Gerry Schum

1938 Cologne (D) – died 1973 in Düsseldorf (D); 1961–1963 studies at the German Institut für Film und Fernsehen [DIFF] in Munich and organisation of underground film festivals; 1966–1967 studies at the Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb); 1967 leaves the Academy because of restrictions; works as filmmker; in 1968 starts with the concept of a «Television Gallery» and consequently produced two major exhibitions on TV: «Land Art» (1968–1969) for Sender Freies Berlin, coining the term «Land Art» and collecting a series of related films on video, and «Identifications» for SWF Baden-Baden in 1970 (exhibition II); starts producing with video; 1971–1973 video gallery Schum in Düsseldorf; 1972 conception of a video department for the Folkwang Museum Essen.
Schum collaborated with the most advanced artists from the fields of Land Art, Concept and Process Art like Dennis Oppenheim, Lawrence Weiner, Richard Serra, Gilbert & George, Daniel Buren, Joseph Beuys, Mario Merz, Robert Smithson a.o. in developing special presentations for television. His concept of a TV gallery was meant to produce exclusively art for the medium TV and not to present the works in the traditional art context.