On Sunday November 27th an exhibition of artists’ videos from the collections of the ASAC – Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts opened at Ca’ Giustinian historic headquarters of La Biennale. Titled VIDEO MEDIUM INTERMEDIUM, the exhibition is organized by the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta.The videos on display have been selected by Bice Curiger.

 

Following the success of the exhibition of its historic posters (Ca’ Giustinian, February 25th – May 20th 2011), la Biennale, with its archives, offers a first chance to discover a selection of 32 videos realized by 53 artists between 1969 and 1975, along with photographs and other documents from the Collections of the ASAC for public display as well as for consultation by scholars and followers of the history of this Institution.

 

Following the preview of digitized works presented at the 52nd International Art Exhibition in 2007, and 24 years after the historic survey Gli Art/tapes dell’ASAC held at Ca’ Corner della Regina in November 1977, the public will be able to view the rich legacy that documents the nascent art of video in Europe at the beginning of the Seventies. This was a transnational phenomenon tied to contemporary avant-garde movements such as Body Art, Land Art, Performance Art, Lettrism and Minimalism, which fostered interesting results in Italy as well, results that have not yet received sufficient attention.

 

La Biennale has begun an extensive program for the philological reconstruction and restoration of over 200 videos, preserving the matrices in the original U-matic and Open formats and reproducing the contents in digital form (DVD). The restoration work was conducted by la Biennale, with the collaboration of a group of researchers from the University of Udine. Most of these works come from art/tapes/22, the famous video workshop in Florence directed by Maria Gloria Bicocchi between 1973 and 1976.

 

The title VIDEO MEDIUM INTERMEDIUM indicates how video became a means of self-reflection on artistic practices and a medium capable of joining artists from different environments (visual arts, literature, theatre, dance, music) and geographic areas, and laid the foundations for the creation of a new international community.

 

The videos presented at the exhibition were selected by Bice Curiger and focus on a series of themes:

 

Shum realizes in 1969 the first Tv Show titled Land Art on the works of artists such as Boezem, Dibbets, Flanagan, De Maria, Long, Smithson and Oppenheim. In 1970 another Tv Show took place, Identifications documenting actions and performaces of 20 international artists such as Anselmo, Beuys, Boetti, Brown, Buren, Calzolari, De Dominicis, Van Elk, Erhard Walther,Fulton, Gilbert&George, Kuehn, Merz, Rinke, Rueckriem, Ruthenbeck, Serra, Sonnier, Weiner, Zorio

 

2. Artists with Fluxus and Happening Art background (Joseph Beuys, Giuseppe Chiari, Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik)

The Fluxus’s exponents were attracted by the idea of total art combining music, dance, poetry, theatre and performance

 

3. Performance (Marina Abramovic, Eleanor Antin, Christian Boltanski, Simone Forti, Rebecca Horn, Joan Jonas)

Performance art developed thanks to the work of conceptual artists who used their own bodies as a means of expression

 

4. Linguistics and tautology (Vincenzo Agnetti, John Baldessarri, Dan Graham, Maurizio Nannucci)

These artists used video as a means of reflecting on visual and verbal language

 

5. Self-reflection (Vito Acconci, Douglas Davies, Ketty La Rocca, Arnulf Rainer)

The artists of this section turn the video-camera on themselves, and explore identity and the relationship between man and society

 

6. Electronic Experiments (Ed Mellnik, Pamela Shaw, Nina Sobel, Bill Viola, Woody Valsuka)

Artists of this section used various technical procedures to manipulate electronic signals

 

7. Extension of artistic experimentation through video (Alighiero Boetti, Giulio Paolini, Les Levine, Urs Luthi, Lucio Pozzi)

Thanks to the spread of video technology, these artists discovered a new tool that could extend their field of experimentation

In the Portego on the ground floor of Ca’ Giustinian, monitors are set up to view the videos selected for each theme chosen by Bice Curiger, a series of backstage photographs took by Gianni Melotti along with other documents from the Historical Archive (artists’ letters, invitations, magazines, catalogues, photographs and video stills). In the two small rooms on the sides is possible to view the videolibrary containing the works of over 100 artists from the ASAC collections and a daily program of videos, in order to view the selection more comfortably. Each day is dedicated to a single thematic group.

 

Ca’ Giustinian is becoming increasingly established as the headquarters for the permanent activities of La Biennale di Venezia and a point of reference for students, young people and the wider public of amateurs and insiders in Venice and the surrounding areas.

 

• VIDEO MEDIUM INTERMEDIUM: download the press kit >>