In Between Frames
09 Jun - 02 Oct 2011
IN BETWEEN FRAMES
Curators: Horea Avram and Marius Tanasescu
9 June - 2 October,. 2011
Artists: Adad Hannah, Anetta Mona Chisa si Lucia Tkacova, Bettina Hoffmann, Jason Arsenault, Jérôme Delapierre, Perry Bard, Rozalinda Borcila
In Between Frames proposes a different path for creative and critical reflection concerning the contemporary visual regime of the video medium and the changeable nature of the conceptual models (or “frames”) in today’s culture and society. The artworks featured here—seven video and media interactive projects created by acclaimed artists from Canada, USA and Europe—explore issues such as cultural hybridization, broken relational spaces, dissolution of the narrative, critique of representation and political borderlessness. Therefore, In Between Frames employs the notion of the “frame” in both literal and figurative senses, that is, both as an instrument of visualization, and as a conceptual pattern.
On one hand, “frame” is understood here in a formal, phenomenological and technological sense, as the element that defines an artistic or media image and its spectatorship. From this perspective, In Between Frames is about the possible ways to question the medium or, rather the post-medium condition of the contemporary video art production: a number of works in the exhibition deliberately engage a polemic with their own visual identity. More exactly, they undermine video’s specific nature defined by narrativity, surface, time-image, technological and optical modus operandi: in some cases video becomes a photograph-like image (Adad Hannah, Jason Arsenault), in others the narrative flow is reduced to stillness or condemned to an incessant loop that defies the logic of sequential development (Bettina Hoffmann), or, in yet other cases, the clear separation between subject and object is seriously blurred (Jérôme Delapierre).
On the other hand, “frame” is seen here in a metaphorical sense, as a conceptual framework, as an interface for different mechanisms of signification. Seen from this viewpoint, In Between Frames is a way to explore what lies between or behind these frames, established as definitive models through various aesthetic, institutional and ideological imperatives. It is therefore a way to question and revise equally the modernist cultural norms and the postmodernist, relativist formulae (Perry Bard), equally the mainstream accepted standards and the DIY productions or the clichéist “alternatives”, equally the conventional racial, gender and power structures and the substitutes prompted by worn-out political agendas (Rozalinda Borcila, and Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkacova).
Thus, In Between Frames proposes itself as a potential site for reevaluation, confrontation and constructive critique, as a median zone that breaks with all these appearances and conventions. The aim is to investigate the creative and conceptual potential of the “interstice,” of that controversial in-between-ness that defy any predictable accounts and established principles related to medium, technology, cultural patterns, or power configurations.
In Between Frames relies on a strategy that is assumed to be ambivalent. Not only does it affirm a double meaning of the idea of frame, but also creates a hybrid discursive environment that merges within the same framework polemic, critical discourses, philosophical reflection and ironic stance. In this sense, In Between Frames is as much a statement as it is an open instrument of active intervention situated at the constantly changing point of intersection between society, media technology and artistic expression.
Curators: Horea Avram and Marius Tanasescu
9 June - 2 October,. 2011
Artists: Adad Hannah, Anetta Mona Chisa si Lucia Tkacova, Bettina Hoffmann, Jason Arsenault, Jérôme Delapierre, Perry Bard, Rozalinda Borcila
In Between Frames proposes a different path for creative and critical reflection concerning the contemporary visual regime of the video medium and the changeable nature of the conceptual models (or “frames”) in today’s culture and society. The artworks featured here—seven video and media interactive projects created by acclaimed artists from Canada, USA and Europe—explore issues such as cultural hybridization, broken relational spaces, dissolution of the narrative, critique of representation and political borderlessness. Therefore, In Between Frames employs the notion of the “frame” in both literal and figurative senses, that is, both as an instrument of visualization, and as a conceptual pattern.
On one hand, “frame” is understood here in a formal, phenomenological and technological sense, as the element that defines an artistic or media image and its spectatorship. From this perspective, In Between Frames is about the possible ways to question the medium or, rather the post-medium condition of the contemporary video art production: a number of works in the exhibition deliberately engage a polemic with their own visual identity. More exactly, they undermine video’s specific nature defined by narrativity, surface, time-image, technological and optical modus operandi: in some cases video becomes a photograph-like image (Adad Hannah, Jason Arsenault), in others the narrative flow is reduced to stillness or condemned to an incessant loop that defies the logic of sequential development (Bettina Hoffmann), or, in yet other cases, the clear separation between subject and object is seriously blurred (Jérôme Delapierre).
On the other hand, “frame” is seen here in a metaphorical sense, as a conceptual framework, as an interface for different mechanisms of signification. Seen from this viewpoint, In Between Frames is a way to explore what lies between or behind these frames, established as definitive models through various aesthetic, institutional and ideological imperatives. It is therefore a way to question and revise equally the modernist cultural norms and the postmodernist, relativist formulae (Perry Bard), equally the mainstream accepted standards and the DIY productions or the clichéist “alternatives”, equally the conventional racial, gender and power structures and the substitutes prompted by worn-out political agendas (Rozalinda Borcila, and Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkacova).
Thus, In Between Frames proposes itself as a potential site for reevaluation, confrontation and constructive critique, as a median zone that breaks with all these appearances and conventions. The aim is to investigate the creative and conceptual potential of the “interstice,” of that controversial in-between-ness that defy any predictable accounts and established principles related to medium, technology, cultural patterns, or power configurations.
In Between Frames relies on a strategy that is assumed to be ambivalent. Not only does it affirm a double meaning of the idea of frame, but also creates a hybrid discursive environment that merges within the same framework polemic, critical discourses, philosophical reflection and ironic stance. In this sense, In Between Frames is as much a statement as it is an open instrument of active intervention situated at the constantly changing point of intersection between society, media technology and artistic expression.