| 1970 Austria Split Reality, the first video installation by Austrian artist Valie Export. Canada France At the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Paul and Carole Roussopoulos set up the "Vidéo Out" collective. Its first video, featuring Jean Genet speaking about Angela Davis, is a kind of counter-television. A series of political videos defend the cause of women and workers (January). The first cable TV experiments take place in Paris, and cable spreads in France's new towns (Villleneuve-de-Grenoble, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Créteil, Cergy-Pontoise) and the provinces (Grenoble, Metz, Chamonix, Nice, Rennes) (March). A "guerrilla television" project, aimed at combatting the ORTF monopoly with local TV, is set up by ACT and a group from the Beaux-Arts. They work out of a Montparnasse apartment in Paris, with two video cameras and a control panel. The Ligue française de l'enseignement tapes a neighborhood news program in Bourges with a light video camera; twenty minutes of news are broadcast daily on a "mini-network." Jean-Pierre Beauviala of the A.A.T.O.N. Company invents the "paluche" (paw), a miniature video camera measuring some 20 cm, which is intended to be mobile, easily manipulated and held in the hand. Germany Identification broadcast on Westdeutscher Rundfunk I (Gerry Schum's "TV Gallery") with artists Giovanni Anselmo, Joseph Beuys, Alighiero e Boetti, Pierpaolo Calzolari, Jan Dibbets, Gilbert & George, Mario Merz, Ulrich Rückriem, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Lawrence Weiner, and Gilberto Zorio. Great Britain Japan Among the new groups are Video Hiroba and Video Earth, created by Ko Nakajima. Three Western video artists, the Americans John Reilly and Rudi Stern and the Canadian Michael Goldberg, head Video Hiroba, which includes some thirty artists. They acquire a portable video camera, rent a space in Tokyo, and undertake collective projects. United States Publication of The Expanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood. The Museum of Modern Art in New York presents the "Information" show, curated by Keniston McShine, on the different currents in Conceptual Art. Artists include Vito Acconci, Art & Language, Joseph Beuys, Gilbert and George, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Bruce Nauman, and Lawrence Weiner (2 July-20 September). Willoughby Sharp founds the magazine Avalanche in New York. Devoted to avant-garde activities and particularly video art, it continues publication until 1976. Creation of the magazine Radical Software, edited initially by Beryl Korot, Ira Schneider, Phyllis Gershuny, and Michael Sheberg and later by Korot and Schneider alone. It features texts on the video medium but also philosophical and critical reflections and is published until 1974. Creation of the Synapse Video Center in Syracuse, a group for production and distribution of videotapes (Gary Hill, Bill Viola, etc.). Tom Mariani founds the Museum of Conceptual Art in San Francisco, an alternative space presenting performances and multimedia artworks. Independent of the Paik-Abe synthesizer, Stephen Beck builds his Direct Video Synthesizer and Eric Siegal his Electric Video Synthesizer. The "Bodyworks" exhibition, curated by Willoughby Sharp, presents videotapes by Vito Acconci, Tery Fox, Dennis Oppenheim, Keith Sonnier, and William Wegman. The "This Is Your Roof" exhibition is presented at the international art festival held in Pamplona, Spain. Willoughby Sharp produces a series of videos, mainly documentaries on the activities of New York artists, for the same event. 1971 Canada France At the Seventh Paris Biennale, the artists' films section curated by Alfred Pacquement includes works by Vito Acconci, Dan Graham, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Serra, and Keith Sonnier (24 September-1 November). Vidéogrammes de France is set up by the ORTF and the publisher Hachette for the manufacture and distribution of mass-market videotapes. For the first time, artist Gina Pane has herself filmed with a video camera in order to document her action Nourriture / Actualités TV / Feu in a Paris apartment (24 November). Martial Raysse makes a 3/4-inch video with Alain Jacquier, En prime Pig Music. Great Britain Netherlands Spain United States Howard Wise founds Electronic Arts Intermix, which funds other organizations like the Kitchen Center and the annual New York Avant-Garde Festival for projects in video as a medium of personal expression and communication. In 1973, it begins distributing artists' videotapes. "Electronic Art III" exhibit at the Bonino Gallery in New York. Presentation of the Paik/Abe synthesizer. "A Special Video Show" at the Whitney Museum in New York presents works by Stephen Beck, Douglas Davis, Nam June Paik, and Steina and Woody Vasulka. On the initiative of its curator, David Ross, the Everson Museum in Syracuse inaugurates the first video art department created in a museum. In collaboration with major New York galleries (Leo Castelli, Sonnabend, Howard Wise), the museum also establishes a network for the presentation of video productions by organizing regular exhibitions around the medium. 