long awaited by the media art community.

By 1995,  Ostranenie festival applications doubled, and the money
diminished almost by half.  The 1993=92s event clearly had revealed the
spectrum of media activity going on in the otherwise invisible east.
=46or 1995, Kovats was determined to establish dialogue between the
participants.  He also notes that the work itself changed in 1995, from
the more professional style of well known influential filmmakers who
worked in video, to a new generation of amateur artists who came of age
during the conflict for independence.  These younger artists had little
interest in the east/west analysis, and were more curious to explore
their regional turmoil, often using the media as a tactical tool to
expose subtle tensions and conflicts otherwise unknown.  Ostranenie
became a neutral zone in 1995, a place where Croatian and Serbian
artists, as well as Russian and Latvian artists (for example) could show
their tapes, installations, and speak up in podium discussions, meeting
on common ground with civilized dialogue about personal and political
realities.  The city of Dessau was also utilized in a new way,
highlighting historic buildings in the former East German city with
media installations and performance events.

More than 500 proposals inundated the festival organizers in 1997, who
really did not know what they could do, as the interest and need was far
greater than the structure could handle.  In a great attempt at
=84inclusion=93 a curatorial committee was formed, which included a number
of bi-cultural representatives, and women like Nina Czegledy (HU/CA),
Adele Eisenstein (USA/HU), and Bojana Pecic (YU/DE).  A primary
objective was to find =91revolutionary=92 media pioneers, and to define how
the =91new order=92 of Europe was defining national identity.  By curatorial
intervention, the hope was that pioneering work in the east countries
would be brought into perspective.   The opening address entitled
=91netivity=92, was  delivered by Dr. Lev Manovich, a Net theoretician and
historian, who is professor of at University of California San Diego.
Manovich referred to the Bauhaus group as an example from the 1920=92s,
into =84new ways to see=93, to bring art into life and in closer proximity
to industry...much like the new multi-media collectives are doing today,
using Art+Com (Berlin), de Waag (Amsterdam), and Anti-Rom (London) as
current examples.

Manovich=92s research into the =91new=92 treated the technology of computer
graphics, which he finds to be a typical =91modernist=92 idea, as it
generally records the surface of things, and which easily allows for the
viewpoint to be changed easily.  He brought up the new resources for
artists to utilize in artmaking, such as the Database as art (i.e.:
George Legrady) and the website as not only catalogue but also one that
can become an associative experience with links and narrative
elements.     There were several websites, but few examples of computer
graphics at the Ostranenie festival to back up Manovich=92s thesis.  It
was a basically a festival of videotapes.  The strongest selection
centered around the war in Yugoslavia.  An impressive selection of video
from Bosnian artists brought a new sensibility from a generation which
has emerged from conflict and strife.  The delegation of Bosnian artists
drove two days from Sarajevo, overcoming restrictive visa requirements
that severely limit their travel outside the protected borders of their
newly recognized country.   Their visit was made possible by funding
from the Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Sarajevo, and tapes were
presented in-person by Enes Zlater, Timor Makarevic, Jasmila Zbanic, and
Srdjan Vuletic.  These personal testaments revealed the courage of the
human spirit to continue to search for humor and interest in life under
the most unbearable conditions.  As Jasmila Zbanic states in one of her
videos, =84...in 1996, I woke up and realized that I had survived the
war...=93

Likewise, historic presentations and tapes from Yugoslavia, revealed
both historic and new visual information from the Belgrade and Novi Sad,
both active centers for the opposition since the early days of the
breakup of the Yugoslav Republic in 1992.  Dr. Velimir Abramovic, a
scholar and historian from Belgrade, revealed fascinating information
about Tesla, the inventor who he calls the father of radio, and states
in his catalogue essay that Tesla=92s 1989 patent for a remote-control
device provides that basis for all telecommunications to follow.  Dejan
Sretenovic, director of the Center for Contemporary Art Belgrade,
described the annual SCCA exhibition called =84Murder=93 and the struggle to
convince Soros and local journalists with the necessity to give artists
an opportunity to reveal the human response to the war.

The Yugoslav videotapes were exceptional. Presented in several sections
of the festival,  they included Janko Baljak=92s =84The Crime that changed
Serbia=93 expressed the horror of a social system controlled by Mafia
thugs, and the resulting dysfunctional police and official structure.
Alexander Davic showed several films and videos that document the
demonstrations of the opposition in Belgrade.  These works did not
reveal a pathetic or apologetic point of view, rather took a clear look
at the situation in the hope of bringing truth to the local audience as
well as to the world.

In the juried program, in a special selection of video by women, the
Yugoslav artists Dragana Zarevac presented Ocaj-Le Deuil/the Despair,
which uses the traditional art of female chanting for mourning as the
background for media representation of the war.  Biba Vickovic, on the
other hand, brought  personal performance art to the video medium, in
her work The Democrat, which presented the alternative youth scene of
Belgrade and their strong political consciousness.   The two channel
video installation XY-Ungeloest - Reconstruction of a Crime, by Milica
Tomic, brought the historic perspective of Yugoslavia=92s troubled Kosovo,
from the incident there in ......
The Net projects of Novi Sad based Absolutno were presented by three
members of the group, and created a full program of conceptually based
theoretically sound political strategies for the confrontation of power,
misused and misplaced.

By incorporating the full spectrum of interests of artists from Eastern
Europe, the Ostranenie festival is a special tribute to the history of
this community of thinkers who incorporated life and spirituality into
their art.  Kovats felt it was the =84perfect place=93 in 1992, and the
works of the 1997 media artists lived up to the standards of honesty,
and sense of purpose that the artists, designers, and architects from
the Bauhaus would surely appreciate in spirit.   For 1999, Kovats will
change.  Why?  Because the work itself has changed, and systems have
emerged to link individuals and institutions outside of the festival.
The Syndicate, for example, a loose group of East artists and
individuals has been collected into a mailing list and informal face to
face gatherings under the guidance of Andreas Broeckmann (V2,
Rotterdam), and the Regional  network of Soros  Centers for Contemporary
Art emerged since the first Ostranenie festival in 1993.  Starting in
1999, the Bauhaus and Dessau will no longer be the focal place for
Ostranenie, which will be moved into the next Century with a CD ROM and
book, reflecting on the transformations of the opening of the East.
Kovats hopes that Internet connectivity will improve substantially in
the East, allowing the organization of an on-line conference which will
include more than the handful from each country.



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Syndicate - please circulate.

OUT OF TIME

new publication traces the history of one of the UK's most anarchic =
and experimental arts organisations. The book incorporates =
commissioned articles and images from artists working in performance, =
installation and new time based technological practices.

Editor: Andrea Phillips
Design: Simon Poulter & Harriet Laurie
Contributors include: Mike Stubbs; GIllian Dyson; Rob Gawthrop; =
Critical Art Ensemble; Rita Keegan; Jason Bowman; Susan Collins; Nick =
Stewart; Heath Buntiong; Nina Edge; Alastair McLennan; Anne =
Whitehurst.

Published with the assistance of the Arts Council of England and 
Yorkshire & Humberside Arts.

ISBN: 0 9531623 0 3

Price: =A315 stirling.

Discount for pre- orders recieved by Dec 31st 1997.
Please send a cheque or money order for =A310 (plus post + package) =
to :

OUT OF TIME
Hull Time Based Arts
8 Posterngate
Hull
HU1 2JNUK

money transfers to:
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