VDB at the 59th Oberhausen Short Film Festival

As May rolls around, Video Data Bank is thrilled to be involved in two upcoming special events: we are presenting a screening of new acquisitions as part of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival on May 4th, followed by a special program of moving image work curated in response to the work of VDB artists HalfLifers, showing May 29th as part of their upcoming exhibition at Gallery 400 in Chicago. More details below…
Video Data Bank Screening at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival Video Data Bank will screen a selection of works at this year's Oberhausen International Short Film Festival.  For those attending, you can look forward to an amazing program featuring work by Oded Hirsch, Scott Wolniak, Dana Levy, John Smith, Laura Parnes, Leslie Thornton, Basma Alsharif, Paul Kos, Sam Easterson and Jesse McLean, as well as work by Chicago's own Frédéric Moffet, Jessie Mott and Steve Reinke, and a brilliant newly-restored dance video by the late Tom Rubnitz. VDB Director Abina Manning will present the screening program in-person! Definitely not to be missed!  Screening Program:

 POSTFACE, Frédéric Moffet, US, 2011, 7:20
 A Day for Cake and Accidents, Jessie Mott/Steve Reinke, US, 2013, 4:00
 Nothing New, Oded Hirsch, Israel, 2012, 10:15
Flash Art (Circles and Rectangles), Scott Wolniak, US, 2010, 5:10
The Wake, Dana Levy, US, 2011, 5:03
County Down Episode 1, Laura Parnes, US, 2012, 6:37 (excerpt)
Farther Than the Eye Can See, Basma Alsharif, Jordan/UAE, 2012, 12:56
Unusual Red Cardigan, John Smith, UK, 2011, 12:46
Plastic Rap with Frieda, Tom Rubnitz, US, 1983, 4:00

SCREENING DETAILS Saturday May 4th, 2013, 12:30 PM Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Sunset _______________________________________________________________________ Additional Oberhausen International Short Film Festival screenings include:
Paul Kos' Ice/Fire and Sam Easterson's Burrow-Cams will screen as part of the Children have the choice program, made up of international artists' film and videos selected and presented by children.  SCREENING DETAILS Saturday May 4th, 2013, 5:00 PM, Sunset Tuesday May 7th, 2013, 10:30 AM, Sunset _______________________________________________________________________
Jesse McLean's The Invisible World in International Competition 8. SCREENING DETAILS Monday May 6th, 2013, 2:30 PM, Lichtburg Monday May 6th, 2013, 10:30 PM, Gloria   Discussion with the director: Monday May 6th, 2013, 4:00 PM, Festival Space _______________________________________________________________________ Leslie Thornton's Strange Space in Flatness 2: Falling Into or Against. SCREENING DETAILS Saturday May 4th, 2:30 PM, Gloria _______________________________________________________________________ I THINK WE’RE READY TO GO TO THE NEXT SEQUENCE: THE LEGACY OF HALFLIFERS May 3rd – June 15th, 2013   Covering more than two decades of work, I THINK WE’RE READY TO GO TO THE NEXT SEQUENCE, an exhibition at Gallery 400, moves beyond the retrospective format to re-examine, interpret, and pay homage to the extensive body of performative video work that the HALFLIFERS (Torsten Zenas Burns and Anthony Discenza) have produced since the early 1990s. Employing a lo-fi aesthetic that amplifies the qualities of videotape and the forms of its playback, Burns and Discenza perform as characters inspired by genres of speculative fiction, producing a sincere absurdity that reflects on the issues of anxiety and identity in our rapidly changing technological age.   Accompanying the HALFLIFERS’ works are sculptures, videos, drawings, installations, photographs, and paintings by a number of artists who have affinities with the HALFLIFERS and who produced new works inspired by their oeuvre. By subjecting themselves to the reinterpretations and responses of others, HALFLIFERS question their present relevancy while, at the same time, continuing to be relevant through their very willingness to adapt.   Included artists: 23E Laboratories, Jason Robert Bell, James Fotopoulos, Kari Gatzke, HALFLIFERS, Lauren Marsden, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Bjørn Melhus, Shana Moulton, Caspar Stracke and MASTERS OF TIME AND SPACE, and Jennet Thomas.   Video Data Bank Screening: Loophole Limbo   Inspired by the actions and tropes of the HalfLifers extensive body of work on video, Loophole Limbo, curated by VDB Director Abina Manning, delves deep into the archives of the Video Data Bank collection in order to expose, interrogate, and investigate the performative in artists’ video. Featuring work produced across every decade of video’s relatively short history, what the investigation reveals is artists’ video that is obsessed, alienated, and downright strange…   Screening Program: 

Dara Birnbaum, Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, 1978, 5:45, U.S.
Vito Acconci, Pryings, 1971, 16:16, U.S.
Anne McGuire, All Smiles and Sadness, 1999, 7:00, U.S.
Tom Rubnitz, Pickle Surprise, 1989, 2:00, U.S.
Tom Rubnitz, Strawberry Shortcut, 1984, 1:00, U.S.
Laurie Jo Reynolds, Space Ghost, 2007, 26:00, U.S.
Bjorn Melhus, No Sunshine, 1997, 6:15, U.S.

  SCREENING DETAILS May 29th at 7:00 PM Gallery 400, Lecture Room 400 S Peoria Street Chicago, IL 60607
 
_______________________________________________________________________   Artist News Susan Youssef’s award-winning feature film Habibi Rasak Kharban (aka Habibi) screens as part of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival on Sunday April 28th at 3 PM. Habibi’s tale of star-crossed romance reworks the plight of ninth-century lovers from the epic poem “Majnun and Layla” through the challenged relationship of dreamy Israeli aspiring poet Qays and Palestinian engineering student Layla. To the peril of love, they discover that marriage makes them outcasts in two worlds, bringing issues of loyalty and belonging into focus. The screening takes place at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 North State Street, Chicago.   Also in Chicago, Michael Robinson has curated a video program with works by Lynda Benglis, Lori Felker, Miranda July, Laida Lertxundi, Shana Moulton, and his own work at The Museum of Contemporary Photography on May 1st at 6:00 PM, and at The Nightingale on Friday May 3rd at 8:00 PM. Robinson’s work elegantly mines a collective nostalgia surrounding popular culture, often serving up brief bursts of transcendent emotionality embedded in our shared media consumption.