Dear Tom,
I have just heard that the funding for the World Wide Video Festival is in danger of being cut off. As you know, I have been coming to the Festival since 1989. A good deal of my exposure to video on an international scale came from my trips to the Hague and then later to Amsterdam as a representative of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI, the leading distributor of video art). In the 13 years I worked at EAI, the festival was an annual event for us. I cannot imagine the field of video art without your festival. Now that I am working as a professor of media art I have already lectured on the international festival scene and told my students that the WWVF is one of the most important venues that they should look to submit tapes to when they graduate. Equally, I know many curators who gather programming information from their visits. I wish I could say this better or louder but I pray that the festival is able to continue.
Sincerely,
Stephen Vitiello
Professor of Kinetic Imaging, Virginia Commonwealth University
Archivist, The Kitchen, NYC
There is no other art video festival that compares to the WWVF. The
clue to the event's success is in its title. The arts council should
be proud to have such an event, with such a history, take place each
year in Amsterdam. Instead they perform an act of beuracratic
sabotage and actively set about undermining it.
Perhaps they are embarrassed to be associated with a festival that
has worldwide recognition and resonance. I've tried to think what
other motive there could be, but I can't find one.
Tom Gidley
London
Dag Tom en staf,
Een persoonlijk mailtje van mij; de adviezen over WWVF is het bewijs dat het systeem van Kunstenplannen en Cultuurnota's door en door verrot is. Toevallige commissies volstrekt onduidelijk samengesteld (vrienden van secretarissen) adviseren met weinig kennis van zaken over
publiek geld. Overheden verschuilen zich achter andermans meningen en degraderen zichzelf tot adviesafstempelaars. Omdat alles in een keer overhoop wordt gehaald gaat er alleen maar aandacht uit naar grote, hele grote problemen.
WWVF is het slachtoffer van de grote grabbelton. De bovenburen van Mediamatic de winnaars. Maar geef de moed niet op; blijf lobbyen. Het is nog geen december.
Jan Heeren
Amsterdam
Among all the film and video festivals around the globe, the World Wide
Video Festival is unique. Through the showcase it offers contemporary
artists of international scale, the WWVF has established its rightful
notoriety. Today it is an indispensable reference in contemporary video
creation.
Pierre Yves Clouin
Paris, France
Dear Team WWVF.
Fesivals are media to meet. People can have new point of view about creation. Video-makers can speak with others video-makers or public.
NO Festival are a way to stay at home and look TV.
1 Festival is good for my ego.
2 Festival is good for my family.
3 festival is a way of life.
Laurent Vicente, Paris & Nîmes.
I was looking forward to applying my short films to this festival since besides Rotterdam IFF there is no other film festival that screens short films in Holland. This festival is unique in it's promotion of low budget films and video shorts. It is a shame for a country like Holland to have such limited resources for promotion of short and low budget films. For comparaison, there are more than six short film fesitvals in Ireland, more than three in Croatia, and not to mention how many in France.
Julija Naskova
Los Angeles, CA
we need artists
we need culture!
we need art!
we need video!
we need WWVF in 2005 !!!!!!!!!!
Franck Scurti
Paris
I am a videomaker and a video artist from Cairo, Egypt. I heard alot about the WWVF and i was hoping that one day I can present my work there or at least visit it and watch all these works from all around the world and meet with the artists. To stop the festival will kill my hopes and my dreams. not only me, but all the people who are interested in seeing this festival, and it is a bad thing to kill peoples's dreams
Ahmed Hassouna
Cairo, Egypt
To whom it might concern.
I was invited to World Wide Vide Festival in 2001 together with Reinert Mithassel, teaming up as the artist collective Fata Morgana, exhibiting the installation Ekkofisk at Baby World Wide Media Lounge. Ekkofisk was a hybrid of physical installation involving an aquarium, video surveillance and real-time sound synthesis. During our stay both me and Reinert were impressed by the professional and helpful assistance from the festival. The festival succeeded to be at the same time a large festival offering a rich and varied program reaching a big audience and creating an intimate and friendly atmosphere for the visiting artists. We both felt it to be a great honor to be invited to participate in the program.
