Syndicate: CROSSING OVER TIME

[Nina Czegledy <czegledy@interlog.com>]

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!



CROSSING OVER TIME
http://www.ljudmila.org/co

This informal report begun in the middle of the very last night of the
fourth Crossing Over workshop at ljudmila.org in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Despite the late hours, the place was buzzing.  Ten participants from
Poland, Belarus, Estonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, UK and Slovenia and all the
"Ljudmillians" have been labouring here for the last two weeks. At the time
of writing, two were still working on the concluding details of their
videoshorts - the others waited faithfully to begin the final Beta
compilation.

The "Crossing Over Time" participants were a hard working, gender biased (9
out of the ten participants were women) group. Everybody came well prepared
and started to work immediately. Some worked on their own, others had
editorial help for their digital post-production. Quickly, a spirit of
cooperation developed. In addition to project work, we organized rotating
presentations by our participants. To provide better insight for the group
into the local scene, we made extensive efforts to contact local artists,
theorists etc. and invited them to informally present their work. As a
result over the two weeks period, we had 13 visitors ranging from local
celebrities such as Igor Stromajer, Darij Kreuh, Damian Kracina to
Saatchi-hunted Vuk Cosic. We also had the pleasure of inviting
globetrotters including Stephen Kovats, Vadim Fishkin and Heath Bunting.

Ljudmila is located a bit out of town. We all stayed in a nearby "hotel" -
an authentic relic from "socialist" times, complete with plastic roses,
plastic bread and extremely unpleasant waitresses. We did not spend much
time in the hotel.

This December marked a "year/century/millennium-end party" time in
Ljubljana. The town was full of goods, brightly decorated for Xmas and
each night in the unseasonably warm weather the streets were filled with
vendors, strollers, dogs and cars.  The pubs were jammed and at open air
kiosks mulled wine and beer was consumed in great quantities. Then the snow
came down.

In addition to ljudmila hospitality we were treated to several exhibition
openings, and a variety of lavish New Year parties. In the opinion of this
writer it is a miracle, that despite occasional computer failures and all
those parties, we managed to complete nine projects, which were presented
for a sneak preview  on December 22nd for a substantial audience at our
FINISSAGE at Galerija Moderna.

The exclusive international premiere is planned at the 6th Biennial Video
Positive 2000 - The Other Side of Zero - at Liverpool, UK

For individual project details please visit our brand new website:
http://www.ljudmila.org/co

And now I turn this communique over to our participants:

-Here, me too, I find myself at CO4 exploring the intricate details of
expression, trying my best in four languages with translators and jokers to
communicate the differences between an amarillo and ant-eater. Me, Maria N.
Stukoff, have triumphed over the glaring monitors and computer humms to
create a piece of video, which I hope translates much of the intricate and
sublime feelings of belonging. Here, here too, CO has given access to
wonderful personal exchanges - how ever brief they may have lasted. Just
two more nights at the hotel de la luxe and then time to reflect and listen
to the memories of absurd and colourful conversations.

-Here at Ljudmila, we are trying very hard to be good hosts, but I'm
afraid that our team is also participating. We are eating, working,
polluting, drinking, not sleeping, playing, cooking, partying ... together.
In this moment when I, Spela Stare, the coordinator am writing, it is
almost two
o`clock in the morning the last night of the residency and we are still
waiting for the BETA compilation. The fridge is always empty, computers are
always occupied, the network is full of data garbage, everybody is asking
stupid questions, our editors are at the end of their nerves but we are
feeling great.

-Who the hell is Beta, someone just asked...I've got 3 hours, then I have
to wake up and go to  the airport and leave this beautiful country. It was
great to meet some other funny people and to feel that I am not the only
one who's funny, even if video art is dead as we were told again today (Kai
Kaljo)

-This night is the culmination of the residency. Some of us became
videoZombies, some of us are audioZombies. The production workshop is going
to be finished but all computers have not been crashed yet that is why we
think
it is not the end of the workshop. (It is a joke). It was really nice time
during CO4 workshop because of good place e.g. Ljudmila organization, of
very nice people which are working here who paid so much attention to us
etc., etc., etc.....(Alla and Katja).

-I, Boriana Dragoeva, have this real feeling that I had prepared the best
footage for my postproduction at home - and the most beautiful thing is
that I had a chance to finish it at ljudmila.org and start other new work -
like a never endlessssss storyy.

-This is Dimitrina Sevova, here. I find CO4 extremely interesting both as a
concept and structure possibly because I was there at CO1 inception and
kept an eye on the crossing over development. I am particularly fascinated
by the Bulgarian participation at all CO so far. In fact CO has established
itself as an incubator for videomakers. I am keen on CO also because it
centers itself around the Eastern European discourse. We have all
experienced this - despite our good will the East-East barriers are gaping
wide. It is in the latest CO4 & CO3 that I have been selected as a
participating artist and I am tempted to comment on the two split
localities in Novi Sad and Ljubljana each inspiring me to do new work.

-It was only after few days in the CO4 residency that I, Barbara Konopka,
have realized that we are all women except for Antal.  Usually, I don't
have my mind fixated on any gender issues but it was during this CO4 that I
first-hand experienced how moving it is to cooperate with high achieving
and professional women. This is what I call the joy of spending quality
time together in a mixed languages environment.  Even playing silly
language games such as 'Countries/Cities' in the middle of the night could
be inspiring and reassuring that artists need no isolation. Despite the
fact that distances and geographies are irrelevant in the age of Internet,
isolation creeps in. I hope that our communal CO4 experience will help us
feel non-isolated and enthusiastic and shape up our future mindset.

-I, Zornitsa-Sophia, am the one of two, actually three of us who were
waited/hated from everyone else to get finally done their tapes,  the so
called "It's not the video of my life, but still" done, in order to lay out
the compilation tape and the final credits. The assemblage of the visiting
artists that the curators brought to us during the last 13 nights and days
was kinda real 312 hours blockbuster. What is more I got my first
soundtrack done thanks to DJ Nu and my first try as editor. The hosts are
as sweet as your most sweet dreams, partying all the time, and creating a
chaos around, which they call "organization" which as a matter of fact,
actually works.

-Bojan Mastilovic is a very tired man. He almost did not sleep for the last
10 days and his brain don't even hurt anymore. Eyes are red, snow is white
and its christmas time again. He is just happy that it is all over...
Signature : Bojan  Mastilovic, CO4 master editor

-This is Antal Bodoczky the one and only male participant.  This time
Crossing Over was a real pre-christmas happening, where everybody was
focusing on the things to give.  This of course is not always a harmonious
process,  but nevertheless C04 was an unforgettable experience.  Many many
thanks to Nina, Iliyana, Spela, Mitko and all the "Ljudmillians". We read
on the web that its winter out there and I am looking forward to seeing it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
nina and illie




nina czegledy/ czegledy@interlog.com
crossing over / http://www.ljudmila.org/co.
virtual revolutions / http://www.yourserver.co.uk/vr
aurora/touch touche/choice/ http://www.interaccess.org


iliyana nedkova | vr@fact.co.uk
c u r r e n t  t r a n s l o c a l   p r o j e c t s
VP2000 | the other side of zero | http://www.fact.co.uk
virtual revolutions | http://www.yourserver.co.uk/vr
crossing over | http://www.ljudmila.org/co


------Syndicate mailinglist--------------------
 Syndicate network for media culture and media art
 information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate
 to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at>
 in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress