According to Hegel, artists should be the ones to follow the Zeitgeist, and moreover, to trace the path they find to be progressive – that is what makes art rise above kitsch. Back in the early 1960s, video was a new medium, and the artists who managed to recognize its potential have unlocked a new chapter in art. Video art was (and is) seemingly similar to the avant-garde cinema, but the genre somehow became even more autonomous, relieved of an obligation to tell stories, and dismissive of all conventions related to movie-making. Video artists did, however, make the best of the new medium, using its capacity to deliver information in a direct and immediate way, to document entire performances and happenings, but also to manipulate reality and to play with the viewer’s perception; and above all, to respond to a lower budget. The moment in which art overlapped with video recording was almost as crucial as the moment in which the Internet appeared, which is why we could reflect on the genre from today’s point of view, and try to define its status today. Video recording is not something we use in the same way as we did in the past, the technology has made everything change dramatically, but the benefits provided by the moving pictures are more or less the same. Let us see how video art corresponds to the world of contemporary art, as we survey the art of 10 artists who work, or used to work, with this engaging art form.
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(2017-09-12)
www.widewalls.ch

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