colloquium /Sabine Himmelsbach
Going Public. Strategies in the presentation of Media Art
The presentation will focus on strategies of exhibiting media based artworks. Specific problems in the production of exhibitions and their staging will be addressed, especially in dealing with the technical needs of media art and an architectural design of an exhibition that emphasizes the curatorial statement. Examples will be the exhibitions “Coolhunters_Youthcultures between the Media and the Market” and “Making Things Public”, that have been produced by the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe.
Another focus will be the presentation of the Edith Russ Site for Media Art in Oldenburg, an institution in the North of Germany, which is one of the few places in Germany that are specifically focussing on the presentation of Media Art. The current exhibition “Visibilities_Between Facts and Fictions” will be presented and the upcoming programme will be outlined.
The Edith Russ Site for Media Art represents an exhibition site as well as a place for discussion and debate especially regarding the use of new media in contemporary artistic practice. The programme features exhibitions addressing topics of social relevance grounded in everyday experiences which highlight the increasing prominence of new media, the digital and the virtual in our daily environment. Media Art is situated in between artistic practice and the visitors’ everyday use of media such as the Internet, video and television. New media based aesthetic experiences created by artists merge with traditional arts and provide the visitor with new perspectives on and approaches to art in general. The Edith Russ Site has set itself the task of foregrounding this very aspect of media art, which also includes the visiting public. The dialogue with its audience is an integral part of Media Art, whose content thus explicitly shapes the institution’s programme.
Further information on the institutions:
http://www.zkm.de
http://www.edith-russ-haus.de
Further information on the exhibitions:
http://www.coolhunters.net
http://makingthingspublic.zkm.de/
http://www.edith-russ-haus.de/english/sichtbarkeiten.html
Bio
Before coming to Oldenburg Sabine Himmelsbach headed the exhibition department at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe from 1999 until last summer, where she curated numerous exhibitions and programmes of events on contemporary and new Media Art, among others the exhibitions "Coolhunters. Youth cultures between the media and the market" and "Resonances. The electromagnetic Bodies Project". From 1996 to 1999 she managed the exhibition projects for "steirischer herbst," the annual art festival at Graz, Austria. Over the last years she has published specifically on new cultural forms that have developed within new media and on the presentation of Media Art.