1972 The MLT Gallery, directed by Fernand Spillemaeckers, distributes tapes by Gerry Schum. Belgium First presentation of Gerry Schum's Land Art and Identification organized by Annie Lummerzhzim at the RTBF in Liège (April). Canada Denmark France Gina Pane uses a video camera herself to tape the reaction of the public during Le Lait chaud, an action in a Paris apartment (31 March). The Vidéogazette, a studio for local video production and distribution, is set up in Grenoble (September). Martial Raysse makes Le Grand Départ with the help of the ORTF's Research Department. Germany Germany-Italy Gerry Schum presents videotapes at Documenta 5 in Kassel and at the Venice Biennale. Great Britain Japan United States The Everson Museum in Syracuse organizes a Douglas Davis show including videotapes and projects for communication by television. Ed Emshwiller's Scape Mates, a complex mix of computer drawings and tapes of actors, is produced in the laboratories of WNET-TV. 1973 Belgium Peter Beyls begins his projects for televisions, involving the generation of abstract images with analog computers, with the installation TV Tower at the IPEM in Ghent. First contacts between Raymond Zone of the Video Chain group, which has one of the first studios in Belgium, and Jacques Lennup, Jacques Lizène, and Jacques-Louis Nyst (December). France Lyons becomes a center for video distribution with the creation of the CREDA (Centre de Recherche et d'Entraînement aux Disciplines Artistiques), which offers regular programs of screening-discussions as well as a workshop for video, Super 8 and 16 mm film. The Galerie Numer shows performance videos. ORTF technician Marcel Dupouy invents the "Movicolor" synthesizer (colorizing and special effects), which combines three kinds of functions: generation and combination of synthetic, geometric, or abstract forms and colorizing (which, with the help of an electronic palette, allows color to be added to a black-and-white video signal as well as other modifications of the electronic signal). Eighth Paris Biennale at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris: the German group Telewissen makes a videotape with the public (14 September-21 October). Germany Italy Japan United States The Everson Museum of Art organizes "Circuit: A Video Invitational," a traveling exhibition featuring video works by 65 artists. Working in the research laboratory of WNET-TV in New York, Nam June Paik completes Global Groove, a tape made from TV images with the Paik/Abe synthesizer. In Syracuse, Bill Viola meets David Tudor, with whom he founds "Composers Inside Electronics." This group organizes numerous sound performances throughout the world from 1974 to 1980. 1974 The Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst in Ypres acquires its first videotapes. Peter Beyls creates On the Origin, a performance with live electronics, television, and film, at the Scoop studio in Ghent, and Transformation, a multimedia project, at the Vrije Akademie in The Hague. Don Foresta, director of the American Center in Paris, organizes an evening on the theme of "Television Used as a Medium for Art" at the RTB in Liège (25 April). At the Bruges Triennale, a film and video selection by Michel Baudson includes Marcel Broodthaers, the CAP group, and Jean Antoine, among others (26 June-1 September). Opening in Brussels of the Cologne-based Oppenheim Gallery and the Galerie Guy De Bruyn, which will present the Castelli-Sonnabend video collection. "Expmtl 5" in Knokke: the video section of the fifth international experimental film competition includes works by Peter Campus, Wendy Clark, Ed Emschwiller, Nam June Paik (TV Buddha), and Woody and Steina Vasulka (25 December 1974-2 January 1975). France Founding of "Mon Oeil," a collective bringing together the existing Cent Fleurs, Vidéo 00, Vidéodeba, and Vidéo Out collectives. "Art vidéo couleur" exhibit at the American Center in Paris, featuring videotapes by Nam June Paik, Woody and Steina Vasulka, Ed Emschwiller, Bill and Louise Etra, and others. Using Sonimage video editing equipment, Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville complete the film Jusqu'à la victoire, shot in the Middle East in 1970, and now renamed Ici et ailleurs. Thierry Kuntzel makes his first videotape, La Rejetée (now lost), based on Chris Marker's film La Jetée. Formation of the feminist video group Vidéa (September). Manifesto of the Collectif d'art sociologique, created by Fred Forest, Jean-Paul Thénot, and Hervé Fischer. One of its interventions will take place in Perpignan in September 1976. The collective will break up in 1981. "Art/Vidéo Confrontation 74" at the ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Organized by ARC 2 and the CNAAV (Centre National pour l'Animation Audio-Visuelle), this is the first major exhibition to show tapes and video installations by American and Canadian artists (such as Fred Forest, Kit Galloway, Frank Gillette, Dan Graham, Taka Iimura, and Nam June Paik) loaned by the American Center and the Canadian Cultural Center, and to produce tapes by French artists (Roland Baladi, Christian Boltanski, Bernard Borgeaud, Robert Cahen, Paul-Armand Gette, Françoise Janicot, Bertrand Lavier, Léa Lublin, Gina Pane, Martial Raysse, Bernard Teyssèdre, Tomek, Nil Yalter). The Movicolor video synthesizer, developed by the ORTF in 1973, is placed at the disposal of the public (8 November-8 December). Germany Italy Spain Switzerland United States The Everson Museum in Syracuse presents a closed-circuit installation by Peter Campus, Circuit: A Video Invitational. It organizes a series of talks and video screenings on "Video and the Museum." Performance video by Vito Acconci, Command Performance, created at 112 Greene Street in New York. "Video Projects," the beginning of a series of presentations of video works by Barbara London, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 1975 Jan Veercruysse organizes the exhibition "Kunst als Film" at the Elsa Von Honolulu Gallery in Ghent. The video section includes Jacques Charlier, the CAP group, the 50/04 group, Leo Copers, Eddy Devolder and Carl Uytterhaegen, Lili Dujourie, Danny Matthijs, Guy Mees, Hubert Van Es, and Mark Verstockt (14-16 March). The RTBF Liège creates the "Vidéographie" program, produced by Jean-Paul Tréfois. This is the first European broadcast devoted exclusively to video. Topics for 1975-1976 include: cable TV, Fred Forest, Léa Lublin. Flor Bex, director of the ICC, joins with Integan to propose the screening of artists' videos on Antwerp cable TV. The city refuses to approve the project. Video installations by Dan Graham at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels: Double Mirror and Double Time Delay Canada Denmark France Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville make Six fois deux: Sur et sous la communication, a series of six videos totaling about 100 minutes for the second channel (coproduced by INA and Sonimage). They will be broadcast as of July 1976. Godard and Miéville also make Comment ça va?, part of which is shot in video, and Numéro deux in color video, with the on-screen image then filmed in 35 mm because of the difficulty of doing a transfer (produced by Sonimage, Bela Production, and SNC Paris). Michel Jaffrenou and Patrick Bousquet open a projection room for Super 8 and video on a Paris riverboat. Sony develops Betamax, which allows TV programs to be recorded on video. First Body Art exhibition, organized by François Pluchart at the Galerie Stadler in Paris. It includes the work of 21 artists, from Marcel Duchamp to Chris Burden and Katharina Sieverding. The first Body Art manifesto is published at this time. The CAYC organizes a presentation of Latin American video works at the Espace Cardin in Paris. "Une expérience d'art socio-écologique" at the ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris presents a video project conducted by various artists (Hervé Fischer, Fred Forest, Léa Lublin, Nil Yalter) in Neuenkirchen, Germany (13 November-14 December). Heure Exquise! collective is founded near Lille for the promotion of art video. In 1982 the collective will specialize in the distribution of videotapes. In 1985 it will become a video station, as an alternative to TV broadcasting, and in 1992, a training and documentation center. "Art-animations-video" organized by Pierre Restany and René Berger at the Annemasse city hall. Participants include Jean-François Bory, Fred Forest, Paul-André Hubert, Jeannet, Léa Lublin, Rabascall, and Sosno (13-20 December). Germany Great Britain Netherlands United States "Bodyworks" exhibit organized by Jennifer Licht at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Arts, featuring Vito Acconci, Ben, Joseph Beuys, Günther Brus, Chris Burden, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Gina Pane, Klaus Rinke, Lucas Samaras, and William Wegman (March-April). 