4^th Macao International Video Art Cycle

(i) The Power of Creativity
Curator: Hanspeter Ammann (Switzerland)

Part I (**)

1. Sliding Whites, by Eric Siu Chi-Man (Hong Kong, 2003, 8’ 40”)

2. Bataille, by Nicolas Provost (Belgium, 2003, 7’22”)

3. Through a Lens, by Michael Croft (United Kingdom/Thailand, 2004, 3’03”)

4. Triplet, by Amy Caron (USA, 2003, 7’)

5. Hate, by Chawit Waewsawangwong (Thailand, 2004, 2’13”)

6. 10 Night Rehearsal Notes, by Ong Yong-Lock (Hong Kong, 2003, 4’)

7. Warning Petroleum Pipeline, by Jan van Nuenen (The Netherlands, 2004, 4’50”)

8. I, by Poom Rattavisit (Thailand, 2004, 3’20”)

 

Part II (**)

9. Das Nächste Mal (Next Time), by Corinna Schnitt (Germany 2003, 6’)

10. Videosagen 2 (Video Legends 2), by Ariane Andereggen (Switzerland 2004, 9’35”)

11. Cultural Quarter, by Mike Stubbs (United Kingdom 2003, 10’21”)

12. A Cup Of Tea, by Maurice Lai (Hong Kong 2003, 10’)

13. Princess Cheung Ping, by Kong Kee (Hong Kong 2004, 6’14”)

14. Frantic, by Jung-Chul Hur (Korea 2004, 5’21”)

(**) Category B – Not suitable for young persons under 13 years old.

(i) The Power of Creativity

Programme Notes

1. Sliding Whites, by Eric Siu Chi-man (Hong Kong, 2003, 8’40”)
   “Sliding Whites” is a poetic work that deals with coincidence and structure. Almost like a research project that tries to analyze the relationship between human movement and a technical structure (the monitor screen in this case). It is most joyful to watch the elegant and constantly changing movements. The author successfully seduces us to listen to his poetic rhymes in white.
   
   The artist says:
   ‘White as colour is just a fluid concept. White of ice, white of paper, white of milk, white of cloud… white of air, liquid and solid, the whites are all different and each of them owns unique property. The fusion of Materials and Eyes reveals the truth of colours. Sliding Whites --- an experiment on the TV cells, the representation of colour and the originality of digital image.’
   
    
2. Bataille, by Nicolas Provost (Belgium, 2003, 7’22”)
   According to the world community of cinema buffs, Kurosawa's film Rashomon (1951) belongs to the top ten of absolute cinema classics. This film recounts the story of a woman being raped and a man being murdered from different perspectives. The magnificent black-and-white images express the maker's vision on the narrative possibilities of film and the role and position of the experiencing, observing viewer. Particularly due to these aspects and a powerful use of simplicity, Rashomon has remained a permanent source of inspiration for filmmakers and other artists.
   
   With Papillon d'Amour and Bataille, Nicolas Provost joins the devotees. He makes use of original material with the images mirrored in the longitudinal axis, which yields a sequence of new, associative images. The characters are transformed into new life forms with miraculous capabilities that defy the laws of gravitation. At the same time, Provost keeps the viewer (who is, or is not, familiar with the original film and 'the' story) on a string. The viewer's impulse to interpret the new representation as a story is encouraged by the subtle preservation of residues of Kurosawa's narrative. A powerful, evocative, supporting sound and music track ensures that all this comes across even better. The music is by Autechre.
   Netherlands Media Art Institute
   
    
3. Through a Lens, by Michael Croft (United Kingdom/ Thailand, 2004, 3’03”) An interaction with architecture can be a metaphor for the aspect of the creative process, which most leaves us space in which to dream.
   
   The issue – orientation – is personal. After an arbitrary start one holds suspended the inevitability of finish. The human body can, by stretching, allude to a space that extends laterally – parallel with the digital plane - with glances that perhaps concern blind directions taken and a finger’s pointing to those that bode the same.
   The performer has engaged intuitively with the secrets contained in a detail from a Thai temple fresco, but the viewer is privy to this information only afterwards.
   
    
4. Triplet, by Amy Caron (USA, 2003, 7’)
   Triplet was first inspired by the score; a composition that incorporates reversed sounds. The video plays with the simple ideas of forward/reverse motion and fast/slow speeds as the dancers, who share an identity, connect in both rhythms and spirit. Synchronicity is found between the fast pulsing Indian style music and the movements of the triplet sisters who predict each other’s every move. This video interprets the idea of connection as a spiritual bond that extends beyond the logical areas time and space into worlds of heredity and magic. Creating Triplet was a low budget technical feat. It was shot, choreographed, performed, and edited by Amy Caron with a budget of $30 US dollars.
   
    
5. Hate, by Chawit Waewsawangwong (Thailand, 2004, 2’13”)
   One of the human emotions that influence our behaviour is hate. When our hatred for someone rises to a high level, we can sometimes lose our self-control. In this movie, I am trying to show how this feeling can manipulate actions. The image represents behaviour while the music signifies the thoughts and feelings. The two can sometimes contradict each other. When our emotions rule over our bodies we tend to believe that all our actions are justified.
   Music: Norathep Maseang
   
    
6. 10 Night Rehearsal Notes, by Ong Yong-lock (Hong Kong, 2003, 4’)
   A fragment of familiar memories is found, misplaced in an abandoned campus, where a shaken body recklessly flees to escape. Before she can run away, a blazing fire ignites and burns everything into ashes.
   
    
7. Warning Petroleum Pipeline, by Jan van Nuenen (The Netherlands, 2004, 4'50”)
   A desolate desert landscape transforms slowly in a futuristic industrialized world. Machine sculptures branch off to even more complex mechanisms of which the rhythm creates the hallucinating soundtrack
   
    
8. I, by Poom Rattavisit (Thailand, 2004, 3’20” - in English with Chinese subtitles)
   In 1641, René Descartes wrote a book called Meditations on First Philosophy. It is a collection of six meditations in which he rejects all unproved beliefs and theorizes those that are certain. In his second meditation, he attempts to confirm one’s own existence. Descartes argues that since he is conscious and is able to think, he exists, while everything else around him does not. However, this statement is said from a human point of view. Do we truly know for sure that other ‘things’ are unconscious? If looked at from another perspective, they may be seen to have a soul too. Currently, there is no proof to such theory nor is there anything to deny it. In fact, it is more like a notion. You just have to believe it.
   
    
9. Das Nächste Mal (Next Time), by Corinna Schnitt (Germany, 2003, 6’ - in English with Chinese subtitles)
   An idyllic scene on a summery day. In the grass under an exuberantly flowering tree, a boy and a girl are stretched out together on a rug. They are young, so their friendship still hovers between child play and grown-up desires. They are using strangely adult language. The boy calls her beautiful, and asks her if they could not become more 'romantic', at which the girl calls him a charmer, and giggles her way out of it.
   
   They listen to each other's heartbeat. The humming and whooshing we hear when they do could easily be the sound of their hormones running riot. With birds warbling loudly, the rest of the soundtrack emphatically underlines the atmosphere of rococo paintings. Running and frolicking about on the grass, the youngsters eventually unload the tension, but they transgress the borderlines of their private Elysian field. The more the camera zooms out to keep them inside the image frame, the more it shows of the world that surrounds them.
   Netherlands Media Art Institute
   
    
10. Videosagen 2 (Videolegends 2), by Ariane Andereggen (Switzerland, 2004, 9’35” in German with English and Chinese subtitles)
    Videsosagen 2 explores the tone and inner truth of Swiss legends. Death and nature, laws of life and love. The artist did a lot of research by reading more then 200 legends before she started shooting and editing. Narrated in an almost dry way she spoils us with unexpected images from the valleys, the skies, and the snows of Switzerland.
    