I consider the Netherlands to be one of the most vibrant and exciting places in the world for new media art. The Netherlands is home to a number of internationally acclaimed media labs, e.g. Steim, Waag, V2 and de Balie, and also some of the most important international new media festivals, e.g. World Wide Video Festival, Dutch Electronic Arts Festival and Next Five Minutes.
When the Norwegian Art Council in the late nineties wanted to better facilities for new media artists in Norway, they looked to Netherlands for inspiration on how to organize it. The Netherlands has managed to encourage a diverse environment, encouraging several media labs and festivals with different profiles. From abroad I have the impression that this has caused a dialectic and dynamic process that has resulted in The Netherlands being at the forefront of current development in new media art. In Norway we have adopted this way of thinking with very good results by creating a de-centralized structure with media labs situated in different regions of the country and at the same time formally collaborating within a national network. As a former manager and artistic director of BEK, Bergen Center of Electronic Arts, and also as a member of the board of the Norwegian Production Network for Electronic Arts I've been deeply involved in this development. In this perspective, the possible discontinuation of World Wide Vide Festival will not only be a loss in itself, but also have a strong and negative influence on other organizations and festivals.
One of the main challenges of new media arts in the future will be to mature and to a larger extent integrate with the art world in general. There's a need to balance the hype of current technological development with the ability to read current trends in a larger perspective. Compared to other branches of new media art, video art has a relatively long tradition, and thus might lead the way. The retrospective exhibition during WWVF 2003 is one example of how World Wide Video Festival is contributing to this.
I kindly appeal to the Dutch Art Council to reconsider their position and ensure that the important work carried out by World Wide Vide Festival can be continued.
Yours sincerely
Trond Lossius
Research Fellow in the Arts
Bergen Academy of Fine Arts, Norway
http://www.bek.no/~lossius
I wish you all the utmost support for the WWVF. Having visited two
times and hopefully again I would like to congratulate you on producing
such an event.
Yours,
Paul Holmes
Kinsdale House, Cross Hills, North Yorkshire, UK
I feel strongly that the WWVF is of great importance and is playing an important part as a unique film and digital media festival in the art world!
Sofia Dahlgren
London
Unbelievable!
You have our support and our best wishes
Thierry DESTRIEZ
HEURE EXQUISE ! - Lille - France
Distributor
world wide video festival is one of the most comprehensive and exciting festivals of its kind world wide. to stop it would be a terrible loss, not only for amsterdam as its host city but also for the community of artists working in the field and their audiences world wide.
be aware of the values at home. support it.
Andrea Bozic
Amsterdam
Ik spam nooit links, maar nu wel: zie
http://www.staatsgeheim.com/mt/archief/000040.html
ADW
Amsterdam
WWVF is a landmark in the contemporary arts and culture scene in the world. One of the most consistent and longest running events of its kind and nest for creativity and contamination of ideas that are so scarcely debated nowadays. Loosing it, is a major loss for the Netherlands and for the thinking world.
Marcello Dantas
Magnetoscopio, Brazil
It's absurd to me that the WWVF should be deemed unimportant since attending the 2003 and 2004 festivals have had such a great impact on the way I think about video art and how it should be presented. No festival does a better job of bringing together emerging and established artists from around the world and I am proud to have been recognized by such a great organization.
Brian MacDonald
Victoria, BC Canada
To Whom It May Concern,
I am a non-Dutch artist who until recently lived and worked in Amsterdam. During my time there the World Wide Video Festival held a special place on the annual arts calendar of the city. For the weeks that it was going on the world was literally brought to us in the form of innovative and interesting artwork which continued to push the boundaries of this still new media. As an artist, the festival provided me with a vital window into the work of an array of international artists. But perhaps more importantly, the festival gave me and many other artists form around the world, as well as the city of Amsterdam itsel,f a physical manifestation of our global village.
