VideoCulture Events
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of the image and text combination
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Body Missing was first produced in
1994 as a site-specific installation at
the former Wehrmacht prison, now
the Offenes Kulturhaus Centre of
H Contemporary Art, in Linz, Austria.
It was constructed during a period
c
following Frenkel's residencies there
and at the Akademie der bildenden
Kunste in Vienna, the art school that
had twice rejected Hitler as a student
and where staff members later col-
laborated with his art theft policies.
"When I looked around Linz, I
learned a number of things about
the city," Frenkel recalls about the
origin of her installation plans.
"Slowly, I became more and more
aware of the charged meaning of the
place. It was the destination for a
museum that Hitler had dreamed of
building after realizing his expecta-
tion of winning the war.
"I documented things I saw, and I
went into archives and looked at
plans for that museum. At the time,
there was no major world attention
on the question of stolen artworks. It
was really a very clandestine art theft
process.
Frenkel's professional directions
can be traced in part to her parents,
who had a love of art and dabbled in
painting after they escaped from
Czechoslovakia.
"The fact that my parents were
Jewish, and their families were
destroyed, shaped my life, but I have
had enough response from this work
to know that it speaks to many com-
munities," says Frenkel, who has
taught visual arts at York University
in Toronto.
"It is one of those incidents where
the personal becomes political,
where the personal becomes relevant
in ways that really surprised me."
Frenkel, interested in issues cen-
tering on memory and the con-
struction of reality, combines fact
and fiction in her practice. After
studying at McGill University and
the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,
she went on to do many solo exhi-
bitions in the United States and
Europe. She has been recognized
with the Canada Council Molson
Award and the 1999 Bell Canada
Award in Video Art.
"What attracted me to video,
which has a place in a great deal of
my work, is its collaborative nature,"
explains Frenkel, who is making her
first visit to Michigan. "I like work-
ing with other people. I like the
immediate feedback I can share
E
O
when I'm working with performers
or singers or musicians.
"I like the fact that video comes
out of an appliance that is part of
most households. It's everyday, and
I've always been interested in the
mythic property of everyday life. I
also like the non-religious nature of
video. By comparison, film involves
sitting with a group in a dark room
looking up at the light, and that set-
ting has a kind of sacred implica-
tion."
During the last decade, because
she was invited to do a work in
Germany, the meaning of the
Diaspora as experienced in general
but also specifically by Jews became
an element in her work.
Earlier Frenkel pieces include ...
from the Transit Bar, a six-channel
installation which considers the
nature of displacement and exile.
Her current project, The Institute: Or
What We Do for Love, is a video Web
serial narrative on the travails of a
large cultural organization.
Frenkel has met Krzysztof
Wodiczko, whose politically charged
City Hall Tower Projection also is
being shown at the Jacob Gallery.
York University was the site of his
first exhibition in Canada.
"I think `VideoCulture: Three
Decades of Video Art' is going to be
a very important gathering to gain
knowledge and insight into the disci-
pline," Frenkel says. "The caliber of
the artists is splendid, and video is
going to be looked at as an instru-
ment for social impact." ❑
Vera Frenkel's work will be on
display Sept. 8 - Oct. 22 at the
Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, 480 W.
Hancock, Detroit, with an
opening reception planned for
5-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8.
Frenkel will join video artist
Krzysztof Wodiczko and video
historians William Horrigan
and Dot Tuer for a Wayne
State University department of
art and art history symposium
titled "Video Relations: The
Social Impact of Video Art"
from 12:30-5 p.m. Saturday,
Oct. 7, in the Helen DeRoy
Auditorium, 5203 Cass
Avenue. A reception for the
artists in the Elaine L. Jacob
Gallery will follow. The exhibi-
tion, symposium and recep-
tions are free and open to the
public. (313) 993-7813.
"VideoCulture: Three Decades of Video Art," a first-of-a-kind
collaboration, joins the forces of 11 museums, galleries and
arts and educational organizations in the Detroit area to
examine the trends and impact of video art as a form of
expression.
In its 35-year history, video art has introduced a wide
range of themes, concepts and effects that have intersected
broadcast TV, film, photography, the Internet, MTV and
other media that explore and address the world.
"VideoCulture," from September-December, presents
installations, exhibitions, screenings of the work of nationally
and internationally known artists, a symposium and interac-
tive projects according to the schedule below:
Tracking— Art Gallery of Windsor — Oct.-Nov.;
(519) 969-4494. Video works in commercial locations
in downtown Windsor.
Videopolis — Art Pro Tern in= Ann Arbor — Sept. 7-Oct. 8;
(734) 663-1276. Video installations set in shop windows
along Main Street,
Alternate Routes --- Artcite Inc. & House of Toast in
Windsor — late September-early. December; (519) 977-6564.
Short videos broadcast on Cable 11 and IT-TV, a narrowcast
television system on Transit Windsor buses.
Rewind: Seminal Works in Video — Center Galleries in
Detroit — Sept. 9-Oct. 7; (313) 664-7800. Single-channel
video works created in the late '60s and early '70s.
Agitated Histories: Video Art and the Documentary
Cranbrook Art Museum — Sept. 16-Nov. 26: (877) 462-7262.
Video projection installations by Kutlug (Turkey), Lutz Bacher
(United States), Johan Grirnonprez (Belgium) and Mats Hjelm
(Sweden).
Bill Viola— Detroit Institute of Arts — Opens Sept. 15;
(313) 833-7900. Exploration of universal themes, including
birth, death and spirituality.
What I See When I Look at You — University of Michigan
Museum of Arr — Sept. 7-11; (734) 763-8662. Outdoor
video projection installation by New York-based video artist
Chris Doyle.
Mats Hjelm: "White Flight," 1997, from 'Agitated Histories:
Video Art and the Documentary" at Cranbrook Art Museum.
Some Natural I-Iistory --- University of Michigan Museum of
Art and University of Michigan Media Union — Sept. 9- Oct. 4;
(734) 763-8662. Site-specific installation by Chris Doyle.
Aernout Mik -- University of Michigan School of Art and
Design Jean Paul Slusser Gallery — Sept. 10-Ocr. 22;
(734) 936-2082. First U.S. exhibition by the Dutch artist.
Video Interventions: Works by Vera - Frenkel and Krzysztof
Wodiczko — Elaine L. Jacob Gallery in Detroit —
Sept. 8-Oct. 20; (313) 577-2423. Video works by
Toronto-based Frenkel and Polish-born Wodiczko.
Video Relations: The Social Impact of Video Art --- Wayne
State University DeRoy Auditorium — 12:30-5 p.m. Saturday,
Oct. 7; (313) 577-2423. Symposium with four speakers.
For further information, go to the Web site at
www.videoculture.org .