On Monday, 15 November, at a special hearing WWVF’s director Tom van Vliet addressed the Dutch parliament and urged its members to continue financial support for the festival. On the basis of six strong arguments (see attachment) and a long list of declarations of support he made his case before the permanent Committee for Culture.
Last May, whilst preparing the 21st edition of the festival, the WWVF was unpleasantly surprised by the Arts Council’s advice to the government to cut all funding for WWVF per 2005. Should State Secretary Van Der Laan heed this advice, then this internationally renowned video and media art festival would cease to exist after more than twenty years.
Countless protests and declarations of support began pouring into our offices as soon as this news became public knowledge. By artists, professionals in the field, members of the audience that had visited the festival over the years: hundreds of their reactions, ranging from disbelief to outrage, can be found at www.wwvf.nl. Like the festival team they simply could not believe that the government would simply let this valuable network of artists, institutes and producers, this international platform for media art and all its expertise, go to waste. Meanwhile, many prominent artists and curators have shown their support for the festival. Their reactions speak for themselves.
Despite the Art Council’s opinion – that is in sharp contrast to that of sponsors such as the Amsterdam Art Foundation, the Mondrian Fund, VSB Fund, Stichting Doen, TV5 and the Goethe Institute – the WWVF presented an exciting and well-attended festival programme this year. Over 15,000 visitors and a wider audience than ever before (50% first-time visitors) underlined the importance and legitimacy of the event in its 21st edition. The festival continues to make its contribution to media art with an extensive catalogue on cd-rom, a sophisticated website and an export edition WWVF 2004. At the time of the parliamentary hearing the export edition of WWVF 2004 opened at the Triennal in Milan as part of the FutureShow 3004. Later this year a selection of the 2004 WWVF programme will also be presented in Seoul, Korea.
By pleading our case before parliament the WWVF hopes to convince the politicians of a fact that has been common knowledge to many experts from all over the world for a long time: the World Wide Video Festival is unique for the Netherlands, for Europe, and especially... world wide.
For further information, please contact:
World Wide Video Festival
Keizersgracht 462
1016 GE Amsterdam
T 020 420 7729
F 020 421 3828
