VIDEONALE.1

Videonale was founded in 1984 by three students of art history in Bonn and since then takes place every two years.

Foreword of the VIDEONALE.1 catalogue

The first Videonale in Bonn presents contributions from the Federal Republic of Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Japan and the USA.

More than one hundred artists submitted entries to the festival, which was announced as a competition. A jury consisting of Dr. Alfred Fischer, Bärbel Moser, Dr. Georg F. Schwarzbauer, Maria Vedder and Ursula Wevers awarded three cash prizes and a sponsorship prize donated by the industry. The program of the Videonale is limited to a pure software presentation, i.e. only video tapes will be shown, no installations or video performances will be presented. The sameness of the form of presentation for all tapes can lead to a levelling of content, i.e. the fascination of the medium of television should be counteracted by a raising awareness to the art-specific peculiarities of the medium. This concern was taken into account by the programme structure of the Videonale. Based on the diversity of the realisation of the artistic ideas, the contributions were divided into a main programme and into "blocks". The main programme will feature art videos in the narrower sense, while the blocks will feature art and films, about art and artists, music videos and American tapes.

Video art is an art of our time, a fast-moving time, dominated by electronic media. Electronic media are present in every area of life. Video is invisibly integrated into our daily lives.

Cameras, monitors, cameras, monitors ...

Film, television, video images. Video images, distant relatives from the time when pictures learned to walk. Today it sometimes seems as if the images are created to find a fixed point, an attempt to capture the time speeding away over us. A fragment of interpretation that allows for a possible revision and further examination of the world view that has emerged, even in the distant future.Television rolls over us, making our senses numb and dull. We consume it, reproduce preconceived opinions, images conveyed by attitudes. Time and space have acquired new dimensions through the mass medium of television. We are no longer bound to the space we live in, we can transcend it, at any TV broadcasting time.

Video art enters this situation with the attempt to delimit and represent time spaces and imaginary worlds anew, i.e. with the attempt to create its own world of images even in the face of the omnipresent power of the medium of television. (Dieter Daniels, Bärbel Moser, Petra Unnützer)

VIDEONALE.1 Artists
Volker Anding, Gábor Bódy & Folkmar Hein & Llurex, Maurizio Bonora, Caterina Borelli, Egon Bunne, Susan Britton, Maurizio Camerani, Giorgio Cattani, Paul Coerper, Mitch Corber, Walter Dahn, Dieter Daniels, DEDO (Harry Heyink), Achim Duchow, Ingrid Ernst & Uwe Friedrich, Bradley Eros & Aline Mare, Renate Faulhaber, Rudolf Frings, Monika Funke Stern, Jean-François Guiton, Alex Halkin, Barbara Hammann, George Hampton, Madelon Hooykaas & Elsa Stansfield, Michel Jaffrenou, Stephan Lamby & Ruben Hanne, Nora Ligorano & Marshall Reese, Jacques Lizène, Antal Lux, Franziska Megert-Vogt, Norbert Meissner, Terry Mohre, Yvonne Oerlemans, Claudia Okonek, Rotraut Pape, Paris ruft (Ute Meta Bauer u.a.), Fabrizio Plessi, Fee Podgurski, Daniel Poensgen, Soc. Raffaello Sanzio (Claudia Somar, Romeo Castellucci, Chiara Guidi, Paolo Guidi), Rainer Schmidt & Christian Maiwurm & Pit Mischke, Andrea Schweers, Sluik & Kurpershoek, Wolfgang Staehle, Mike Steiner, Dagmar Streckel & Friedemann Malsch, Jun Suzuki, Sebastian Tischer, Bruce Tovsky, Maria Vedder & Bettina Gruber, Herbert Wentscher

Competition Jury & Award Jury
Dr. Alfred Fischer, Bärbel Moser, Dr. Georg F. Schwarzbauer, Maria Vedder, Ursula Wevers

Founders and curators
Dieter Daniels, Bärbel Moser, Petra Unnützer

Festival website
verein.videonale.org

Image: VIDEONALE.1 catalogue cover, 1984. © Videonale