In this age where so much of the way that we communicate is via airwaves and an intangible internet highway, we very much need opportunities to come together such as the World Wide Video Festival. Meeting face to face with art work and with people of different national and cultural identities we are given the chance to humanize the other, to build connections and understanding that will allow us to move forward individually and collectively, in a way that binds us rather than pulls us father apart. To say that the World Wide Video Festival is no longer of importance is to say that the need for this sort of cultural and social exchange is worthless. On behave of artist outside and inside your country and of people everywhere who hope that there is a way towards better understanding and empathy of one another, I beseech you to reevaluate your withdrawal of subsidies. If you carry out this proposal you will be doing a great disservice to your fellow citizens, the international artistic community, and the continual struggle for global understanding and peace. We are living at critical moment were there are fewer and fewer places were we can cross borders to face one another with art in our arms instead fear, hatred, and, at worse, the weapons to act on these sentiments. Please to do not deprive us of one of these few chances to approach each other with ideas, understanding, beauty and hope.
Susan Landau
New York City
Het is symptomatisch voor deze tijd dat culturele instellingen, instituten en festivals onder vuur liggen. Of dit nou de naweeën zijn van het tijdperk Fortuyn of een oprisping van het altijd sluimerende pragmatisme in Nederland, het is een kaalslag die zijn doel uiteindelijk voorbijschiet.
Het is de vraag hoe lang een land dat beroemd is om zijn culturele diversiteit en openheid dit imago nog instant kan houden. Voor Amsterdam geldt in ieder geval dat deze zijn reputatie als stad 'het' gebeurd, langzaam aan het kwijtraken is. Als deze tendens voor Amsterdam doorzet, dan zal de stad zijn aantrekkingskracht ook op veel andere gebieden verliezen. Zo is het voor een groot buitenlands bedrijf bijvoorbeeld interessanter om een vestiging te openen in een stad met enige reputatie. Het is de vraag of ze dan voor een stad kiezen die alleen nog maar bekend staat om zijn coffeeshops en de hoerenbuurt. Met alleen zijn historische grachtengordel en het Van Gogh museum redt Amsterdam het echt niet. Amsterdam is hard bezig zijn reputatie als interessante, levendige stad te verliezen.
Als klap op de vuurpijl wordt door de raad voor de Cultuur gekozen om het WWVF geheel op te heffen; nee, niet korten, opheffen. Een festival dat 20 jaar bestaat wordt van de een op de andere dag opgeheven. Je reinste kapitaalvernietiging. Het is te hopen dat Medy van der Laan beseft wat het voor implicaties heeft als ze dit advies overneemt. Het is te hopen dat het WWVF in wat voor vorm dan ook kan blijven bestaan.
Martijn Veldhoen
Amsterdam
Dear Tom and everyone at the WWVF,
The VideoLisboa team, and particularly myself, would like to express our
deepest sympathy and solidarity to the WWVF. It seems to us totally unfair
the evaluation done by the Dutch Arts Council and we hope they can revise
their statement.
VideoLisboa is a young festival which had it's first edition in 1999, when
we started the project we carefully searched around (all over the world)
trying to know what video art festivals existed, which where the most
interesting, which where challenging and inspiring, which could be look upon
as an example of coherent programming and professionalism in doing so. Since
1998 I've attended World Wide several times and each one to confirm that it
is probably the best run video festival in the world, both in the always
meaningful program as in the professionalism on the display of the artists
pieces, on the welcoming of professionals and audiences, and every other
angle you look at it. Well done!
We must add our recent experience of inviting the WWVF to present a program
focusing on the 20 Years of WWVF at VideoLisboa. This took place in Lisbon,
November 2003. The program presented featured artists of fame as upcoming
talents (eg: Nam June Paik and Sebastian Diaz Morales) giving our audiences
a wonderful journey across the history of video art through a well put up
program based on the thousands of works screened throughout the years at the
WWVF.
