52nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Dates: May 4 – 9, 2006

Location: Lichtburg Filmpalast, Elsaesser Str. 26, Oberhausen, Germany

www.kurzfilmtage.de

Known as the short film festival with the strongest profile in avant-garde and experimental works, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, which discovered and first presented to an international audience films by artists like Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Christian Boltanski or Pipilotti Rist, has developed into a popular alternative to art fairs as a meeting place for artists and curators. In its 52nd edition (4-9 May 2006), Oberhausen will focus specifically on works straddling the borderline between art and film.
This will include screenings of experimental works from the catalogues of leading international distributors, from the legendary Electronic Arts Intermix through Videobrasil to the Hong Kong Arts Centre. An extensive programme will be devoted to artists’ and filmmakers’ works from the Middle East, curated by Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari, and entitled ”Radical Closure / Send me to the seas of love, I’m drowning in my blood”. Headed by a line taken from a Sufi poem, the programme, whose other title, ”Radical Closure”, is based on a concept by Lebanese writer and video artist Jalal Toufic, features films and videos that are produced within – or that raise issues related to – situations of closure resulting from wars and / or political territorial conflicts, by Christoph Büchel, Hatice Güleryüz, Mona Hatoum, Walid Raad, Elia Suleiman, and many others.
A double profile from Moscow will bring together works by artist Victor Alimpiev and CINE FANTOM filmmaker Olga Stolpovskaya, Robert Nelson’s legendary underground films will be on view for the first time in a European retrospective, and a further feature will be devoted to dance films by Miranda Pennell of Great Britain. The festival itself will present a selection of compelling productions from its competitions, to be screened in a special programme.
The new PODIUM series of panel discussions will tackle issues such as ”Moving images for sale”, ”Artists as agents of vision – on the subject of wars, political and territorial conflicts”, or ”Internet television – a future for short formats” with prominent participants including Fareed Armaly (artist, Beirut), Stuart Comer (Tate Modern, London), Catherine David (curator, Paris), Christopher Eamon (curator for the Kramlich Collection, USA), Bjørn Melhus (artist and professor at the Art Academy Kassel), Lonnie van Brummelen (artist, Amsterdam), Ian White (freelance curator and art critic, London), Akram Zaatari, and others.
At the festival: Victor Alimpiev (artist), Anita Beckers (Anita Beckers Gallery, Frankfurt), David Brocca (IFILM Short Films Channel and IFILM User Video Channel, Hollywood), Sergio Edelsztein (Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv), Henriette Huldisch (Whitney Museum of American Art), GertJan Kuipers (VPRO Digitaal, Amsterdam), Philippe-Alain Michaud (Centre Pompidou, Paris), Rabih Mroueh (artist, Beirut), Matthias Müller (artist), Mark Nash (curator, London), Laure Provost and Philine von Guretzky (tank tv, London), Eran Schaerf (artist, Berlin), Daniel Schmitt (Screen Digest, London), Cate Shortland (filmmaker, Sydney), Berta Sichel (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid), Patrick Walke (Content Partnerships Google), Stephen Wright (art writer, Paris), Lori Zippay (Electronic Arts Intermix, New York), a.m.o.