1976 Video evening at the CIAP in Hasselt, with a lecture by Jan Debbaut entitled "Video, een nieuw medium in beeldende kunst" and videos by Hugo Duchateau, Lili Dujourie, Jacques Lennep, Danny Matthijs, and Jacques-Louis Nyst (8 December). Belgium-Argentina France Don Foresta creates a video department at the Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris in collaboration with Jean-Pierre Dezeuze, head of animated film. ENSAD sets up editing rooms for ¾-inch video and sound, acquires special effects and graphics equipment, and produces tapes by Dominique Belloir and the Wonder Products group. Durnig the 1980s Foresta organizes exchanges with the United States via satellite, telex, and telephone (slowscan). The exhibition "Art vidéo: recherches et expériences," organized by René Berger at Portes de la Suisse in Paris, presents five Swiss artists (René Bauermeister, Gérald Minkoff, Muriel Oelson, Jean Otth, and Jacob Urban). Jean-André Fieschi's series "Les Nouveaux Mystères de New York" reveals the stylistic possibilities of his "paluche" miniature video camera (first episode: Enfance, une). Germany The exhibition "Soho-Downtown-Manhattan," organized by René Block at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, brings together visual arts, dance, theater, film, music, performance, and video (featuring works by Robert Morris, Nam June Paik, Richard Serra, and others) (5 September-17 October). Great Britain Founding of London Video Arts (LVA), an artists' organization for the promotion and distribution of video. "Arena," a special program of British and American artists' videotapes, is broadcast on BBC's channel 2. The program is presented by David Hall and produced by Mark Kidel and Anna Ridley. For the occasion, Hall makes This Is a TV Receiver," with Richard Baker. Italy Switzerland United States Jean Dupuy makes a series of tapes entitled Artists Propaganda I (New York), for which he asks artists to carry out an action of their choice before the camera within a fixed period of time. 1977 Belgium Canada Denmark Exhibition "Video International" at the Arhus Art Museum in Copenhagen (autumn). France At the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris, Pontus Hulten creates a "photo-film-video" department, which is headed by Alain Sayag. Between 1976 and 1978, Mnam buys about fifty videotapes (by Jean Dupuy, Paul-Armand Gette, Suzanne Nissim, Teresa Weinberg, Bob Wilson, etc.). Jean Dupuy tapes Artists Propaganda II (Paris) at the Centre Georges Pompidou. Among the artists whose short performances are recorded are: Roy Adzack, Ben, Christian Boltanski, André Cadere, Béatrice Casadesus, Jacqueline Dauriac, Charles Dreyfus, François Dufresne, Robert Filliou, Gérard Gassiorowski, Alain Germain, Raymond Hains, Bernard Hiedsieck, Joël Hubaut, Françoise Janicot, Piotr Kowalski, Bruno de Lard, Emile Laugier, Annette Messager, Jacques Monory, Jacques de Pindrey, Guy de Rougemont, Richard Texier, Martial Thomas, Claude Torey, and Nil Yalter (December 1977-January 1978). First video by Orlan, documenting a performance entitled Mesurage, in which the artist uses her "Orlan-corps" (Orlan-body) unit to measure the Centre Georges Pompidou. Publication of Fred Forest's Art sociologique. Vidéo. Germany Italy Netherlands Peru Spain United States "Artists' Video, An Alternative Use of the Medium," at the Biddick Farm Center in Washington includes videotapes by British artists Doron Abrahami, Lindsay Brufton, David Crichley, Peter Donebauer, Keith Frake, Mike Hartney, Brian Hoey, Tamara Krikorian, Stuart Marshall, and Steve Partridge. Video installation at the Kitchen in New York (Bill Viola, Peter Campus, and Ed Emschwiller). 