Video: An Art, a History, 1965-2005

Miami Art Central is pleased to present Video: An Art, a History, 1965-2005., an international group exhibition based on the video and multimedia installations of the Centre Pompidou which recounts the history of this very contemporary field, punctuating the main phases of contemporary art from 1965 to 2005. Curated by Christine Van Assche, Media Arts Curator at the Centre Pompidou, this exhibition will be on view at Miami Art Central from September 20 through December 10, 2006.

“The Moon is the oldest TV” said the pioneering Nan June Paik (Seoul, Korea, 1932) who, in 1963, first introduced a television work into a museum space. Two years later he reproduced the lunar cycle using seventeen televisions situated on pedestals in a darkened room. Each set showed a different phase of the moon, the shape of which was the result of transforming the signal being transmitted by means of a magnet located in the cathode ray tube. Moon is the Oldest TV is the earliest historical work in the exhibition Video: An Art, a History, 1965-2005, and laid the foundation for many video works created in the last decades.

Video: An Art, a History, 1965-2005 presents an overview of how video has developed in the last forty years. Video as a means of creative expression appeared in the early 1960s and has developed considerably since then. Originally used by artists to record their live performance works, video became an artistic art form in its own right in the 1990s, and now plays an important role in contemporary art practice. Developed in the 1970s as a more practical alternative to film, video, like television, has been available to mass audiences from the beginning, making it especially appealing to artists seeking a wider forum (Nam June Paik) for their work. The medium dominated in the 1980s, and the term “new media” was coined to describe video-as-art. Video was initially adopted by many artists seeking to document performances. A number of these artists sought to push the boundaries of the medium, utilizing strategies taken from television, and experimenting with closed-circuit recording monitors, feedback, slow-motion and fast-forward functions, etc. Others used it to critique the images and content of mass media (Dara Birnbaum), particularly as they related to phenomenological concerns of identity. New media evolved in the 1980s and ’90s toward experimentation with installation through discursive devices, the systems of cinematic narrative, the parameters of installation, the active role of the viewer, and installations that function as exhibitions (Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, and Isaac Julien). In the 2000s, many aesthetic directions are being pursued through technological research, interactivity, theatricality, etc. However, the issues that have captured the focus in this exhibition are the works made by artists responding to more global concerns and issues of form and content.

Tracing the history of video from 1965 to the present, this exhibition is structured in five sections: Imaginative Television and Quests for Identity explore issues related to the essence and structure of the television medium; meanwhile, From Video Tape to Installation, Post-Cinema and Contemporary Perspectives address questions such as artists’ status, the role of the spectator and the relationship between fiction and documentary. Covering some forty years of the history of this media, this exhibition brings together a selection of 37 works by some of the most important artists in this field ranging from the earliest pieces made with extremely limited resources, to impressive displays of audiovisual resources unleashed in more recent productions.

Artists in the Exhibition Vito Acconci (USA), Isaac Julien (U.K.), Samuel Beckett (Ireland), Thierry Kuntzel (France), Dara Birnbaum (USA), Matthieu Laurette (France), Peter Campus (USA), Mark Leckey (U.K), Stan Douglas (Canada), Chris Marker (France), Valie Export (Austria), Bruce Nauman (USA), Jean-Luc Godard (France), Marcel Odenbach (Germany), Douglas Gordon (U.K./ USA), Tony Oursler (USA), Dan Graham (USA), Nam June Paik (Korea/USA), Johan Grimonprez (Belgium/USA), Walid Ra’ad / The AtlasGroup (Lebanon/USA), Clarisse Hahn (France), Gary Hill (USA), Zined Sedira (France/U.K.), Pierre Huyghe (France/USA), Bill Viola (USA)

About the Curator Christine Van Assche is the Media Arts Curator at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France. She has curated exhibitions and produced new works with such media artists as Gary Hill, Tony Oursler, Joan Loeb, Nam June Paik, Marcel Odenbach, Joan Loge and Thierry Kuntzell. She was, along with curator Catherine David and critic Raymond Bellour, co-curator of the exhibition "Passage de l’Image," which was presented during its international tour at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1992. In 1993, Van Assche began to acquire works of video and computer art for the Centre Georges Pompidou, resulting in an addition of over 600 videotapes, 27 installations and 2 CD-ROMs to the permanent collection. The entire collection is available to the public through an open access policy in a video space located in the Paris museum.

About the Exhibition Miami Art Central’s presentation of this exhibition will include video, sculpture and multimedia installations in a chronological conversation about the medium while highlighting the relationship between the pioneer video creations of the 1960s and 1970s with those of younger artists. In addition to the actual works, various documents from the archives of the Centre Georges Pompidou Collection (scripts, drawings, film stills and artists interviews) will also be included in this seminal exhibition.

Pressetext

Video: An Art, a History, 1965-2005
New Media Collection, Centre Pompidou
Kurator: Christine Van Assche

mit Vito Acconci, Isaac Julien, Samuel Beckett, Thierry Kuntzel, Dara Birnbaum, Matthieu Laurette, Peter Campus, Mark Leckey, Stan Douglas, Chris Marker, VALIE EXPORT, Bruce Nauman, Jean-Luc Godard, Marcel Odenbach, Douglas Gordon, Tony Oursler, Dan Graham, Nam June Paik, Johan Grimonprez, Walid Ra´ad / The Atlas Group, Clarisse Hahn, Gary Hill, Zined Sedira, Pierre Huyghe, Bill Viola