CONF: Video Art Distribution (Düsseldorf, 8-9 May 18)

Stiftung imai c/o NRW-Forum
Ehrenhof 2
Düsseldorf
May 8 – 09, 2018

Video Art Distribution: From Alternative Art Market to Commercialization

Symposium of the imai Foundation
http://www.stiftung-imai.de/

Since the 1970s, specialized distributors have emerged worldwide in response to the ever-evolving video art. As an alternative to the traditional gallery system, video art distributors have come up with innovative structures in order to sell and distribute such works of art. In 1971, Electronic Arts Intermix in New York has established itself as an important pioneering institution of this kind. Over the following years, other initiatives such as London Video Arts (now LUX), Amsterdam-based MonteVideo and Time Based Arts (later Netherlands Media Art Institute, now LIMA), Toronto-based Vtape, Tokyo-based Video Gallery Scan and Cologne-based 235 Media were founded. Many of them survive to this day while others have been restructured and continue to exist in a different logistical form. Although the distribution concepts in question have had lasting influence on the art system, this phenomenon has barely received any attention within the field of Art and Media Studies.

The conference will explore the relationship between art production, the art market and the exhibition practices of media art on an international level. We will review the historical conditions of the origins and the tasks of video art distributors, call into question the current practices and discuss the present-day challenges of Internet-based market strategies.

Registration: videoartdistribution@imaionline.de (free admission)
Venue: imai Foundation c/o NRW-Forum, Ehrenhof 2, Düsseldorf
Further details: http://www.stiftung-imai.de/

PROGRAMME

TUESDAY, MAY 8

10.00
Hans-Georg Lohe (Head of Düsseldorf Department of Culture)
Axel Wirths (Director of 235 Media, Cologne)
Words of Welcome

10.30
Video-Vision/Tele-Vision: Art Leaving the Conventional Cycles of Dissemination
Renate Buschmann (Director of the imai Foundation, Düsseldorf)

HISTORY OF VIDEO ART DISTRIBUTION

11.00-11.45
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI): An Alternative Model Across Time
Lori Zippay (Director of Electronic Arts Intermix, New York)

11.45-12.30
Analogue Decades, Video Venues and Distributors
Ulrike Rosenbach (Artist, Cologne)

12.30-13.30
LUNCH BREAK

13.30-14.15
235 – Audio – Video – Media. Video Art Distribution in Germany
Jessica Nitsche (Research Fellow, imai Foundation, Düsseldorf)

14.15-15.00
An Insider‘s View on Video Art (Distribution) in Germany
Norbert Meissner (Artist, Leipzig)

15.00-15.30
COFFEE BREAK

15.30-16.15
Setting Up Video Art Distribution in the UK: New, Different and Challenging
Julia Knight (Professor Emerita of Moving Image, University of Sunderland)

16.15-17.15
Video Gallery SCAN as Video Activism in Tokyo of the 1980s
Hiroko Kimura (Research Fellow, imai Foundation, Düsseldorf)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9

THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF VIDEO ART DISTRIBUTION

9.30-10.15
Lost Media Alive: The FRIGO Experience
Rotraut Pape (Professor for Film and Video, University of Art and Design, Offenbach am Main)

10.15-11.00
How Video (Art) Became Expensive
Dieter Daniels (Professor for Art History and Media Theory, Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig)

11.00-11.15
COFFEE BREAK

11.15-12.00
Distributing Artist’s Film and Video. Technical and Economic Challenges in a Digital Era
Rolf Quaghebeur (General Director of ARGOS, Brussels)

12.00-12.45
To Distribute or not. Practicing Balancing between Alternative Art Markets and Commercialization
Gaby Wijers (Director of LIMA, Amsterdam)

12.45-13.30
LUNCH BREAK

13.30-15.00
Daata Editions and New Models for Artist Commissioning, Distribution and Exhibition
David Gryn (Director of DAATA EDITIONS, London)

How Much Virtuality Can the Market Stomach
Julia Sökeland (Initiator of Blinkvideo, Hamburg)

Why Video Art Shouldn’t Rely on the Art Market
Olaf Stüber (Gallerist / Curator, Berlin)

15.00 – 15.30
Concluding discussion

Concept and Organization:
Renate Buschmann and Jessica Nitsche
Editing and Translation: Lara Perski
Funded by Gerda Henkel Foundation

Reference: CONF: Video Art Distribution (Düsseldorf, 8-9 May 18). In: ArtHist.net, Mar 27, 2018. <https://arthist.net/archive/17717>.