By Mia Saavedra

I discovered experimental film the first time I watched Chris Marker’s La Jetee (The Jetty, 1962). After countless hours in a film editing class where I was splicing together my first one-minute film on a reel-to-reel, I was amazed at how Marker told a story involving memory, love, and an apocalypse using entirely still photos. La Jetee was a seminal film in Marker’s career, one that enabled him to establish his own cinematic vocabulary. Chris Marker is one of the many influential artists in Miami Art Central’s (MAC) exhibit Video: An Art, A History, which is scheduled to open on September 15th and close December 10th.

Curated by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Video: An Art, A History will make its only US appearance at MAC, which is quickly becoming one of the city’s premiere venues for viewing major traveling art exhibitions. The Centre Pompidou houses the world’s largest collection of video art thanks to its Media Arts Curator Christine Van Assche, who began building the collection in 1992. When Rina Carvajal, MAC’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, heard of the exhibit in Paris, she contacted the Centre Pompidou and began working to bring the show to Miami. “Covering the history of contemporary art is something that is important to MAC, and I look for shows that help me do that. Once an audience is exposed to a certain level of art, they will be more demanding of what is presented to them”, says Carvajal. She is passionate about art and about what she does as a curator, and it shows in the quality of the exhibits Miami Art Central has undertaken in the short time its been open. In Video: An Art, A History viewers will be able to see work by art world heavyweights Nam June Paik, Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman, Dara Birnbaum, Bill Viola, Stan Douglas, and Dan Graham. Also included in the roster are cinematic pioneers like Chris Marker and Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary film and video artists such as Issac Julien, Mark Leckey, and Cui Xiuwen.



The exhibit is structured into five categories that outline the most important themes in the history of the medium from 1965 until 2005. The first, An Imaginative Television, highlights artists who have used the television set as an object in installations or sculptures, as well as those who have used television and filmmaking procedures as ways of commenting on the medium itself. Quests for Identity, draws attention to artists who use video or film as a medium for performance. From Videotape to Installation showcases those who use video as an interactive medium between the artist and the viewer. The fourth category, Post Cinema, deals with work that challenges the traditional narrative structure of filmmaking. The final category, Prospective Researches: Between Visual Arts and Documentaries, focuses on work that combines the story-telling aspect of the documentary with an artist’s vocabulary. Here is a quick rundown of what to expect in Video: An Art, A History.

The Artists

In his introduction to the catalogue of the retrospective The Worlds of Nam June Paik, the Guggenheim Museum’s John Hanhardt credits Paik for being one of the first artists to establish electronic media as an art form. “Paik envisioned a different television, a ‘global groove’ of artists expressions seen as part of an ‘electronic superhighway’ that would be open and free to everyone.” Beginning with his involvement in Fluxus’ 1963 exhibit Exposition of Music / Electronic Television and continuing on into the 2000’s, the late Nam June Paik created art out of what Hanhardt believes was his innate interest in performance and composition. Included in Miami Art Central’s exhibit is Paik’s Moon is the Oldest TV (1965) and Global Groove (1973), two of Paik’s most important pieces in his artistic trajectory.

Also included in the exhibit is work by Vito Acconci, the art world’s “Man in Black”, according to The Village Voice’s Jerry Salz. In the ‘70’s, Acconci’s controversial films and videos focused on the performance he played out on screen and how it interacted with the viewer. Coined as ‘action art’ Acconci’s work during this period was raw and confrontational. Viewers at MAC will be able to see Turn On (1973), a provocative performance where Acconci wrestles with his audience the reasons and methods to making art. While Acconci now dedicates himself to creative architecture, his famously brash video performance pieces are an integral part of the history of the medium.

Like Acconci, Bruce Nauman’s work also deals with the act of creating art rather than the final product. In the acclaimed PBS series Art: 21, Nauman describes the moment he realized that the “art” was in the process: “ If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art. At this point, art became more of an activity and less of a product.” Nauman’s Stamping in the Studio (1968) highlights this point exactly by showing the artist, from an inverted angle, literally stomping around in his studio, creating a primal beat with his footsteps. This piece, as well as Going around the Corner Piece (1970), will be shown in MAC’s exhibit.

Another video art pioneer whose work will be at MAC is Bill Viola. Viola’s work is crucial in this historical review of the medium. Reverse Television (1983-1984) was a project created for public television’s WGBH in Boston. The piece directly comments on the gaze of the television viewer by showing different individuals in the Boston area sitting in their living rooms staring blankly into the camera as if watching TV. The result is the viewer becomes the subject and the subject the viewer.

The exhibit also features work by French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard. Famous for working on the fly, Godard’s Scenario du Film “Passion” (1982) is the filmmaker’s “video script” of the film’s namesake. For him it was an exercise in getting an idea of what he wanted out of the film and the actors, but for viewers it is an insight into Godard’s creative process. Also on exhibit will be British artist Mark Leckey’s cult video art hit Fiorucci Made me Hardcore (1999), a piece that explores the history of club life in London, Issac Julien’s Baltimore (2003), which earned him the Grand Jury Prize at the Kunstfilm Biennale in Cologne, and Chinese artist Cui Xiuwen’s Lady’s (2000), a voyeuristic piece that focuses on what female prostitutes in China do when no one’s looking.

Part of what makes this exhibit so important are the public programs that accompany it. As with all the exhibits at MAC, Executive Director and Chief Curator Rina Carvajal and her team produce weeks worth of panels discussions, film festivals, workshops, and lectures to supplement each show. “The theoretical part of each exhibit is very important to MAC. In producing these public programs we are contributing to provoking critical thinking about the arts in Miami”, notes Carvajal. Indeed, Miami Art Central produces an enormous amount of supplemental programming for its members and the public, which is partly why there is no other place to view art quite like it in Miami. While it is technically a museum, it has no permanent collection so the curatorial staff is able to focus more on new exhibits, artists, and programs. A film festival, as well as various lectures and discussions will accompany the exhibit. During Art Basel Miami Beach, MAC will host a panel discussion presented by Parachute contemporary art magazine to present Parazone Miami: Borders and Territories, a debate and discussion on the emerging arts in Havana, Cuba. MAC will also produce a panel discussion called Curating, Collecting, and Conserving Video Art. Video: An Art, A History is sure to be one of the best exhibits of this year.