Video Sculpture in Germany since 1963

The exhibition was assembled at the Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, by the curator Wolf Herzogenrath. "

Video Sculpture" includes works by such classics of video art as Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, and Jeffrey Shaw, as well as works by other well-known international artists Anna Anders, Claus Bohmler, Birgit Brenner, Klaus vom Bruch, Ingo Gunther, Jean-Francois Guiton, Dieter Kiessling, Urike Rosenbach, Franziska Megert, Wolf Kahlen, Marcel Odenbach, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Wolfgang Staehle, and Herbert Wentscher.

"Video Sculpture" reflects the history of media art in both Germany and the global context, starting with its roots in the 1960s. It depicts the very beginning of the process, when artists started to use new video and electronic technologies in their artistic work, and traces the development of this genre to the past decade.

The exhibition embraces the work of four generations of international media artists—from the "ancestors" of the video art, who started its history in the 1960s, to media artists of the 1990s. It presents 18 video sculptures and video installations, as well as more than 40 works on paper. The emphasis is on recent works, most of which were created especially for this exhibition.

"Video is like a pencil," claimed the American artist John Baldessari at the beginning of the 1970s. By this statement, the artist indicated the unlimited possibilities of the video and electronic media to contribute to contemporary art. Indeed, as paint, pencil or chisel, video is also a means of artistic expression, though it is often associated with the commercial or technological context. Even today, while talking about video, one is more likely to think about commercial TV or home videos, than about artwork.

"Video Sculpture" gives an idea of the aesthetic potential of the video and electronic media, and demonstrates their ability to be not simply a kind of TV, or moving painting, or documentation of other actions, but rather a new way of artistic expression. Here viewers will have a possibility to see common things in an uncommon context.