    The artist says:
    “Images and tales are equal. I did put myself in an uncanny, weird state by reading spooky Swiss-legends and fables. Then I wandered with my video camera through the countryside of Switzerland, always close to the suburbs of little Swiss towns. I recorded everything that looked legendary, incredible, eerie or just frightening. This means I didn’t search for images, rather the legends came to my images. The image-fragments are carefully selected out of all those suspicious facts so the images have an enjoyable anti-narrative interaction towards various imaginations of the viewer. This image-signs link easy with the voice of the storyteller and create for their part another new content. Most of these tales describe short incidents or occurrences. There is a hunger-demon which eats his own heel, a burning man in a toolbox, a nightmare creature called “Toggeli“, a horse without head, processions of dead people, poor souls and many more spooky things and creatures. It is important to know that the background of these accounts is the material misery and threatening circumstances in the Alps and not a psychological romanticism of effulgent mountaineers.”
    
     
11. Cultural Quarter, by Mike Stubbs (United Kingdom, 2003, 10’21”)
    “Cultural Quarter” presents the relationships of observation in the city to its citizens, whilst begging ethical questions on surveillance, the gaze and human behaviour. It exposes some of the gaps between developers' dreams and citizen’s perceptions of what cultural space means and how to use it.
    
     
12. A Cup of Tea, by Maurice Lai (Hong Kong, 2003, 10’)
    One night, a gang of four dancers suddenly find themselves working in a local teahouse. Entering the scene is a pretty blonde girl who quickly become their object of attraction...
    
     
13. Princess Cheung Ping, by Kong Kee (Hong Kong, 2004, 6’14” in Chinese with English subtitles)
    This is an animation, which uses a different attitude to express the author’s impression toward the Chinese opera - Princess Cheung Ping, a dramatic love story in the vein of Romeo and Juliet. Princess Cheung Ping tries to imbue the dynamical language of Chinese opera with visual elements.
     
14. Frantic, by Jung-Chul Hur (Korea, 2004, 5’21”) The footage in this film comes from a seacoast town in Thailand called Bang Poo. The place is well known for having an abundance of migratory gulls and terns. It is also a popular domestic tourist destination famous for its seafood restaurants.
    
    The footage was digitally modified and duplicated, and, through mirrored imagery, alluding to a kaleidoscopic whole. In the beginning, we, the viewer, can anticipate images of bird motion. However, soon after, the image of the birds starts to create a visual vortex. The viewer encounters a massive bombardment of these images. The images then approach the boundary of readability. Sounds were recorded at the same time as the images were filmed. Sounds from the birds and voices from people watching the gulls blend together. Thai viewers will understand that some voices in the film are of children shouting mostly about food as if they are in a feeding frenzy much like the birds. Sounds of frantic birds merge with human voices to synchronize with the kaleidoscopic imagery.
    
    The film takes a benign view towards the subject allowing the viewer to identify with the film’s frenetic activity.
     

(ii) Portuguese Video Cycle
Co-organized with Videoteca da Câmara Municipal de Lisboa (Lisbon Municipal Video Library) (Portugal)
Curator: Lurdes Lopes
General Coordinator: António Cunha

Part I (*)

1. Guitarra com Gente Lá Dentro (Guitar With People Inside), by Edgar Pêra (2003, 13’27”)

2. Amália Por Nós (Amália for Us), by Rita Nunes (1998, 5’)

3. Uma Linha Vertical e Duas Mãos (One Vertical Line and Two Hands), by Pedro Sena Nunes (2004, 12’40”)

4. Abraço do Vento (Wind’s Embrace), by José Miguel Ribeiro (2004, 2’34”)

5. Em Fátima Rezei por Ti (In Fátima I Prayed for You), by Gonçalo C. Luz (1999, 17’24”)
 

Part II (*)

6. 5 cm Para a Morte (5 CM To Death), by Claúdia Bandeira (2003, 3’14”)

7. Clareira (Clearing In The Woods), by Sandra Dias (2001, 4’10”)

8. Eskynas Agudas (Sharp Corners), by Edgar Pêra (1999, 10’40”)

9. Selfportdate, by Nuno Maya (2002, 1’20”)

10. Eye Spy, by Alex Mendes e Lena Silva (2003, 4’05”)

11. Who´s There?, by Pedro Azevedo (2002, 9’30”)

12. Remains, by Sandro Aguilar (2002, 12’24”)

13. Keep Mooving 2, by Edgar Pêra (2004, 5’50”) - World Premiere

(*) Category A – Suitable for all ages.
(**) Category B – Not suitable for young persons under 13 years old.

