windows - Directors Lounge

WINDOWS
curator: KIKA NICOLELA
total running time: 60 min.
There is a similarity between the formation of our ego, which according to Lacan happens during what he
calls the “mirror phase”, and the identification process that takes place as the audience looks at the film
screen. Although the spectator is always located in the place of the film camera, the cinema apparatus is
omitted, since the classical cinema is always in service of verisimilitude.
The only element that can give everything away is the frame, the screen, the window that contains the
image. It’s what limits the identification of the viewer with what it’s being seen; thus the recurrent attempts
to place the spectator “inside” the movie, “wrapping” the image around him – 3D, Imax, virtual reality and,
more recently, expanded reality.
But what makes the classical cinema so appealing is the fascination over the act of looking itself and the
fetishist objectification of the image. Movies such as Rear Window, Peeping Tom and Blow Up have very
successfully dealt this this subject.
Interestingly, over the years I have noticed a particular element that is recurrent in many artists’ videos,
and also exerts a special attraction over me – the window. In this program, I have selected some videos
that approach this theme in various ways, exploring its multiple facets: the window to gaze into or to gaze
from it; the window framing a certain reality, or through which one looks into an imagined world; or the
window itself used as a metaphor, or in analogy with the cinema screen or the camera viewfinder.
The artists come from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, UK and
US, and their videos date from 2002 to 2011. Three of them – Anders Weberg, Niclas Hallberg and NungHsin Hu - have made new videos specially for this screening.
I would like to thank Videoformes New Media & Video Art Festival for its support
<curator’s bio>
Kika Nicolela is a Brazilian artist, filmmaker and indepedent curator. Her works include single-channel
videos, installations, performances, experimental documentaries and photography. Graduated in Film and
Video by the University of Sao Paulo, Kika Nicolela was the recipient of several grants and has participated
of nearly 100 solo and collective exhibitions in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy,
Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, UK and US. Her videos have been screened and
awarded in festivals of more than 30 countries, such as: Kunst Film Biennale, Oberhausen International
Short Filme Festival, Japan Media Arts Festival, Videoformes New Media & Video Art Festival, International
Electronic Art Festival Videobrasil and Bilbao International Short Film Festival. Since 2008, Kika Nicolela
also curates and coordinates the Exquisite Corpse Video Project, an ongoing collaborative series of videos
that involves more than 70 artists from 25 countries. In 2010, she was selected for the Rondo Studio
(Austria), Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation (Germany), Gyeonggi Creation Center (South Korea) and
the Casa das Caldeiras (Brazil) residency programs. In 2011, she will be artist-in-residence at Route Fabrik
(Switzerland). The artist is represented by DConcept, a São Paulo based art gallery, and Vtape, a Toronto
based videoart distributer. More info on www.dilemastudio.com.
VANISHING POINT
Lea Van Steen
01:52min, Brazil, 2009
<synopsis>
A vanishing point is a point in a perspective drawing to which parallel lines not parallel to the image plane
appear to converge. The video vanishing point –Closer them they appear discuss the displacement. What
we see in mirror is in the past, but the image still going further, a warning shows that things are not in the
place that we think they are.
<artist’s bio>
Lea Van Steen began to work early with independent films companies, taking part at the São Paulo’s
filmmaking industry deveploment in the end of the eighties, as assistant production, scenographer,
assistant editor, assistant director and art director. In 1990 worked as Promo-manager, creating the visual
identity of MTV/Brazil. She has directed hundreds of advertising films.
WINDOWS
Michael Greathouse
03:53min, US, 2008
<synopsis>
“Windows” is a computer-animated video that features a recreation of my childhood bedroom desk where
I would sit and draw when I was young. To me the window looking out was both a source of inspiration
for the future and fear of the world that was beyond my hometown. The title “Windows” refers to the
animated window in the video, the “window” produced by the creative act of drawing in the notebook that
is depicted, and the “window” of the image that the video produces for the viewer.