Such project must not die!
Long Life to the World Wide Video Festival!
Joao Chambel
VideoLisboa Director
Lisbon, Portugal
SUPPORT
tjebbe beekman
amsterdam
Dance, new media, performing art, image and sound need a place to meet.
This place is WWVF in Amsterdam and WE NEED it to continue in 2005 !!!!!!
julie charrier, paris
Dit is een directe culturele kaalslag dat past in het hard verrechtsend klimaat in Nederland, dat schijnbaar niet bewust is van het feit dat het Amsterdam's reputatie als cultuurstad en broedplaats voor de kunst schade doet. Uniformiteit is wat de klok slaat en daar past het WWVF niet in. Ik hoop dat er iets gedaan wordt dit tij te keren. De politici kiezen wij uiteindelijk zelf!!
Alexandra Indaco, documentaire maker, buenos aires
SUPPORT
mioon
korea / germany
Long Live WWVF
The threat by the Netherlands Arts Council, to the future of WWVF is tragically
misguided, ignoring its widely acknowledged international reputation for
artistic and
technological excellence and innovation.
WWVF is a mirror to the best of international video-art and associated
media, providing
a professional curatorial and exhibition team, an excellent venue and a
platform for
critical discourse and the continuing evolution of electronic media.
Its demise would be a tragic loss, not only to the international art scene,
but to the
contemporary art-culture of the Netherlands. WWVF has established the
Netherlands as
a world leader in the arena of video and related art forms.
This year is my second involvement with WWVF, the first being in 1998, in
collaboration with Supreme Particles from Frankfurt. Both selections have
afforded me
the opportunity to experience excellent exhibitions and performances in the
company of
international contributors, plus to participate in forums and events
alongside an
audience from all corners of the world. The viewing public appear to share
the same
stimulation and pleasure as the particpants, and this, to me, reflects the
success of the
event.
LONG LIVE WORLDWIDE VIDEO FESTIVAL.
Phil Dadson, artist
New Zealand.
Ik ben erg verbaasd en geschokt over dit advies en begrijp niet waar de prioriteiten van de Raad voor Cultuur liggen. Het WWVF is een gerenomeerd festival voor een kunstvorm van deze tijd (en de toekomst) met een kritisch oog voor video en mediakunst uit de HELE wereld. In Nederland was het voor mij altijd 1 van de culturele hoogtepunten in het jaar, en ik zou willen dat Sydney een WWVF had (ideetje misschien...)!
Adriaan Stellingwerff
Sydney, Australia
het wwvf is het enige videofestival op de wereld dat al meer dan 20 jaar bestaat en een blijvende interesse toont voor audiovisuele kunst, gemaakt door kunstenaars van alle slag.
het wwvf is het enige videofestival op de wereld dat zijn programmatie laat leiden door de verschillende werken en door de kunstenaars zelf en niet door thema's die uitgevonden worden door hedendaagse culturele, sociale en politieke wetenschappers.
het wwvf is het enige videofestival op de wereld dat vanuit videokunst en vanuit een algemene audiovisuele geschiedenis kijkt naar de audiovisuele fenomenen van vandaag en van de toekomst.
het wwvf is het enige videofestival op de wereld dat plaats geeft aan een autonome audiovisuele kunstpraktijk.
de dood van het wwvf is de dood van de vrije audiovisuele kunstenaar.
walter verdin
brussel
I feel the video festival is vital, being a video and performance orientated artist myself. I have travelled and seen alot but this festival is the only one I have seen that focusses primarily on this medium, and I think it is healthy that somewhere there are people keeping this active and alive as it enables a more indepth exploration of this area. I have also just graduated in England and have already notice a very prominent increase in the use of this medium. The history of video art feels bare in comparison with more long stemmed traditional methods like painting and sculpture, with the rate of technology everything already moves so fast without the full potentials being explored properly, hence why this festival is crucial I feel as a resource and as an opportunity for all artists around the world active in this medium.
Margeret Tran
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
stop de culturele kaalslag in Amsterdam
steun het wwvf !
Dominic van den Boogerd
Amsterdam
The festival is just a fantastic event for all people and artist.
WHAT EVER YOU DO SUPPORT THIS FESTIVAL!
antonie frank
sweden, stockholm
wwvf is
wijd in video
wijd in media
wijd in technologieën
wijd in culturen
wijd in politiek
wijd in rassen
wijd in klassen
wijd in leeftijd
wijd in geslachten
wijd in genres
wijd in kunst
wijd in stromingen
wijd in filosofie
wijd in poëzie
wijd in drama
wijd in muziek
wijd in software
wijd in denkrichtingen
wijd in overtuigingen
wijd in religies
wijd in naties
wijd in sources
wijd in dragers
wijd in compressie
wijd in formaten
wijd in communicatie
wijd in perceptie
wijd in locatie
wijd in publiek
wijd in kritiek
wijd in interactie
wijd in plaatsen
wijd in werelden
wijd in tijd
deze lijst heeft niet de pretentie exhaustief te zijn
walter verdin
brussel
Beste Tom,
toen ik gisteren het materiaal van mijn installatie kwam oppikken in
Amsterdam en ik in de haast lege ruimtes terechtkwam van wat de dag
voordien nog een broeiende festivalplaats was geweest, overviel me een
beklemmend gevoel. De gedachte dat dit de laatste keer zou kunnen
geweest zijn, leek me zo onrechtvaardig. Het festival leek al de
cyberspace ingecatapulteerd, opgelost tussen een paar browsers.
Gelukkig liepen je medewerkers er nog en die kweten zich zoals altijd
vol inzet van hun taak.
World Wide Video is een festival van mensen. Dat wordt wel eens
vergeten, wanneer er in vergaderzalen met een pennetrek of een muisklik
doodsvonnissen worden geveld, En de mensen van World Wide Video zijn
integere, enthousiaste mensen, die weten waar ze mee bezig zijn en die
gedurende de jaren een expertise hebben opgebouwd, die niet mag
verloren gaan. En het is een unieke plek, waar je een combinatie van
werken en disciplines aantreft, die ik nog nooit in een musea ben
tegengekomen, gepresenteerd op een sobere, doeltreffende wijze, zonder
de poeha en het oeverloze geblaat, dat je op zoveel andere nieuwe
media-manifestaties tegenkomt. Ik vrees dat je gestraft wordt voor je
serieux, Tom. Die is niet gepast in een wereld, waar trends
belangrijker zijn dan stromingen.
Ik hoop dat je het tij nog kan keren.
Kurt d' Haeseleer ( De Filmfabriek) - videokunstenaar
Brussel - Bierbeek - België
This year I attended the World Wide Video Festival for the eighth year in a row. Having worked as a video producer, curator and film journalist in New York and San Francisco, I can tell you that WWVF is well known and respected by artists and arts professionals across America. This festival has been an important event in the international arena for a long time, and it must continue. It's obvious that the Dutch Arts Council has made a serious mistake, and I urge them to take immediate steps to correct this error. I look forward to attending WWVF again in 2005.
Charles Lofton
Amsterdam
WWVF moet blijven bestaan !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Indiana
amsterdam
Dear Sirs,
Through out the years, WWVF has been a place for art, knowledge, education, information and interaction among artistis and public from all over the world.
In these turbulent times of war and misunderstandings among nations, I can not understand and accept why this event may not continue to carry on its historical role in the electronic arts.
Please receive my full support and love,
Marcelo Tas - artist
TV Cultura - BRAZIL
Dear Tom
Netherland is very lucky to have a Festival like your WWVF which is considered in Canada like one of the more important...or the most important festival in the world for video-art.
