Curator: Anita Budimir
Production: SCCA-Ljubljana, 2017
Duration: 31’ 46’’
Text: Anita Budimir
Premiere: World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2017, Slovenian Cinematheque, Ljubljana, October 27, 2017

Video art selection The world is obliged to live you from DIVA Station archive presents works which displays broad possibilities of video appropriation practices. Technique of finding new concepts by selecting, combining and manipulating old audiovisual materials the so called archival, appropriated or found footages.

Uršula Berlot, Pulsation, 2’ 40’’
U.B., 2007
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The most radical material appropriation of the program is video Pulsation (2007) by academy of fine arts professor Uršula Berlot. It is comprises of her own MRI recordings, computer manipulated into opaque pictorial animation with dark, abstract, outer space atmosphere, resembling Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight and revealing authors fine art background.

Mirko Simić, Back to the Bible, 3’ 41’’
M.S., 1992
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Technically more typical example of making new concepts using old materials is Mirko Simić’s video Back to the Bible (1992). It combines scenes from various well known films which depict social topics, in their own specific manner, films as Koyaanisqatsi, Battleship Potemkin, Metropolis and other less famous archive footages. The repetition of scenes as a ritual builds tension and association link between the content and the title.

Nataša Prosenc Stearns, Disc, 2’ 57’’
N.P.S.,1995
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Nataša Prosenc created Disc (1995) out of socialistic propaganda archive footages. Video in black and white presents people participating in mass rituals, primarily wars and the glorification of leaders, which are constant and universal documents of the world. The global and temporal association of these images is emphasised by the graphic sign of a disc, the only colourful object on the screen, which emerges into our view and disappears from it, until finally it is destroyed by a lizard, another – and the last – colourful creature in the records of the world.

Vesna Bukovec, Why Do I Do This?, 3’ 18’’
V.B., 2001
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Why Do I Do This? (2001) by video artist Vesna Bukovec, is a collage composed of found material from educational documentaries and graphic inserts. Through the content of the video author poses questions which can always be answered with “I don’t know”. With that she problematizes the state of contemporary art, which often lacks concrete answer.

Damijan Kracina, Thylacinus Cynocephalus, 1’ 09’’
D.K., 2000
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An example of minimal material to emphasise single point is video Thylacinus Cynocephalus (2009) where author Damijan Kracina reconstructs the movements of the Tasmanian tiger, became extinct in 1936. A year before the video was created, the Australian Museum in Sydney began developing methods for preserving the genetic material of the animal in order to clone it, when appropriate technology becomes available. Kracina filmed the final footage of the Tasmanian tiger on TV. He coloured the black and white shots and simulated the animal’s movements by means of repetition. In this way, he brought the tiger to life and addressed human’s irresponsible treatment of animals.

Gorazd Krnc, Me V(isual)S(ound) You, 2’ 37’’
G.K., 2006
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Gorazd Krnc video work Me V(isual)S(ound) You is an impressionistic collage of author’s recordings and archival material found online. Visually alluding to early video manipulation practises by layering images, distorting colours and opacity modes. Detail of an eye is besieged by images and due to hectic editing the author creates an anxious atmosphere. Chaotic sounds are accompanied by narration of scientific explanation of how the human ear functions additional awareness of the sounds.

Neven Korda, Reincarnation On Taxidermist Monitor, 16’
N.K., 2005
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Reincarnation On Taxidermist Monitor (2005) by Slovenian video artist Neven Korda is a live recording of processed sound and image based on Reincarnation, Kordas video from 2001 combined with short inserts from contradictory found footage sources. Un Chant d’Amour (1950) a film by Jean Genet, that was for a long time banned because of its explicit homosexual content and Olympia (1938) by Leni Riefenstahl, one of the most influential Nazi film propaganda directors, documentary film dedicated to Olympic games held in Berlin, in 1936. Only with the knowledge of the sources context we can conclude the video premise is releasing from all sort of restrictions. With continuous repeating of same short inserts and manipulating the imagery, Korda achieved a hypnotic effect, characterized by club visuals aesthetics. This video is alluding to art voodoo ritual experience with tribal sounds and three phrases repeated as mantras, one of them is the source from where the program name “World is obliged to live you” was appropriated.

Anita Budimir (1989, Croatia) is an active member of Klubvizija film laboratory (Zagreb). Analog photographer, video artist and experimental filmmaker. Interested in found footage practice of finding new concepts from old sources, analog and digital glitch processes as well as its aesthetic. She has a bachelor’s degree in TV, Film and New Media Design, in the period of May-December 2017 she was collaborating with DIVA Station Archive of video art in Ljubljana.