<artist’s bio>
Born in Kansas City, MO, USA in 1969, Michael Greathouse received my BFA from the Kansas City Art
Institute in 1991. In 1997 he attends the University of New Orleans Graduate Fine Arts program (MFA
2000). Since 2003 he has lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been exhibited in both America
and Europe including “Prospect 1.5” in New Orleans, LA (2010), and “Amicale”, Museum of Contemporary
Arts, Siegen, Germany (2009). Awards have included residency fellowships at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art
Foundation, New York, NY and the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2010)
FROM THE WINDOW OF MY ROOM <Da Janela do Meu Quarto>
Cao Guimarães
05:00min, Brazil, 2004
<synopsis>
Two boys fighting and playing in the rain as witnessed by the author through the window from his hotel
room.
<artist’s bio>
Cao Guimarães, filmmaker and visual artist, was born in 1965 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he lives and
works. Since the end of the 1980s he has been showing his work at various museums and galleries such
as Tate Modern, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art NY, Gasworks, Frankfurten Kunstverein,
Studio Guenzano, Galeria La Caja Negra and Galeria Nara Roesler. He was part of art biennieals such as
the XXV and XXVII São Paulo International Art Biennial, Insite Biennial 2005 (San Diego/ Tijuana). Some
of his art pieces are part of public collections such as Fondation Cartier Pour L’art Contemporain, Tate
Modern, Walker Art Center, Guggehein Museum, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, MoMA, Instituto
Cultural Inhotim, among others.
PASSAGE
Alicia Felberbaum
03:29min, UK, 2010
<synopsis>
Time, space, the space in-between, rhythm… “Passage” is about my concern with the experience of
time, and the analogy between time and space. Time and space come together, they are inseparable, and
in film you always have to deal with both of them.
<artist’s bio>
Alicia Felberbaum (based in London, UK) (studied Goldsmiths, Master in Fine Arts, 1994) is an artist
working in experimental video, new media and installations. A recipient of several art grants, Alicia was
awarded a Fellowship from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) for
research on the relationships between interactivity, databases, and the narrative form. Her work has been
shown internationally in exhibitions and Festivals such as: European Media Art, Germany; Videoformes
New Media & Video Art, France; Viper International Festival for Film and New Media, Switzerland; Sónar,
Spain; Videobrasil, Brasil; FILE 2005, Brasil; Angel Row Gallery, UK; IMA, Institute of Modern Art, Australia;
Axis, Netherlands. Member of the Exquisite Corpse Video Project (ECVP) and Human Emotions Project
(HEP). For more information please refer to: http://www.aliciafelber.wordpress.com
WILD LIFE
Wagner Morales
09:19min, Argentina / Brazil, 2006
<synopsis>
This work functions like an ethnographic register of the wild life. But, instead of pointing the camera to
the animals or native tribes, the lens are focused on a group of tourists drifting in a boat trip through the
glacial of Patagonia. Used to the massive and compulsive images production, the group reacts with an
animal indifference in front of the camera. The dramatic character of the synphonic music associated to
the film images clashes with the indifferent attitude of the tourists. The crescendo of the music provokes
a cumulation of tension and the feeling that a tragedy is going to happen any moment. The film ends up
without a climax, the tourists continue their trip, without being aware of the risk they were going through.
Only the viewer was feeling the danger and now, while relieving from the tension, reflects of the strength of
cinematographic devices.
<artist’s bio>
Since 2000 Brasilian artist Wagner Morales has shown his works in numerous solo and group exhibitions
in Brazil as well as in other countries. His most recent solo shows include presentations at MAM-Bahia
- Museum of Modern Art (Bahia, Brazil), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France) and Galeria Virgilio (São Paulo,
Brazil). He has taken part in several group exhibitions among which the most important were in Brazil,
Canada, Chile, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. Morales has worked as an artist in residence
at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains (Tourcoing, France, 2004) and at Le Pavillon
program (Palais de Tokyo, France, 2005/2006). Currently he is exhibiting his project “White Screen”
at Cable Gallery (Cable Factory, Helsinki). The project was realized as a part of the artist’s production
residency at HIAP (Helsinki, Finland, 2010). Since 2006 Morales has curated also exhibitions and artistic
projects in international galleries and museums such as MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary art
of Bucarest, Romania; Le Silo, Paris, Galeria Virgilio, Videobrasil Association and at 28th São Paulo’s
Biennale, Brazil. He lives and works in Paris and São Paulo.
SHADE
Guillermina Buzio & Jorge Lozano
02:00min, Canada, 2007
<synopsis>
A reflection on global warming. An visual essay on cold and hot.
<artists’ bio>
Guillermina Buzio is a Toronto-based artist, and holds a BFA from the National University of Fine Arts P.
Pueyrredón (Argentina), a Bachelor of Media Arts from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, and an MFA
from the Ontario College of Art & Design. As a visual artist she has worked in a diverse range of media,
including video installation, performance, and painting. Her work focuses on human rights and identity
and has been shown nationally and internationally at Toronto’s A Space and Xspace Galleries and at the
Images Festival; Centro Cultural Recoleta and Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires and Bogotá;
and at the Ushuaia Biennale, Sao Paulo Film Festival, Bienal de La Habana, and the Bienal Arte Nuevo
Interactiva, among others. www.guillerminabuzio.com
Jorge Lozano has been working as a film and video artist for the last 20 years and he has achieved
national and international recognition. His fiction films have been exhibited at the Toronto Film Festival
and at the Sundance Film Festival amongst others. His experimental work has been exhibited at many
international festivals and galleries. He has expanded his practice to the organization of many cultural and
art events, the creation of aluCine, Toronto Latin Media Festival and facilitating self-representations video
workshops for marginalized Latin and non- Latin youth in Canada since 1991 Colombia 2005-2009 and
Venezuela 2005. His works distributed by V TAPE: http://www.vtape.org/catalogue.htm or you can take a
pick at: www.jorgelozano.ca.
A LETTER TO MY DEAR BIRD
Wai Kit Lam & AMAE
05:17min, China / Italy, 2003
<synopsis>
Wai Kit Lam and AMAE tried to find out some answers about questions like: Is really true that we can do
everything nowadays? Can we actually break down all the walls among cultures? Are communication
technologies valid solutions for creating democratic and peaceful global society? The loneliness is always
behind the corner.
<artists’ bio>
Wai Kit Lam was born in Hong Kong in 1966. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Goldsmiths
College, University of London, in 1996. In 2003, she received her MFA from The Chinese University
of Hong Kong. Her media included photography, video art & sound. Her research topic included
construction of identity, and interrelationship between individuals and surrounding circumstances.
AMAE was formed in June 2001, Italy. It is a heterogeneous group that uses contemporary art language
to make poetry by hypertextual way. AMAE is a Japanese word that means: dependency from the group.
The used languages are: poetry, video, music, photograph, installation and performance. AMAE projects
continually, in general following a conceptual attitude. And precariousness, ephemeral, time-pass,
suffering and death are the most important topics for AMAE.
PASSENGER
Robert Croma
05:57min, UK, 2009
<synopsis>
Passenger is a journey into the cosmology of dream and probability, an equation of both extreme presence
and infinite possibility.
<artist’s bio>
Robert Croma is a visual artist based in London. For a number of years he was a photographer working in
London for British newspapers and magazines. He has worked in film production and has written poetry,
fiction and for the theatre. His recent work with digital video embraces aspects of memory and time and
pursues the vagaries and revelations of dream and happenstance. It alludes to fictions and truths in the
everyday and seeks out the poetry of possibility.
