Tenth Annual Video Marathon: MEDIUM COOL

Art in General’s Tenth Annual Video Marathon Medium Cool explores the current state of video art, situated in-between institutionalized ‘Video Art’ and the work emerging from the flow and dynamism of the Internet. Taking the title of Haskell Wexler’s film of 1969, which suggested a critique of Marshall McLuhan’s distinction between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ media, Medium Cool suggests that video is an idea rather than a technology; as an umbrella term for a particular set of practices, it promises democracy while at the same time threatening to reduce images to information. Through two days of screenings, three events, and a dedicated website, the Marathon looks at a range of video practices, including early experiments within the media itself, while dealing with issues of video distribution and copyright, the making of (art) history and legacy through moving images, and the general impact of technology on contemporary culture.

The screening Artist Looking at the Camera profiles the work of artists who use the tools of re-enactment, appropriation and moving image manipulation to question how history is produced and how facts are modified and reinforced through distribution. From issues of social documentation and media distribution to copyright and the impact of technology upon culture, the artists question the status of moving images in our collective memory and imagined future. Artists include Bad Beuys Entertainment, Lene Berg, Ida Ekblad, Haris Epaminonda, Sascha Hahn, Nate Harrison, Annika Larsson, Lars Laumann, Guthrie Lonergan, Anders Nordby, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, and Stephen Sutcliffe.

In keeping with this tenth anniversary of the Video Marathon, the screening Transitional Objects, curated by Thomas Beard, looks back on the past decade of electronic art as a way of thinking about a medium that has remained in flux—politically, aesthetically, and technologically—since its inception. Whether the subject is dime store psychics or the return of the repressed, new loves or old regimes, all works raise the question: where is video going? Artists include Bobby Abate, William E. Jones, Eileen Maxson, Jennifer Montgomery, Michael Robinson, and Jennet Thomas.

The Marathon also includes a lecture by Ed Halter, and two events: Art Since 1960 (According to the Internet) produced by Hanne Mugaas and Cory Arcangel, and Flipped Chips curated by the artists collaborative LoVid.

Medium Cool is organized by Hanne Mugaas.

Art in General’s Video Marathon is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency and The Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds program, which is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and mediaThe Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway.