Media Art Net | Videorebellen: Video rebels: 'West Protest'

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Videorebellen «Video rebels: 'West Protest'» | West Protest

Videorebellen, «Video rebels: 'West Protest'», 1981
West Protest | Photograph: Dieter Daniels | © Videorebellen

Scenes shot in the artists’ own ‘ATV Studio’ alternate with footage showing the opening of the ‘Western Art’ exhibition and placing the show’s organizers under ironic fire. Finally, the years 1971 to 1981, which the exhibition ignored, are symbolically crossed out.

Categories: Video | Television

Keywords: Counter Culture

Germany | Archive / Collection: Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), Mainz

Videorebellen
«Video rebels: 'West Protest'»

Appearing under the name 'Video Rebels' in ZDF television's arts programme 'Aspekte' on 5 June 1981, Klaus vom Bruch, Rune Mields, Marcel Odenbach and Ulrike Rosenbach humorously protest against the large-scale 'Westkunst' ('Western Art') exhibition running in Cologne at the time. Conceived as a survey of contemporary art since 1939, the show ignored the developments of the 1970s, and video art in particular. Television makers were on the video artists' side in this particular case, and offered them a forum for their criticism. The reporter visits the artists’ ‘ATV-Studio’ with a request for a statement.