CGH – SDU
Giselle Beiguelman
05:05min, Brazil, 2010
<synopsis>
In this video the landscape is reduced to its minimum informative elements – dominant colors and sounds
- converting movement in a flow of textures and volumes modulated by ligth. Recorded with a Flip video
camera during landings and take offs, between the urban airports of São Paulo (Congonhas, CGH) and
Rio de Janeiro (Santos Dumont, SDU), in one day of July.
<artist’s bio>
Giselle Beiguelman is a new media artist and multimedia essayist who teaches Digital Culture at the
Graduation Program in Communication and Semiotics of PUC-SP (São Paulo, Brazil). Her work includes
the award-winnings “The Book after the Book” “egoscópio” and Landscape0 (with Marcus Bastos and
Rafael Marchetti). She has been developing art projects for mobile phones (“Wop Art”, 2001), praised
by many media sites and the international press, including The Guardian (UK) and Neural (Italy), and art
involving public-access, by the web, SMS and MMS to electronic billboards like “Leste o Leste?” and
“egoscópio” (2002), released by The New York Times, “Poétrica” (2003) and “esc for escape” (2004).
Beiguelman’s work appears in important anthologies and guides devoted to digital arts including Yale
University Library Research Guide for Mass Media and has been presented in international venues such
as Net_Condition (ZKM, Germany), el final del eclipse (Fundación Telefonica, Madrid), Desk Topping –
Computer Disasters (Smart Project Space, Amsterdan) Arte/Cidade (São Paulo), The 25th São Paulo
Biennial and Algorithmic Revolution (ZKM). Curator of Nokia Trends (2007 e 2008) and Artistic Director of
Sergio Motta Art and Technology Award.
PASSENGER
Kika Nicolela
05:00min, France / Brazil, 2007
<synopsis>
Shot inside a bus on the road to Paris, PASSENGER testifies the effect of dusk and rain in the moving
blurred landscape. The colors and shapes formed by the combination of light and movement evoke a
unique trip through an imagined land. Original soundtrack by Canadian musicians Thierry Gauthier and
Delphine Measroch.
<artist’s bio>
Kika Nicolela is a Brazilian artist, filmmaker and indepedent curator. Her works include single-channel
videos, installations, performances, experimental documentaries and photography. Graduated in Film and
Video by the University of Sao Paulo, Kika Nicolela was the recipient of several grants and has participated
of nearly 100 solo and collective exhibitions in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy,
Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, UK and US. Her videos have been screened and
awarded in festivals of more than 30 countries, such as: Kunst Film Biennale, Oberhausen International
Short Filme Festival, Japan Media Arts Festival, Videoformes New Media & Video Art Festival, International
Electronic Art Festival Videobrasil and Bilbao International Short Film Festival. In 2010, she was selected
for the Rondo Studio (Austria), Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation (Germany), Gyeonggi Creation
Center (South Korea) and the Casa das Caldeiras (Brazil) residency programs. In 2011, she will be artistin-residence at Route Fabrik (Switzerland). The artist is represented by DConcept, a São Paulo based art
gallery, and Vtape, a Toronto based videoart distributer. More info on www.dilemastudio.com.
MR. REDLIGHT
Niclas Hallberg
04:22min, Sweden, 2011
<synopsis>
A man is inexorable trapped in the wrong place, he’s trying to get attention, but he fails. He’s usually on
the opposite side. It evokes thoughts around the prostitutes’s situation in the Red Light District in many
big cities.
<artist’s bio>
Niclas Hallberg is a freelance artist since the last 11 years. Working in video, photo, installation,
performance and painting. His experimental works deals with questions concerning identities, masculinity
and humanity. He is using the moving picture to express feelings, make changes or to document a
performance. He often uses himself as an actor and thereby he creates a feeling of intimity. Niclas Hallberg
has participated in several solo and group exhibitions in Sweden and abroad, and has made videos
and photos commissioned by other artists and museums. He works in several international projects,
focused on collaborational exchanges resulting in exhibitions and video screenings, and also in different
art projects together with artists from around the world. Niclas Hallberg founded Formverk (art zone) 2004,
together with Stina Pehrsdotter, an experimental exhibition and project space in Eskilstuna, Sweden and
Banatska Dubica, Serbia.