19/3
4:30pm: The Power of Creativity Part I (includes introduction by the curator)
6pm: The Power of Creativity Part II (includes introduction by the curator)

20/3
4:30pm: Portuguese Video Cycle Part I (includes introduction by the curator)
6pm: Portuguese Video Cycle Part II (includes introduction by the curator)

25/3
8pm: The Power of Creativity Part I
9:15pm: Portuguese Video Cycle Part I

26/3
4:30pm: Portuguese Video Cycle Part II
5:45pm: The Power of Creativity Part II

(ii) Portuguese Video Cycle

Programme Notes

1. Guitarra com Gente Lá Dentro (Guitar With People Inside), by Edgar Pêra (2003, 13’27” – in Portuguese with English and Chinese subtitles)
   Another film of the great Southwestern saga in which Pêra brings together the western and fado. Pêra mixes the voice of the famous Portuguese guitar player Carlos Paredes addressing his audience in 1984, with the music of Tó Trips’ Dead Combo.
   
    
2. Amália Por Nós (Amália for Us), by Rita Nunes (1998, 5’ – in Portuguese with English and Chinese subtitles)
   About “Barco Negro“ (Black Boat), sung by Amália, playback of dozens of people singing this song one after the other: Amália, voice of the people.
   
    
3. Uma Linha Vertical e Duas Mãos (One Vertical Line and Two Hands), by Pedro Sena Nunes (2004, 12’40”- in Portuguese with Chinese subtitles)
   I have an old, timeless image that I keep, as guitars were kept, in a box with stickers on the lid. It’s the image of a Portuguese guitar being hugged by a man. His hands lie on the guitar and they whisper to him: “Whoever takes from me a guitar that can moan and cry, takes everything from me."
   
   Two pieces of music. Sound of the images. The magic of a man. Random words, lost in the spell of Carlos Paredes’ perpetual movements.
   
    
4. Abraço do Vento (Wind’s Embrace), by José Miguel Ribeiro (2004, 2’34”)
   In a world where iron and land mix themselves creating unexpected cities, the wind blows life among leaves in the eternal rebirth cycle.This is the wind's embrace.
    
5. Em Fátima Rezei por Ti (In Fátima I Prayed for You), by Gonçalo C. Luz (1999, 17’24” - in Portuguese with English and Chinese subtitles)
   Experimental film about 13 May at the Fátima Sanctuary and the belief in the apparition of Our Lady. Work reflecting on the Catholic figure, faith and its ritual.
   
    
6. 5 cm Para a Morte (5 CM To Death), by Claúdia Bandeira (2003, 3’14”)
   Life on a knife-edge. A reflection on the closeness of life between death and love.
   
    
7. Clareira (Clearing In The Woods), by Sandra Dias (2001, 4’10” - in English with Chinese subtitles)
   In a ski platform, two men wait for someone who will never arrive. Minutes later, inside of the returning elevator, they remember the waiting period.
   The artist says:
   I was strongly impressed by a visit to Poland, a country who apparently stop in time, with a recent memory of violence, war and repression. I conceived and directed this video based on memories and impressions of a place full of silence and distant voices lost in the landscape. It was built around the idea of memory, trying to reconstruct a same place according different ways of looking to it. Like traces transcending an inevitable lost and replacing them for new images.
   
    
8. Eskynas Agudas (Sharp Corners), by Edgar Pêra (1999, 10’40” - in Portuguese with Chinese subtitles)
   Prelyminary Cinetyk Study. Protofilm inspyred in I – Ching: each side of the korner reprezents a trigram from the Book of Mutations.
   
    
9. Selfportdate, by Nuno Maya (2002, 1’20”)
   In just one minute, Selfportdate runs through the transformations in a face over the course of a year.
   
