VideoCulture Events E of the image and text combination seen and heard on the tape." 0 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 .