Videonale.15, Bonn Kunstmuseum, Germany, 27 Feb – 19 April 2015
For the first time ever, the call for entries to the Videonale competition had a specific theme: THE CALL OF THE WILD. The thematic orientation of VIDEONALE.15 had its origin in the wish to give the festival a stronger focus on content, both in the presentation of the entries to the competition and in the festival programme itself, with the intention of more clearly positioning Videonale as a platform for the discussion of the moving image in all its aspects. This was also Videonale’s reaction to its change of format after it moved into the Kunstmuseum Bonn: The video festival of the early days, where over 200 videos were presented within a few days, has evolved into an exhibition of max. 40 positions with a festival programme. The theme gives this focus an additional guideline.
With THE CALL OF THE WILD, VIDEONALE.15 asks to what extent the topic of “the Wild”, as used by the arts and cultural history for centuries, can nowadays be productive in the discussion of current social, political and artistic developments. What associations does “the Wild” or “the Wilderness” evoke in us? How do we react when we are presented with the Wild, in the sense of the strange, the unknown, and what do these reactions tell us about our counterparts, but also about ourselves and our environment? Why does this Other fascinate us just as much as it disturbs us?
The strange, unknown does not necessarily lie far away. It is frequently – also with regard to current events – in our midst. In contemporary art it is currently the moving image with which artists are trying to find a way into those wild places and conditions and capture the feelings of unease associated with them.
For VIDEONALE.15, more than 1,200 works from 76 countries were submitted to the competition. Of these, 38 works from 19 countries are presented in the VIDEONALE.15 exhibition, and show a spectrum of how THE CALL OF THE WILD can be understood and interpreted.
In addition, within the context of the jubilee exhibition “30 Years-30 Voices” (Part 2), VIDEONALE.15 is also presenting 17 historical works, selected by important companions of Videonale.
Exhibiting Artists
AYLA PIERROT ARENDT
UDITA BHARGAVA
PAULINE BOUDRY & RENATE LORENZ
JENNY BRADY
KAROLINA BREGULA
WIM CATRYSSE
JOS DIEGEL
WOJTEK DOROSZUK
CHRISTOPH FAULHABER
MAHDI FLEIFEL
FABIEN GIRAUD & RAPHAEL SIBONI
SHAUN GLADWELL
PHILIPP GUFLER
AMINA HANDKE
CONSTANTIN HARTENSTEIN
KERSTIN HONEIT
VIKA KIRCHENBAUER
THOMAS KNEUBÜHLER
LIEUX FICTIFS (DIVERSE ARTISTS)
IHRA LILL
ELIN MAGNUSSON
RACHEL MAYERI
MARIANNA MILHORAT
SHELLY NADASHI
NEOZOON
NEOZOON
ERKKA NISSINEN
FRANÇOIS NOUGUIÈS
ALAN PHELAN
CRISTINA PICCHI
FLORIAN PUGNAIRE & DAVID RAFFINI
MATEUSZ SADOWSKI
THE OTOLITH GROUP
KOEN THEYS
GERHARD TREML & LEO CALICE
ANNA ZETT
MIKHAIL ZHELEZNIKOV
TOBIAS YVES ZINTEL
SUPPORTERS
VIDEONALE.15 JURY Carla Donauer (Kuratorin / Curator Kölnischer Kunstverein), Julia Draganovic (Direktorin / Director Kunsthalle Osnabrück), Jennifer Gassmann (Projektleitung, Leitung Festivalprogramm / Project director & director festival programme VIDEONALE.15), Sabine Himmelsbach (Direktorin / Director Haus für Elektronische Künste, Basel), Dennis Hochköppeler (Direktor / Director Galerie DREI, Cologne), Tasja Langenbach (Künstlerische Leitung / Artistic director VIDEONALE.15), Erik Martinson (Kurator / Curator, London/Toronto), Jan Schuijren (Kurator / Curator Basel/Amsterdam)
The admission to all events of the festival programme of VIDEONALE.15 is free.