Canada is not so lucky !
And nevertheless your maturity ( 21 years ), you always take risks when you choice to exhibit new not-wellknow artists.
Thank you for your work since 21 years.
Marie-France Giraudon and Emmanuel Avenel
Montréal , Canada.
WWVF moet blijven! absoluut een inspirerend festival. stopzetting zou een groot verlies voor amsterdam én de wereld betekenen!
Caroline
Being an artist myself I do of course see the importance of a festival like WWVF ! Video as an artistic expression is a geat contribution to the artscenenes, and I do hope the festival will get the support it needs to go on !
Ragnhild Lie
Stamsund, Norway
I cannot believe that the WWVFestival is threatened because it is "unimportant" !! It is simply one of the oldest and more important video and media festival in the world ! Its history is linked for ever with the history of video and media art and it's role has been proven for years and still is a major one. It is a place where you can hear and see what's happening in the art all over the world.
AS AN ARTIST, I have been there many times, met a lot of people, and especially other artists from all different countries, I have shown works and have recently coproduced a very ambitious spectacle ("Hamlet Machine"), I have seen all kind of productions including some that I would probably not have seen anywhere else, I've been angry or amazed, I have taken inspiration, fallen in love, made precious contacts, got drunk, visited the city and finally the whole country.
All this is more than "important". It is the essence of life, of culture, it is the heart of a city.
AS A EUROPEAN CITIZEN, I consider the WWVFestival is a key point for european culture and it's opened links with the world. It is absolutely needed and its disapearance would cause great injury to us, the european citizens.
AS THE DIRECTOR OF FEARLESS MEDI@TERRANEE, Centre International de Création et de Formation dans les Arts Electroniques, I will simply mention the importance of this festival for many artists that we have suported or still wok with, first in Paris and now, since 1997, in Marseille.
AS A TEACHER IN THE ECOLE SUPERIEURE DES BEAUX-ARTS DE MARSEILLE, one of the most important fine arts school in france for media arts, I should mention that three times at least our school has organized travels for the students to the WWVF : it has been an important step for several among them in the development of their work. Many contacts were made and the interest for Amsterdam, the image of the city has an international place, a place of importance for the arts, has been largely consolidated with this travel.
The WWVF is more than ever needed for its essential contribution to the development of the arts and the culture in Europe,
(please forgive my broken english) Dominik Barbier
Dominik Barbier, artiste, directeur de FEARLESS Centre International de création et de formation dans les arts électroniques, Enseignant à l'Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille
Marseille / France
Unbelievable! The Raad van Kultuur does not know what it is doing!!! They definetely should reconsider this mistake of cutting down the funding of an organisation that has proved itself worth for 2 decades! The WWVF has to continue to exist as one of the main exhibitionspaces of video-art.
Daniella Wennberg-van Dijk, art-historian + curator IKM (International Cultural center and Museum)
Oslo
yes, stop subsidizing the festival and go ahead and ban all artistic endeavors while you're at it - for if you start down this road you are sure to continue.
i think everyone can agree that it would be interesting to see a country without art and culture.
what great fun that would be! and so good to keep tourist out !
oh, would you guys talk to someone about giving bush asylum over there as well? we don't want him.
thanks
hesper montgomery
nyc
The WORLD WIDE VIDEO FESTIVAL is one of the best event and video art show of in Europe. Amsterdam, keep it going.
In support.
doron golan
new york
Dear Arts Council authorities,
A short film I made called Sarajevo 040503 was selected at the 2004 edition of the WWVF.
I was very happy about this and I had the chance to attend the festival for some days.
I met some great people both among the festival organisers and the artists invited.
I also had the chance to view some really good video art.
I am really amazed to think that a 21 year old festival like the WWVF could stop.
The city of Amsterdam has the chance to have at its disposal a festival with a strong experience specialised in an art which will arise in the years to come.
It would be in my humble opion a sheer idiocy to stop it now.
