Syndicate: in praise of WRO99

[Nina Czegledy <czegledy@interlog.com>]

Hello All,

This is a positive note in the current "situation" as the circumstances
were defined at the latest Syndicate meeting in Budapest.

On Thursday, April 28, 1999  at 6 pm the WRO99 Festival opened at the
Swiebodzkim Theatre in Wroclaw. From all over the world 811 works were
submitted
underlaying the theme " The Power of the Tape. The Message of a Departing (?)
Medium". Nearly two hundred of the tapes came from Central and East Europe.
Sixtynine works were selected for competition by the selection committee.

The Festival opened with an electroacoustic concert by Michael Waisvisz and
Seven Seas. For the next few days the auditorium in Swiebodzkim, a great
space in this former railway station, served as the main venue for the
events. New media works were on show at Galeria Entropia and a videoteque
was available at the Galeria Awangarde.

The theme of the festival was excellently reflected by special programs
such as the Absolute Film Show of classics, curated and presented by
William Moritz and Found Footage curated by Piotr Krajewski. The wide range
of presentations (Erkki Huhtamo, Apsolutno,Ermeline Le Mezo, Joseph
Backstein)
all contributed to a rich program.I especially liked the Polish Analitical
Cinema and Film Workshop presentation. Canadian visibility was high, both
in the
competition and special programs. reVision99, a selection, I curated
reflected on the Canadian experimental film and video landscape in the
early seventies and late nineties. It is difficult to list the merits of
all the programs in this short dispatch, however it is important to note
that today there are hundreds of festivals all over the world, few however
carry such a strong tradition
of thematic programming. The festival closed with a Faust concert at Kino
Oskar.

These are only facts and do not reflect the cool but green spring in
Wroclaw, the enthusiastic audience, the incredible efforts of the
organizers,and the funny atmosphere of the little greasy spoon across the
road from the Swiebodzkim
where with the leadership of Erkki, we daily repaired for our fix of Polish
cabbage and beer.


At the end of the festival, the jury found "from the 69 works selected for
the WRO competition a very diverse range of themes, including numerous
animation
works and tapes dealing with body iconography, but surprisingly few works
dealing with political narratives or documentation. The power of the tape
was reflected in aseveral of the works submitted - many artists used the
weakness and fragility of the medium to express concepts, which confirm
the power of the tape."

The first prize waw awarded to Yonatan Vinitsky  (Israel) for I Live You,
the second to Andrzej Urbanski(Poland) for Potopia and the third was split
between Hanspeter Anmann(Switzerland)for Couple and Stefan
St.Laurent(Canada) for Stand by Your Man.

thanks Piotr, Violetta, Zbigniew and all your staff for a great festival
and your hospitality!

nina czegledy



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