News 29 April 2019
Thank you very much, dear, great festival audience! We are overwhelmed by the great response to our festival - it's nice to know that the twelve months of work on the way there were worth it; that so many people participated in the EMAF and helped to make it a successful festival. A thousand thanks for that!
+++ Awards +++
On Saturday evening the prizes were awarded in the Kunsthalle Osnabrück.
The main prize, worth 3,000 euros, the EMAF Award for a pioneering work in media art, went to two artists this year: Dora García was awarded for her work "Segunda Vez / Second Time Around" (BE/NO 2018); Jaakko Pallasvuo, Antti Jussila and Jari Kallio for their film "Fruits of the Loom" (FI 2019).
"Segunda Vez" revolves around the figure of the Argentinean psychoanalyst Oscar Masotta, whose thinking and artistic practice had a lasting influence on the cultural life of his country in the 1960s until the Perón dictatorship forced him into exile. The International Jury - consisting of Graeme Arnfield (London), Branka Benčić (Zagreb) and Nicolas Feodoroff (Marseille) - gave the following reasons for their decision: "We are honoring the first work for its authentic way of winning over audiences in order to address the violent history of Argentina, which echoes in the contemporary moment, conceptually and politically. The film reconstructs and reproduces historical performances and leads us through a cinematic labyrinth of critical complicity".
Jaakko Pallasvuo received the EMAF Award for "Fruits of the Loom" in Osnabrück. A communist and a capitalist fall in love. Together they try to escape society. Their child later questions their escapades. Here the jury judged: "In addition, we distinguish a sincere and humorous mixture of dry performance, theatrical dramaturgy, serious socio-political discourse, cinematic narrative trophies - dealing with optimism, despair, puppet play and wild originality".
This year, the dialogue prize of the Federal Foreign Office, endowed with 2,000 euros, went to Vincent Meessen for "Ultramarine". The film sends the spoken word performance of the Afro-American poet Kain through the chromatic, historical and discursive filter of the color blue. The jury calls "Ultramarine" a "powerful and complex constellation of different positions, references and contexts that unfold in a variety of ways - as performance, music, poetry, text, museum and archive. Vincent Meessen explores the interweaving of social and aesthetic interests, transcending the boundaries of various artistic practices. The work combines history and culture to give a voice to the visible and the invisible".
This year, the EMAF Media Art Award of the German Filmcritics (VDFK), endowed with 1,000 euros, went to Gernot Wieland for his work "Ink in Milk" (AT 2018). The jury consisted of the film journalists Jürgen Kiontke (Berlin), Julia Gwendolyn Schneider (Berlin) and Morticia Zschiesche (Heidelberg). Gernot Wieland was present when the jury explained its decision: "In twelve minutes director Gernot Wieland unfolds a whole life: In his own sketches, metaphor-rich image sequences, drawings and sculptures, he resurrects the disturbing world of a childhood, tells of the dark in the light, of the illness schizophrenia, which is the creative principle here, splits up experienced realities and reassembles them anew. Wieland succeeds in making the hidden ruins of the psyche visible without judging their madness´. No film fits better to the festival mottoWild Grammar´."
+++ Panel discussion on 9 May +++
The exhibition "Wild Wild Grammar" in the Kunsthalle Osnabrück can be seen until 26 May. On International Museum Day on 19 May, Belgian artist Jo Caimo will repeat his collective performance "Koorvorming" at 14:30. Those who would like to take part are cordially invited.
The same goes for the panel discussion, which begins on 9 May at 17:30 at the Forum in the Kunsthalle Osnabrück. The title is "The Language of the Bengalos".
On the occasion of the presentation of "4. Halbzeit", the video installation of the artist duo Wermke/Leinkauf in our exhibition WILD WILD GRAMMAR, we want to explore how active football fans view their "culture of expression" such as Bengalos, battle cries and chants, banners and flags, fanzines and social media activities. It also discusses the special role played by Ultra in civil society and how fans and their various groups are caught in the tension between revolt and repression. This will be discussed in particular in the light of the active participation of Turkish fans in the Gezi Park demonstrations in Istanbul.
Participants in the panel discussion are Michael Aschmann (Fan Project Osnabrück), Jörn Drees (BN 1516), Freddy Fenkes (Vice President of the VFL-Osnabrück), Lisa Roggenkamp (Learning Place Bremer Brücke, Fan Project Osnabrück) and Michael Stredelmann (Fan Representative).
Moderation: Hermann Queckenstedt
Admission: 5 Euro/ concessions 3 Euro.
We are looking forward to seeing you again and send you
many, many greetings from the team of the EMAF 2019!
