Contour 2007 - 3rd Biennial for Video Art
18 Aug - 21 Oct 2007
Contour 2007 - 3rd Biennial for Video Art
Decoder
18 August - 21 October 2007
Curator: Nav Haq
Contour 2007 - third biennial for video art has been given the subtitle Decoder. The exhibition presents a number of video and film works in a double-edged line of enquiry. It investigates the perceptual and rhetorical mechanisms that exist which affect and shape how people assimilate their comprehension of the world. Within this investigation it also analyses the contemporary tendencies within lens-based media art practices for looking at the particular issue above, whether self-reflexive or not.
The exhibition is used as a means to touch on subjects that are perceived to be shaped through the prevailing mechanisms for understanding - subjects that are legitimate and candid, topical, revelatory, and even antagonistic. But Contour 2007 also possesses a series of gestures beyond art's current relationship with internationalism. The exhibition looks at the contemporary conditions and desires for consuming through the visual, and questions the capacity for effectively debating socio- and geo-political issues through this consumption. It is not intended to be a political biennial as such. Rather it looks at the means that exist through which we consume political concerns, and then interrogates itself to ask the reason why this act is relevant within contemporary art in the first place.
Contour 2007 is a diagnostic layer that intertwines itself with the city of Mechelen - an exhibition that is not 'parachuted in' but emerges from within. The project is citywide, and a range of sites are being used. Historical sites play a role, as well as unused sites that formerly had some form of public function. There are also sites that presently have active public relationships of various forms. A key characteristic for the biennial is its 'imminence'. Contour 2007 is an experiential exhibition that produces a series of encounters for the public with video art. The presentation of the exhibition offers an engagement with works in unconventional and visceral experiences.
Artists:
Aline Bouvy
ohn Gillis
Gerard Byrne
Neil Cummings
Marysia Lewandowska
Omer Fast
Cao Guimarães
Carsten Höller
Saskia Holmkvist
Hassan Khan
Tsui Kuang-Yu
Gabriel Lester
Deimantas Narkevicius
Rosalind Nashashibi
Nashashibi / Skaer
Cédric Noël
Gert Robijns
Supersober (Bohdan Stehlik / Una Szeemann)
Sarah Vanagt
Decoder
18 August - 21 October 2007
Curator: Nav Haq
Contour 2007 - third biennial for video art has been given the subtitle Decoder. The exhibition presents a number of video and film works in a double-edged line of enquiry. It investigates the perceptual and rhetorical mechanisms that exist which affect and shape how people assimilate their comprehension of the world. Within this investigation it also analyses the contemporary tendencies within lens-based media art practices for looking at the particular issue above, whether self-reflexive or not.
The exhibition is used as a means to touch on subjects that are perceived to be shaped through the prevailing mechanisms for understanding - subjects that are legitimate and candid, topical, revelatory, and even antagonistic. But Contour 2007 also possesses a series of gestures beyond art's current relationship with internationalism. The exhibition looks at the contemporary conditions and desires for consuming through the visual, and questions the capacity for effectively debating socio- and geo-political issues through this consumption. It is not intended to be a political biennial as such. Rather it looks at the means that exist through which we consume political concerns, and then interrogates itself to ask the reason why this act is relevant within contemporary art in the first place.
Contour 2007 is a diagnostic layer that intertwines itself with the city of Mechelen - an exhibition that is not 'parachuted in' but emerges from within. The project is citywide, and a range of sites are being used. Historical sites play a role, as well as unused sites that formerly had some form of public function. There are also sites that presently have active public relationships of various forms. A key characteristic for the biennial is its 'imminence'. Contour 2007 is an experiential exhibition that produces a series of encounters for the public with video art. The presentation of the exhibition offers an engagement with works in unconventional and visceral experiences.
Artists:
Aline Bouvy
ohn Gillis
Gerard Byrne
Neil Cummings
Marysia Lewandowska
Omer Fast
Cao Guimarães
Carsten Höller
Saskia Holmkvist
Hassan Khan
Tsui Kuang-Yu
Gabriel Lester
Deimantas Narkevicius
Rosalind Nashashibi
Nashashibi / Skaer
Cédric Noël
Gert Robijns
Supersober (Bohdan Stehlik / Una Szeemann)
Sarah Vanagt