[spectre] Hongkong rev. of 40 Years of Video Art in Germany

[Andreas Broeckmann]

South China Morning Post
Sunday, December 3, 2006

Play for keeps

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By Kevin Kwong
IN AN AGE when moving images can be recorded, downloaded, played, 
transferred and stored digitally and instantaneously almost anywhere 
at any time, the term "videotape" sounds anachronistic and Jurassic. 
That may explain why organisers of 40 Years of Video Art in Germany 
and Hong Kong are talking of "rescuing" and "preserving" an art form, 
which they fear may well soon become extinct together with its medium.


Opened yesterday, the exhibition is presented by the Goethe-Institut 
Hongkong and supported by Videotage and Para/Site Art Space. Curated 
by Professor Wulf Herzogenrath, who initiated the project four years 
ago in Germany, it features 59 pieces of work, totalling some 27 
hours of footage, by the same number of artists. They include 
international names such as Samuel Beckett, Rebecca Horn, Joseph 
Beuys, Marina Abramovic, Nam June Paik and Christian Jankowski.

The show, which ran in five arts institutions across Germany in 2004, 
aims to raise awareness among museums, archives, art historians and 
the public of the need to save video art made on tapes - also known 
as "single-channel works" - from fading out in this technologically 
advanced era. It also poses the questions of who should preserve the 
art form and how. For Herzogenrath, its heritage is as important as 
the work itself. "If we do not think of a better way of handling 
videotapes, all we will have left of video art soon is white noise," 
the director of the Kunsthalle Bremen art museum says.

The professor now wants to spread this message to other countries. He 
says video artists in the late 1960s and early 70s worked on tapes 
(such as Betamax), reels of different sizes and with different 
technology. "These kinds of machines and tapes are disappearing," he 
says. "An old tape may last for 20 years or longer but if you don't 
take care of it, it could be destroyed immediately. We have to think 
about what video art will be in 50 years. People in archives, museums 
and television have to think not only about the content but also its 
preservation."

The programme director of Videotage, Isaac Leung Hok-bun, shares his 
concerns, although he sees this exhibition more as a comprehensive 
introduction to the art form and an opportunity to view video art 
works from around the world. "Hong Kong people may not know the 
overseas works very well, so this show gives them a chance to compare 
and contrast works by locals and artists from the outside," he says.

"Through this exhibition we can also review our archive, the old 
works, works that were made when Videotage first emerged 20 years 
ago. At the same time, we can explore the impact they might make in 
the future."

The 19 artists featured in the Hong Kong segment include Ellen Pau, 
May Fung Mei-wah, Mathias Woo Yan-wai, Phoebe Man Ching-ying, Eric 
Siu Chi-man and Zheng Bo.

Although video art surfaced in the local art scene around the 
mid-80s, its history in the west goes back further. In 1963, Nam June 
Paik and Wolf Vostell spearheaded a development in Germany and 
elsewhere that nearly a decade later would come to be known as video 
art.

One of the challenges Herzogenrath faced was deciding what to include 
in the show, given the vast pool of material available. He says first 
and foremost the works had to be important to the German art scene. 
However, the artists selected didn't have to be German nor the works 
strictly video art, because the genre itself  is multifaceted.

As he wrote in an essay accompanying the show: "Think of works of 
Samuel Beckett and Peter Roehr in the 1960s, the cinematic works by 
Rebecca Horn that came somewhat later, and the Super-8 films of 
Malaria! and Jörg Herold in the 1980s.

"What these works nevertheless show is just how central 
cross-pollination with television, film, and traditional media art - 
including photography - is to any notion of video art that embraces 
not just the technical aspects of the medium, but its specific forms 
of presentation and distribution as well."

The chosen artists were then asked how they would like to present 
their works. Herzogenrath says 70s video art, for instance, has a 
certain quality that would be good to restore in new digital format. 
"To compare with a painting, the red of the 1950s is very different 
so you don't put neon red on [the restoration], which would look too 
vibrant and modern-day. So we asked the artists what's the status of 
their work and how they wanted us to show it.

"Some artists would say, okay, if you can change it to another 
quality, fine, because it should look like something from today; but 
we have to ask the artist first. Some artists would re-do the same 
work they did 30 years ago because it's the idea they are interested 
in. So that is like a restoration, or a transformation, of an old 
work, making it new again."

For the Hong Kong part of the show, all artists selected have an 
important place in the local video art history. Some have exhibited 
extensively overseas. "Ellen Pau's Recycling Cinema, for instance, 
was showcased at the 49th Venice Biennial in 2001," says Leung. 
"Other artists taking part in this exhibition are also 
well-established, such as Danny Yung Ning-tsun [founder of local 
performing arts group Zuni Icosahedron]."

The submitted work had to be experimental and non-narrative-based, 
Leung says. "These are not short films."

He spots similarities in the political nature of both local and 
overseas works. "This medium was very cheap compared with film or 
television, which are also not independent and cannot be used to 
truly reflect social or political issues," Leung says. "Artists used 
video art to present these issues in a radical form."

Herzogenrath sees it as a versatile medium. "It's said that video is 
like a pencil. It can write an equation penned by Albert Einstein, a 
policeman can use it to draw the scene of an accident, Joseph Beuys 
made beautiful drawings with it. It is a tool.

"It can be very specific yet not as specific in style. It can be 
socio-politically radical and it can be minimalist and conceptual. 
And video is just some tool that an artist uses, just like some use 
sculpture as a way of expression. Video art is an interesting art 
form through which our grandchildren can learn about our times."

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