10 July 2019

Magic Media – Media Magic
Video art since the 1970s from the Wulf-Herzogenrath-Archive
Exhibition from 12 September – 13 October 2019
Opening: 11 September, 9 pm, Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz

As a curator, Wulf Herzogenrath has made a crucial contribution to the establishment of video art in Germany. In his archive, which is held by the Archives of the Akademie der Künste and is privately owned, highlights of video art and sculpture since the 1960s can be discovered, as well as written material, documents, sketches, photographs and his legendary artists' guest books, which have followed the artistic production and the history of video art to this day. The exhibition Magic Media – Media Magic, which will be showing from 12 September to 13 October at Pariser Platz, provides insights into this archive and shows works by Vito Acconci, Lutz Dammbeck, Peter Campus, Klaus vom Bruch, John Cage, Rebecca Horn, Joan Jonas, Bjørn Melhus, Marcel Odenbach, Nam June Paik, Sigmar Polke, Ulrike Rosenbach, Bill Viola and others, as well as from the Videoart at Midnight Editions.

In the 1960s, visual artists discovered the direct availability of video images for their work and began to use a technology that was originally developed for television. In the 1970s, video art was increasingly becoming established (including Projekt '74, Cologne) and was included in documenta 6 (1977) with the "Video” section curated by Wulf Herzogenrath. In the 1980s, artists began developing new technical ways of manipulating the electronic image and sound structure in order to change the aesthetics of visual imagery and perception. With the access to digital image production and processing, further new dimensions opened up for incorporating the misappropriation of vintage and documentary material, modern everyday and standard images as well as fiction/non-fiction into artistic processes and film collages. These temporal transitions are presented as examples in the exhibition.

Magic Media – Media Magic (the title refers to a drawing by video and media artist Les Levine, 1994) reflects the broad spectrum of video art between performance and sculpture – focusing on Nam June Paik – on the basis of artistic and documentary material. In addition to this, a statement by the curator presents insights into art historical and curatorial thought processes for the very first time, based on a selection of small format original papers and prints (including by Viking Eggeling, Max Ernst, Marcel Jean, Kazimir Malevich, Yves Klein, Marcel Duchamps, Christian Schad and Andy Warhol). In recent years, Wulf Herzogenrath gifted his living legacy to the Archives of the Akademie der Künste. In December 2018, the opening of the archive was celebrated as part of the “Videoart at Midnight” festival.

Part of Berlin Art Week.

Event Information
Magic Media – Media Magic
Video art since the 1970s from the archive of Wulf Herzogenrath
Opening 11 September, 9 pm, free admission
With Wulf Herzogenrath, Johannes Odenthal, Olaf Stüber
Exhibition from 12 September to 13 October 2019
Tues – Sun, 11 am – 7 pm, admission € 6/4
Up to 18 years and on Tuesdays from 3 pm to 7 pm free admission
Guided tours on Wednesdays at 5 pm and Sundays at 12 noon, with Wulf Herzogenrath, Anke Hervol, Olaf Stüber and others
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Tickets: Tel. +49 (0)30 20057-1000, info@adk.de

Press photographs online at: www.adk.de/de/presse