Not only you should continue to support the festival, but you should even increse your help as to have more screening halls, more space and more possibilities.
Paul Grivas
France
If all those who have the power in Holland are so very blind, that they are not able to recognise either the high quality of this event either the immense knowledge of those who make it happen, than the WWVF has to move into any other country, in order to continue, because it is a big world out there, and others are more than willing to welcome the WWVF together with those who are behind it.
guida carvalho
(writer/painter/web designer)
amsterdam
The cutting edge of the worlds top culture practitioners needs the wwvf and so does the public. Its loss will effect us all.
Robert Weinek
Cape Town South Africa
Who benefits by subtracting an international platform for video artists, worldwide, to communitcate and express themselves without the baggage of corporate sponsorship? Really, will Amsterdam's monetary woes improve dramatically by erasing a venue that has brought considerable innovation and beauty to our world? Having participated in many festivals, I cannot say that I have had a more vital experience then at the WWVF. My current work exists entirely on the web, and found a champion by way of WWVF. They were the first major festival to really understand the significance of web video in it's ability to communicate and share real life over the Internet. I salute you WWVF.
daniel robin
san franscico
For years and years, the WWVF has been the *essential* european and international referent for all of us dedicated to time-based arts activities long before video and other media were "recognized" in the mainstream contemporary art platforms. Just take a brief look at all the catalogues published. How many contemporary art "institutions" represent such a piece of history? I have myself come to some of the "historical" WWVF's when, been quite young, the World Wide offered many of us the opportunity to show our works together with those of the big "classics". The WWVF is still today of a crucial importance: ceasing to support the WWVF is a serious institutional error that affects far beyond Netherland's borders. This decission should be absolutelly reconsidered.
Marcelo Expósito
Barcelona
Artists, independent critic/curator. Co-editor of the journal "Brumaria".
Dear Tom and all the staff of WWVF,
In the name of our team, here at Videobrasil, I write to express our extreme sorrow to hear such news.
How can the WWVF be unimportant?
It is a extreme disrespect to your work, work that have been made for such a long time.
We from Videobrasil offer our total support.
Our warm regards
Mariana Amaral and all the Videobrasil Staff
São Paulo, Brazil
Every major city in Europe has festivals for video and film;
Berlin,Cannes,London etc.
Why would Amsterdam not continue to host the WWVF or has it to be exiled to virtual reality?
Madelon Hooykaas /Elsa Stansfield, visual artists, Amsterdam
www.stansfield-hooykaas.net
We are in the new century. We have old problems and new problems.
It is not a happy hour for economy, but it seems to be much worse for culture.
Art is a very fragile zone. Take care!
There is so much noise out there in the art world.
The noise is growing by the day. Lot of values are not what they represent themselves for. Disguise is very sophisticated weapon!
The World Wide Video Festival has always been a place where I could find silence, attention and focus on art and reality.
This institution has somehow a silence of our time>>>
WWVF is higly valuable institution for art, visual anthropology, social sciences, cultural studies etc.
BE AWARE OF DEMAGE!
AUTO REFFERENTIAL DECISIONS ARE ALMOST NEVER SMART!
Dan Oki (artist and associated profesor in video art and new media)
Amsterdam/Split
I exhibited in and visited the festival for the first time in 2003. It was a great experience and one that I had hoped to repeat in the future. I hope that the festival can be saved in some way and I'll be able to go again. There are not enough festivals like this in Europe and to lose one of the best would be terrible.
I wish the very best of luck to Tom and the crew. Don't give up!!
Steven Ball
London
When this happens, when there is no more WWVF next year, something will be strange, something would had change.
As usual we are gona get acoustum by the time to the idea, but the unfamiliar feeling will remain. What it is?
This happens when something that was particular, and specific, and important thing of, and for a place gets amputated from one day to the other and with not a very logical explanation.
I have a personal experience with this place. It gave me the chance to show my work time ago in 97. This was the first time I could show what I was experimenting with, out of the frontiers of my land. And Since then I always found and came back to that place.
