"10th Biennial of Moving Images Festival Opens"
2003-11-07 until 2003-11-15
Saint-Gervais - Centre pour l'Image Contemporaine
Genève, , CH

First held in 1985, the Biennial of Moving Images is one of the oldest and most important events dedicated to video art and art film in Switzerland and the rest of Europe. With each Biennial, a thought-provoking theme has helped audiences to put historic works and recent creations in perspective, generating lively debate and dialog. The Biennial of Moving Images serves as an antenna for today’s art, offering local and international audiences a unique chance to discover a field of art that is undergoing constant renewal.

This year’s show marks the 10th in the series and for the event, the Biennial has tried to take in many new horizons in the world of video art. There is a thread running throughout the variety of this year’s contributions, namely, the theme artistic creation as an act of resistance. For ten days (7-15 November 2003), the Biennial program will take us from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and from the Asian continent to South Africa.

This year’s program offers works from countries near and far, works that spring from very different approaches, points of view and realities, manifesting formal experiments and novel styles, notably in the section given over to the Biennial’s cartes blanches. The program’s retrospectives also feature the outlooks of several politically committed artists and filmmakers: Harun Farocki (Germany), William Kentridge (South Africa), Artavazd Pelechian (Armenia) and the couple Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet (France).

And the Biennial’s special series called focus notably expands this year’s theme with videos by Rashid Masharawi (Palestine), Mamta Murthy (India) and Gianni Motti (Switzerland). Like the visual journeys offered by its program, the Biennial is a multifaceted event based on partnerships with several other institutions. In this the Biennial makes real its desire to open up to the city by bringing together a number of different venues like so many potential perspectives on a single theme. Thus, the Biennial’s intramural exhibitions (running from 7 November to 14 December), devoted this year to Harun Farocki, Anri Sala and the tandem Moser & Schwinger, are joined by numerous partners offering installations and video and film showings directly related to the Biennial. Visitors can discover these works in the program of extramural exhibitions associated with the Biennial.

Along with the Biennial’s palette of traditional features—its international competition, with 44 videos selected to compete this year, retrospectives, focus series and cartes blanches—the 10th Biennial is also inaugurating the Swiss Art Video Lobby, where viewers can make their own selection from a panorama of the latest Swiss productions. Thanks to its network of venues and its extensive international program, the Biennial is truly aimed at a broad spectrum of viewers that goes well beyond the usual audience for contemporary art. The schedule is designed to leave visitors plenty of opportunities to share points of view or raise questions, especially during the talks with the artists whose work is featured in this year’s retrospectives. Other events include a performance by Matt Mullican, as well as a performance by Gary Hill &George Quasha.

The Biennial’s bilingual French-and-English catalog, with a complete critical presentation of all the artists, will be on sale at two locations simultaneously this year, at the Centre for Contemporary Images, of course, and at Achigraphy. This bookshop is also making available a number of monographs and other documents especially selected for the 10th Biennial’s program.

IMAGE
Harun Farocki,
Eye /Machine I, 2001 / Eye /Machine II, 2002

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for Switzerland

Other Important Exhibitions in Switzerland