[spectre] Dan Oki, The Last Super 8mm Film

[galerija galzenica]

EXHIBITION: The Last Super 8mm Film
ARTIST: Dan Oki (HR, NL)
VENUE: Galerija Galzenica, Velika Gorica/Zagreb; 
http://www.galerijegalzenica.info/english.html
DATE: October 29 - November 23, 2008

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"(...)What is the message of this re-archiving? Does Oki’s 
digitalization of already existing archive discover something new or 
just cast a slightly different light on what has already been known 
about his artwork, art culture and media art in general? When compared 
to other examples of self-archiving in contemporary art and history of 
art criticism suggested by Dew Harrison, the first difference is the 
content of the systematized material. All the examples given by Harrison 
have been the attempts to systematize particular super-individual areas 
of life labeled as “culture”, “the spirit of the times”, “imaginary”, 
“dictionary” etc. (the title of Warburg’s project “Mnemosyne Atlas 
”(1927-1929) illustrates this quite well). On the other hand, Oki’s 
systematization is focused on his own private and professional life that 
through the process of revalorization of personal history offers new 
contents and methods for future art practice (unlike typically (post) 
modern goal to correct the dominant discourses of art criticism, as was 
the case with Art & Language’s artwork “Indexes”). In the context of 
media art, where Oki’s artwork is at home, such revalorization becomes 
remedialization. Remedialization of “The Last Super 8 mm Film” refers to 
two things. First, at the level of artistic poetics his Super 8 mm films 
refer to often neglected thematic aspect of his works. He uses 
subjectivity, romantic preoccupation with himself as an artist to 
“soften” media art, determined by technological, economic and political 
factors. Many of his works support this thesis (Housekeeper (1997); 
“Forget, Remember and Know” (1998) etc.) Finally, his need for 
continuous recording of everyday life affirms the filmmaker (artist) as 
a centre of representational view (universe) (another possible reference 
to Oki’s films is Jonas Mekas’ film “Lost, lost, lost” (1976)). “The 
Last Super 8 mm Film” also refers to contemporary culture and the 
situation in which extremely personal information (birth of a child, 
summer holidays, daily routine including resting, eating or reading, 
love and marital relationships etc.) become socially relevant.(...)" 
(Klaudio Stefancic)


Dan Oki (Slobodan Jokic, 1965, Zadar) is a media artist and film author. 
In his work he uses the media of film and video, installation, computer 
arts and the Internet. His works are based on the process of researching 
personal, visual, and narrative contents, which demand various media 
forms and the ways of their presentation. During a few latest years, he 
has focused his interest on hybrid feature-length film and 
cinematographic database in the context of the new media. He realised 
his first exhibitions and experimental films in Zagreb between 1987 and 
1989. From 1991 to 1993, he studied film and video at De Vrije Academie 
in Den Haag as one of Professor Frans Zwartjes’ students. In 1996 he 
completed his graduate (M.A.) studies in media arts at Hogeschool voor 
de Kunsten in Arnhem. From 1997 to 1999, he studied at the postgraduate 
studies in film directing and screenwriting at Maurits Binger Film 
Institute in Amsterdam. He belongs to the generation of artists who in 
1990s worked on cinematographic databases, interactive video, CD ROM's, 
web art and computer animation. He teaches as Associate Professor in the 
field of film and video art at the University of Split Arts Academy and 
the University of Zagreb Academy of Drama.

more: www.galerijagalzenica.info/english.html
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