So maybe the next year or the year next to it the ussual place is dissapearing.
We dont need that. This place is essential.
Sebastian Diaz Morales
Amsterdam
Zonder het World Wide Video Festival is de videokunstenaar een roepende in een telkens droger wordende kunst-woestijn in Nederland. De Raad voor Cultuur trekt er letterlijk de stekker uit!
Laat creativiteit eens de raadgever voor Medy van der Laan zijn, en blijf het WWVF tot minstens 2025 ondersteunen.
DIANA RAMAEKERS
Beeldend kunstenaar, Kerkrade
Nu de videokunst onlosmakelijk onderdeel is geworden van het panorama van de internationale beeldende kunst, wordt het wwvf de nek omgedraaid; doodzonde! Marja Sonneveld.
Marja Sonneveld
Amsterdam
Since I'm in charge of the video field in my institution, I come to WWVF every year, even without support, because among -very few- good video festivals, the WWVF is a very rich and serious one. Where professionnals will be able to see the video works if there is no more festivals, where meet the artists and other organisators of video events, screenings and exhibitions, other video distributors from all over the world, where? In this very particular field, where information can be collected only during the festivals, through installations and screenings, we have to save them as precious tools for our work. As video-art can exist only if shown through screenings and installations that take place in festivals, we have to take care of, if not, no new video work will get realised more, we are responsable of this big "catastrophe" in the field of creation, "l'art video n'existe pas sans les festivals!"
Martine Markovits
Paris
What's going on in the Amsterdam culture life in 2004? There are budget cuts for Rijksakademie, Ateliers 66 and now WWV festival ... I find that international networking and activities in such institutions play an crucial role for both Amsterdam and Netherlands, influencing international art scene. Therefore I strongly support WWV festival!
Darko Fritz
Zagreb / Amsterdam
Dear State Secretary for Culture,
It's not often one goes to a festival, where the emphasis is so much on the work and the programming springs from real curiosity and passion for the medium. I think that's why artists from all over the world come to the WWVF.
As an artist/ filmmaker one goes to many festivals, that are little more than media platforms. Alternatively, there are a few festivals, such as WWVF, where you know you will learn something, discover new ways of working, have conversations and encounters, that sometimes continue across years and continents. These spaces for dialogue, change the way one works and looks at the world. I think they are as vital to the act of creation as the air we breathe.
Art lives and exists. It can't be ' relevant.' We don't know what art made today will have lasting importance. In England, I watched politicians and civil servants strangle certain lines of expression, by constanly denying the need for programming, that creates audiences open to and versed in different forms. Measuring everything by its 'relevance' and ' accessibility,' they destroyed essential institutions and instilled a climate of cultural arrogance, where there is no longer room for the slow and the difficult.
These things die subtley and with remarkable efficiency;
An audience can't miss what it doesn't know exists and innovation, by its very nature, cannot be imagined, if it has not been seen....
I wish Tom and his team all the best and implore you to reconsider your decision
Laura Waddington
Paris
Video kunst klinkt ouderwets en moet het afleggen tegen het waanbeeld van de technologische vernieuwingen.
Het gaat niet om de drager maar om de inhoud.
Zonde voor de diversiteit van het kunstaanbod in Nederland.
jaap de jonge
amsterdam
I SUPPORT WWVF
Hinke
Amsterdam
Ik vrees dat sommige obscure krachten weer aan het werk zijn.
Wie heeft er belang bij dat Tom en zijn ploeg verdwijnt ???
Het world wide videofestival is een instituut, een rots in de branding, het staat garant voor respekt, behoud en onderzoek in de audio-visuele kunsten en media.
Ik heb het ook over respekt voor de kunstenaar, oud of jong.
Het verdwijnen van deze culturele instelling zou een ramp zijn, voor Nederland maar ook internationaal.
André Colinet
Brussel
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