Content
In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s the landscape of media art was dominated by productions from North America, Western Europe and, to a lesser degree, Japan. In spite of presentations by the World Wide Video Festival of media art from South America in the 1980s and from Asia in the 1990s this image of Western dominance prevails, and does so in the literature as well. In the new millennium this will change dramatically. Now, with the latest digital technique becoming available in consumer devices and with the globalisation of communication in images and sound, the new media have become the tool par excellence to express contemporary artists' visions and this also applies to the non-Western world. Some of these media artworks, such as Hamletmachine by Nalini Malani (India) and Screen:Screen by Wang Jianwei (China), are so politically and socially sensitive that they have a hard time being exhibited in their countries of origin and therefor will have their world premiere in the cultural harbour of Amsterdam.
This globalisation of media art is in sharp contrast with the biased expressions of the advertising world and multinational corporations. Complexity and identity are omnipresent. In order to make explicit these cultural bonds with all of their nuances the World Wide Video Festival has invited a number of selected artists to elaborate in person on what drives them, in the section Artists Conversations.
Border crossing is not a concept that is limited to nations but applies equally to the various disciplines within media art. Artists, on their own or collectively, produce video tapes, websites, CD-ROMs, video installations, performances and 'total media environments'. Coldcut, pioneers of English sample culture, and Planetart from The Netherlands are examples of initiatives where 'high' and 'low' art cross.
In The Wake - History is a Nightmare from which I am trying to wake up by the Danish artistic twosome Christian Lemmerz and Michael Kvium, which was inspired by Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, an eight hour long film is accompanied by a live concert of ten international DJ's conducted by Swedish conductor Dor Freiler. The show will start at sunset and will end at dawn. Other reworkings of the same material from 'The Wake' will be an installation for four screens as well as an online presentation on the World Wide Web.
The World Wide Video Festival's closing event will defy earthly boundaries in the Lost & Found program, presented in the Planetarium of Amsterdam and curated by Menno Grootveld & Jan Rothuizen, an evening for stray images plus unique archival material.
General
With all of this time-based art the upcoming festival offers over a hundred hours of media art. To make of all this art physically accessible to the audience the exhibition part of installations and single screen work will continue through 15 October.
For the fourth time in a row a 480 page full colour catalogue will be published, designed by Irma Boom. The series has this year been awarded the Gold Medal for 'Best Designed Book of the World' in Leipzig.
In order to provide a clear overview of the large program of the 18th World Wide Video Festival, a program brochure and online schedule will be available from mid August.
The World Wide Video Festival presents the third edition of the seminar. The themes of the three seminar days were selected on the basis of critical urgency and current artistic practice. One recurring subject is the presentation and distribution of media art, focusing this year on the relationship between netart and the museum world, and on the new opportunities offered by broadband Internet.
This year the 18th World Wide Video Festival will show a hundred productions from thirty countries at nine different locations. The diversity of these cultural institutes of Amsterdam offers a perfect chance to present the various disciplines within media art at their most favourable.
Festival Locations 2000 Amsterdam
 Melkweg, Lijnbaansgracht 234-A
Arti et Amicitiae, Rokin 112
Paradiso, Weteringschans 6-8
Gate Foundation, Keizersgracht 613
W139, Warmoestraat 139
De Veemvloer, Van Diemenstraat 410
Netherlands Media Art Institute Montevideo/TBA,
Keizersgracht 264
De Balie, Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10
Planetarium Artis, Plantage Kerklaan 38-40
Opening Programme
World Wide Video Festival 2000, September 13, 20.30 hours, Melkweg
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