1978 Denmark France In conjunction with the "Paris-Berlin" exhibit, the Centre Georges Pompidou presents filmmaker Chris Marker's first installation, Quand le siècle a pris formes (Guerre et Révolution), composed of twelve monitors with solarized images (12 July-6 November). The Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain (ELAC) in Lyons sets up a department for the promotion of video and art films (artistic director, Georges Rey). The ELAC is the first such institution in France to present video on a weekly basis (documents touching on visual arts, television, dance, music, architecture, and society in relation to contemporary art), as well as installations and events involving state-of-the-art technology. Creation of Vidéoglyphes, an association for the promotion of research on the electronic image. In collaboration with the Audiovisual Activities unit of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Vidéoglyphes organizes four visits to the U.S. for four artists (Paul-Armand Gette, Philippe Guerrier, Thierry Kuntzel, and Philippe Oudard), which result in four productions in the studios of the Educational TV Office-Berkeley and two exhibitions (New York and San Francisco). Second episode of Jean-André Fieschi's Nouveaux Mystères de New York: L'Ile de la Vierge. Don Foresta becomes artistic director of the Center for Media Art at the American Center in Paris (1978-1981). He presents video programs from the Buffalo Museum and the Kitchen in New York and invites American artists including Juan Downey, Kit Fitzgerald, Gary Hill, Joan Logue, John Sanborn, and Bill Viola. Nam June Paik gives a year-long seminar there. Among the French artists working at the American Center in the early 1980s are Hervé Nisic, Alain Longuet, Patrick Prado, Jean-Louis Le Tacon, Orlan, Pierre Lobstein, and Catherine Ikam. After Don Foresta, the Center for Media Art will be directed by Anne-Marie Stein (1980-82) and the Canadian Scott MacLeay (1982-87), who will enlarge the perspective by creating the Center for Media Art and Photography. Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville make France Tour Détour Deux Enfants, a series of 12 programs of 26 minutes each (produced by INA and Sonimage), for France's second channel (broadcast in April 1980). Léa Lublin makes Discours sur l'art, interviews with twelve artists: a camera films the scene in a static shot while Lublin films the artist with a portable camera. The images shot by the two cameras are shown live on three video monitors. Robert Wilson makes Video 50, fifty 30-second videos conceived as interludes, in the Centre Georges Pompidou's studio (co-produced by INA, CNAC-CGP, NIRT, ZDF). At the Centre culturel de l'Abbaye ("Vidéo ABI") in Paris, video screenings and "vidéothéâtries" performances are organized by Michel Jaffrenou and Patrick Bousquet. Nam June Paik retrospective at the ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris: Fluxus installations Moon Is the Oldest TV and TV Clock. In conjunction with this retrospective, the American Center shows his recent tapes (Global Groove, Guadalcanal Requiem, Merce by Merce by Paik, etc.) and organizes interventions by Paik and Charlotte Moorman. Paik also gives two workshops for video professionals (22 November 1978-8 January 1979). Germany Great Britain United States 1979 Belgium Canada France Porte-vue, an installation by Keith Sonnier, is presented at the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris: four images are retransmitted on two video monitors (two images from video cameras placed inside the museum, two images from TV screens). Vidéoglyphes publishes a review of the same name (issue no. 1 on the economics of video, no. 2 on video works, nos. 3-4 on video, landscape, architecture). Creation of the Video Department at the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris. International video works are collected by Christine Van Assche. The ELAC (Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain) presents the exhibition "Fluxus International and Co.," curated by Ben Vautier and Marie-Claude Jeune. It also organizes the first International Symposium on Performance Art (curated by Orlan and Hubert Besacier), a Fluxus concert (Ben Vautier, Serge Oldendorf, Giuseppe Chiari), artists performances and actions (Jean-Jacques Lebel, Benito and Cerda) (4 April-6 May). France's second channel, Antenne 2, broadcasts "Video U.S.A.," a series of five programs by Catherine Ikam and Adrien Maaden on American video and the vast expressive possibilities of the electronic image (June). Jean-Jacques Lebel presents "Polyphonix I, " an international festival of performance, direct poetry, music, and video, at the American Center in Paris (June). Arrival of ¾-inch editing decks in France. Robert Filliou makes his first videotape in French in Montreal: Vidéo-Universecity, Grâce à Fournier. Thierry Kuntzel makes Nostos I, a color videotape produced by the Groupe de Recherche Image of the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA). Germany Netherlands Spain |