    
10. Eye Spy, by Alex Mendes e Lena Silva (2003, 4’05” - in English with Chinese subtitles)
    A pixel as a perfectly square dot. A body as a perfect place. A sign as a direction. A machine as God. A TV as a meeting point. She’s on the auto-pilot...
    
     
11. Who´s There?, by Pedro Azevedo (2002, 9’30” - in English with Chinese subtitles)
    Four people inhabit the same house and the same fear.
    The ever-growing sensation of being watched leads to a state of permanent vigilance, of which we are all simultaneously agents and victims.
    
     
12. Remains, by Sandro Aguilar (2002, 12’24”)
    Everything threatens to crack and yet this devouring march happened long ago in the past. There is no moaning in the room next door, the wind has stopped blowing on the stairs, the air particles throw themselves against each other, but it’s only void against void.
    
     
13. Keep Mooving 2, by Edgar Pêra (2004, 5’50”) - World Premiere
    Keep Mooving: Film demo. Super 8 Cine - Diaries shot at Shangai & Beijing. 1 oktober 2004. 55 years of Re-volution. Sponsor: ZDB (Zé dos Bois Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal)
    
     

Lisbon Municipal Council Library Video
The Lisbon Municipal Council Video Library, created in 1991 and opened in June 92, is an example of innovative cultural equipment aimed at stimulating pedagogical, didactic, artistic and creative exploitation of the audiovisual media in general and of video in particular, thereby extending and diversifying the means of access to culture, knowledge and individual realisation.

To fulfil its mission, the Municipal Video Library has developed intense cultural activity in the cinema and audiovisual areas, based on a group of interrelated and complementary central guiding principals, including the constant realisation of exhibitions, cycles, premiers, debates, encounters and retrospectives, the production of documentaries on Lisbon-related themes, people, subjects and happenings, a wide array of initiatives especially aimed at children in Lisbon schools, and the provision of various training activities.

Its intense daily activity is complemented by a video archive of over 7,000 titles, freely available for study purposes, consultation and viewing. The database may be consulted on-line at www.videotecalisboa.org.

Biographical Notes

Hanspeter Ammann, Curator
Born 1953 in Zurich, Switzerland he started his artistic career some twenty years ago when video art was not yet well established in Europe.
He has produced a major body of work since 1979, which has been exhibited in many places around the globe, both in museums and on TV stations.

His work has been shown in Frankfurt, Germany (Phönix, 1981); Locarno Switzerland (International Video Festival, 1982); Montreal, Canada (Video 84); New York (FRI.ART, 1985); Linz, Austria (Ars Electronica, 1987); Lisbon, Portugal (Transformações, 1990); Porto, (Fundação de Serralves, 1994); Grenoble, France (MAGASIN, 1996); Helsinki, Finland (Av Ark 1996); Amsterdam, Holland (Rialto, 1997); Poland, Warsaw (British Council, 1999); São Paulo, Brasil (Itau Cultural, 1999); Hong Kong (Microwave, 1999); London, England (LUX, 2000); Barcelona, Spain (OVNI, 2000); Utrecht, Holland (Impakt, 2001), Mexico (VIDARTE, 2002) and Barcelona, Spain, (CCCB 2003) to name just a few.

His videos have been broadcasted on many European stations and he has won several first prizes in International competitions. In order to promote this exciting but still relatively young form of artistic expression he started to curate international video art shows for museums and festivals.

His links to Macao go back some years, when he started to lead courses for the IEEM and gradually fell madly in love with the territory and its people.

Lurdes Cardoso Lopes, Curator
Lurdes Lopes was born in Lisbon in 1973. In 1996 she finished her Degree in Communication Sciences (specialising in Cinema) at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In 2000/2001 she took a post-graduate course at Barcelona University in Cultural Management and Policies and is currently doing a Master’s in Contemporary Culture and New Technology at University Nova de Lisboa. She has also studied Video and Documentary.

She has extensive experience in cinema clubs and since 1996 has worked in the Lisbon municipal video library. In exercising this function she organises several Cinema and Video Shows to be viewed both in Portugal and abroad. She is part of the management board of VideoLisboa – Lisbon International Video Festival. She has been a judge at various festivals.