BORDERS
Alexandra Gelis
03:12min, Canada, 2009
<synopsis>
Borders is an intimate photographic exploration of the bodies belonging to six
queer individuals. This
animation, made up of hundreds of high-resolution
photographs, unabashedly examines the evidence of
physical change and
transformation: surgery scars, tattoos, and other traces. The bodies are
fragmented,
as are the stories affiliated with these traces, and identities remain
delightfully elusive.
<artist’s bio>
Alexandra Gelis is a Colombian-Venezuelan artist based in Toronto with a background in visual arts. Her
work predominantly involves photography, video, electronic and digital processes. Gelis’ work addresses
the use of image in relation to multiple layers of memory, landscape and politics. She also works as
an educator/facilitator, leading video and photography workshops aimed at youth in marginalized
communities in Canada, Colombia and Panama.
In her current research titled The Panama Project, Gelis
emphasizes the role of the artist as multidisciplinary inquirer who engages in multiple explorations of
diverse methodologies in field work.
Her work has been shown in several venues in Canada, Venezuela,
Colombia, Panama, Argentina and the United States. She has developed curatorial projects and video
screenings, and programs for festivals in Latin America and Canada.
As a curator and video programmer
Gelis have been shows in different festivals in Panama, Colombia and Toronto. Gelis is presently an MFA
candidate at the York University in Toronto.
VERTICAL REFLECT
Nung-Hsin Hu
01:30min, Chile, 2011
<synopsis>
I am moving vertically to escape from the bound horizon in my mind. (The Footage is from documenting
48 hours road trip moving North-South direction in Chile).
<artist’s bio>
Nung-Hsin Hu was born 1981 in Taiwan. In 2006 she moved to New York to pursue her MFA in Fine Arts
at Long Island University. Since she earned her MFA in 2009, Hu primarily has been working in sculpture,
installation, and video. She has exhibited in the U.S. and abroad. In 2008, Hu was honored with the
Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture from the International Sculpture Center. In
2010 she received the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning’s Van Lier Fellowship, Taipei Artist Village’s
Boundary-Break-Through Project Grant, the NYFA-Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists and the
fellowships from the I-Park residency, CT, as well as the Casa das Caldeiras residency in São Paulo, Brazil.
LOOP LOOP
Patrick Bergeron
05:00min, Canada, 2008
<synopsis>
In a train going to Hanoi in Vietnam, the houses boarding the railroad are passing by. Using animation
and time shifts this video runs forwards and backwards looking for forgotten details, mimicking the way
memories are replayed in the mind. LoopLoop is made from one video sequence. The 1000 images of this
sequence have been stitched into one long panoramic image. Into this long still image, I integrated other
moving elements and built smooth transitions over it.
<artist’s bio>
Video artist and researcher, Patrick Bergeron modifies and manipulates the image and its details. His work
is a mix of animation, experimental film and documentary. For the last 15 years, he has been working in
special effect for the film industry and worked on films such as The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix.
5 WINDOW
Junebum Park
01:50min, South Korea, 2002
<synopsis>
On the back of plastic bowl, make a window shaped hole with a very elaborated tool. Make a wall by
building bricks, make a window frame and then closed that window with a piece of plastic bowl.
<artist’s bio>
June Bum Park was born in Seoul in 1976 and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Department
of Art Education at Sungkyunkwan University in 2003. Videos by Junebum Park both document his
performance as the creator of each work, and expose mechanical aspects in routine activity. Framing a
static point of view seen by the observer to a miniature world, Park displays abstract cyclical narratives.
Recent exhibitions of June Bum Park’s work include the 2010 Liverpool Biennale in UK, Asia Society and
Museum, New York; and Vienna Kunsthalle. He has been featured in solo exhibitions at Total Museum
of Contemporary Art, ISA and Gallery HYUNDAI in Seoul, Korea; and in Berlin at Hermann & Wagner
Gallery. Additional exhibitions of Park’s work have taken place at the 2004 Shanghai Biennale, Art Basel
Miami, Art Cologne, the Australian Center for Photography, Sydney; Frankfurter Kunstverein; British
Museum, London; Le Cube, Paris; Foundazione Samdretto Re Rebaudengi, Turin; Kunstraum Kreuzberg/
Bethanien, Berlin; and Galerie Pascal Vanhoecke, Paris, among other venues. And he has done various
type of residency programs since 2005, Ssamzie Space studio program, Seoul, BizArt center Artist studio
program, Shanghai and currently doing GCC (Gyeonggi Creation Center) Artist residency program, Korea.
HERE AGAIN <Aqui de Novo>
Lucas Bambozzi
06:09min, Brazil, 2003
<synopsis>
AQUI DE NOVO is a video-essay about gaps, blurred definitions and contemporary contradictions. it
evokes a sentence by Felix Gonzalez Torres [somewhere better than this place/nowhere better than
this place] to rely on conflicts between public and private spheres: what one wants and what one will
effectively do; when the other is desired and when he/she is avoided.
<artists’ bio>
Lucas Bambozzi is a multimedia artist and curator based in São Paulo, Brazil. His works comprise a
variety of formats, such as installations, single channel videos, short films and interactive projects. His
works have been shown in solo and collective exhibitions in more than 40 countries. Recent exhibitions
include Emergentes at Laboral, (2007/2008) Gijon/Spain and Fundación Telefonica (2008), Buenos Aires/
Argentina; RE:akt!, reconstruction, re-enactment, re-reporting, at ŠKUC gallery, Ljubljana/Slovenia and at
Museum of Contemporary Art Rijeka/ Croatia, Restraint at Oboros Montreal/Canadá. In 2010 participates
in exhibitions at ISEA-Ruhr in Dortmund, Germany and at Ars Eletrônica, in Linz, Áustria where his project
Mobile Crash was awarded. Recent curatorial projects include: SonarSound (2004); Digitofagia (2004); Life
Goes Mobile (Nokiatrends 2005 and 2006), Motomix Art & Music Festival (2006) among other shows. He is
one of the initiators and curators of the arte.mov, International Mobile Media Art Festival (2006-2009).
WINDOW OF DESIRE
Anders Weberg
02:00min, Sweden, 2011
<synopsis>
“Human desire is the fundamental motivation of all human action.” Hobbes (1588–1679)
Filmed with a mobile phone.
<artist’s bio>
Anders is an artist and experimental filmmaker working in video, sound, large prints, new media and
installations and he is primarily concerned with identity. The human body lies at the root of projects
that formally and conceptually chart identity and its construction as a preamble to broaching matters of
violence, genders, memory, loss or ideology in which personal experiences co-exists with references to
popular culture, the media and consumerism. Specializing in digital technologies, he aims to mix genres
and ways of expression to explore the potential of audio visual media. Currently based in the small village
Kölleröd in the south of Sweden and has exhibited at numerous art/film festivals, galleries, and museums
internationally, including: FutureEverything 2010, Manchester, UK; National Museum of Contemporary
Art 2010, Athens, Greece; Beijing Contemporary Art Centre 2010, Beijing, China; Cape 09 Art Biennale,
2009, Cape Town, South Africa; Biennale of Sydney 2008, Sydney, Australia; National Museum,
Szczecin, Poland; File Brazil 07-08, São Paulo, Brazil; [10th] Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo, Japan;
13th Barcelona International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art, SONAR, Barcelona, Spain;
Scope New York, US; Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), Santa Fe, Argentina; Pocket Films , Centre
Pompidou, Paris; Videoformes, Clermont – Ferrand, France and EMAF, European Media Art Festival,
Osnabrück, Germany.