VideoMentale
3/7 - 3/31/1996
Video installations
Six artistic positions from Poland
In cooperation with the Center of Contemporary Art in Warsaw and Mediopolis e.V. in Berlin VideoFest: Izabella Gustowska, Zbigniew Libera, Jozef Robakowski, Slawomir Sobczak, Jacek Staniszewski, Piotr Wyrzykowski

The original project was a comprehensive attempt to encourage a series of Polish artists from such diverse disciplines as painting, sculpture and plastics to enter the medium video. The resulting video installations and objects not only made it possible the make inferences as to the acceptance of the new media on the cutting edges of the different art forms, but also documented the mutual influence of the present trends in East European cultures. An exhibition of the works in the National Gallery of Art in Sopot (Panstwowa Galeria Sztuki) was received with great enthusiasm. Together with the curator for media art of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Dr. Ryszard Kluczszynski, FORO ARTISTICO selected from the entire collection the most revealing works, in regards to artistic analysis.

The Polish artists reached the medium video through photography, film, music, performance and visual arts but continue to stay active in their own areas. Because of this, intermediality has become a core part of their video work. Today the variety of different genres in video ranges from music videos of folk poetry and video animation to analytic concepts. With the speed of the development of technology Polish artsts have been finding increased interest for communications projects and interactive concepts. This exhibition displayed a cross-section of the wide spectrum of Polish video works, in regards to the formal organization as well as to the artistic approaches.

The formal spectrum of the exhibits ranged from traditional closed circuit systems to interactive installations, from pure motor installations to arrangements that integrate the picture screen as an element, from minimalism to opulence. The range of variety of the contents extends from the analysis of metalinguistic problems of personal visions to political or strongly individual feminist approaches.

Among the artists were some of the pioniers of the media arts, video artists of the second generation, as well as newcomers from all different branches of art.
The result was a series of mostly archaic and poetic works that use the technology as well as the logic of the medium video flawlessly and fascinatingly.