MIRADOR 06

El mirador is what the enchanting viewpoints along the steep coasts are called in Spain. During the Crossing Europe film festival Linz, the O.K opens up an artistic mirador.

In search of new, exciting subject matter and forms of expression, we now focus on Spain. The young media art scene there is setting out along new paths; an exciting generation of artists is establishing itself and is at the verge of an international breakthrough. Far from what is perceived in the scene as a peripheral position and beyond familiar tourist cliches, the O.K offers a fascinating, contemporary viewpoint – a mirador 06 – of Spain today.

The O.K presents a selection of contemporary Spanish media art: 15 projects by are realized in the form of an exhibition, i.e. as film or video installations. This means that a representative cross-section of the exciting and heterogeneous Spanish media art scene is shown for the first time in a long time in Austria. The presentation is rounded out by a short film program within the framework of the festival.

The exhibition approaches current art work in Spain from two sides. One is from a media-specific approach, focusing on the contemporary language of film and video art. The other is from a confrontation with the country, reflecting on regionally influenced conflicts and themes, but also on phenomena of youth culture.

Following the hype of video installations and video art, in recent years a trend to professional media productions in fine art has emerged, which makes use of a "filmic language" and seeks to crucially expand the limited possibilities of the cinema theater through installations in art space. It appears that the constraining genre boundaries are slowly becoming more permeable. (On the "film side" the term "expanded cinema" paradigmatically stands for playing with presentation possibilities outside the cinema theater.) The aesthetic language and the professionalism with which the media productions, usually shot in video, have been realized is impressive, and the selection also reflects the manifold media references ranging from cinema and television to video clips. The selection of artists not only marks diverse artistic emphases, but also indicates a specific political cultural problem: the strong profile and differentiation of the separate Spanish regions bans the notion of a homogeneous, unified nation-state community to the realm of constructions. The identification with the regions is stronger than the "hot" political topic of Spanish identity, which is also mirrored in artistic works.

Artists: Pilar Albarracín | Martí Anson | Julia Montilla Campillo | Fernando Sánchez Castillo | Carles Congost | Jon Mikel Euba | David Bestué & Marc Vives | Iratxe Jaio | Adrià Julià | Juan López | Joan Morey | Mabel Palacín | Sergio Prego | Mireia Sallarès | film program: Sally Gutiérrez | María Ruido

Curators: Genoveva Rückert & Martin Sturm

MIRADOR 06
Media Art from Spain
Kuratoren: Genoveva Rückert, Martin Sturm

mit Pilar Albarracin, Marti Anson, Julia Montilla Campillo, Fernando Sanchez Castillo, Carles Congost, Jon Mikel Euba, David Bestue / Marc Vives, Iratxe Jaio, Adria Julia, Juan Lopez, Joan Morey, Mabel Palacín, Sergio Prego, Mireia Sallares, Sally Gutierrez, Maria Ruido