This section attempts to give curators and programmers some advice about researching, sourcing and exhibiting artists' moving image work. You can also see our 'study' section (on the menu on the left) for more detailed information on researching work in this area. Finally, please let us know if you have any comments or wish to suggest anything else for this page which might be useful to curators, please email info@lux.org.uk
Select a subject from the menu below, or scroll down the page:
Finding Artists' film and video | Directories of artists' film and video | Approaching Distributors | International Distributors of artists' film and video | Galleries | Festivals | Presenting work
Finding Artists' film and video
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Sadly there are no fully comprehensive directories of artists' film
and video with their locations, so finding particular titles can often involve
a fair degree of detective work. Obviously it is worth searching on the internet,
and the following hyperlinks in the 'Directories' section (next section down
on this page) should be especially be helpful.
Directories of artists' film and video
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These are online directories/databases that list works and sometimes their
locations, as well as other contextual material:
British Artists' Filmographies 1920 - 2000
www.studycollection.org.uk
The AHRB Centre for British Film and Television Studies, Central Saint Martins,
London, UK
Ongoing project to create a comprehensive filmography of British artists' film
and video including single screen and installation work as well as current
locations.
Early Video Project, USA
davidsonsfiles.org
Resources and tape lists for late 1960s and early 1970s US video art.
Film and Video Art Information, Western Connecticut State University,
USA
vax.wcsu.edu/~mccarney/fva/fva.html
Information on international film and video artists, filmographies and bibliographies
mostly written by university students.
Iota Center, Los Angeles, USA
www.iotacenter.org
The Iota Center is an organisation which preserves and promotes the art of
abstract animation. They hold a large collection of materials at their center
and are currently developing an online database of abstract animators and their
work.
Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, Slovenia
www.ljudmila.org/
Excellent portal for information on digital arts in Slovenia and Eastern Europe.
New Media Encyclopedia
www.newmedia-arts.org
Useful catalogue of works and events based on the collections of the Centre
Georges Pompidou, the Museum Ludwig and the Centre pour L'image Contemporaine.
OVID Internet database for experimental film and video art, Werkleitz
Gesellschaft, Germany
www.werkleitz.de/ovid
Large database of international experimental film and video works drawn from
festivals and international distributors, which includes genre/subject classifications
and synopsis of works.
Video History Project, Experimental TV Center, USA
experimentaltvcenter.org/history
Research resources concerning the the history of video art and community television
in the USA.
Approaching Distributors
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There are a number of international distributors for artists' film and video
work, mainly dealing with single-screen work, but some also list installations,
CD-Roms and sound pieces. Most have very useful online catalogues which often
include detailed information about works, biographies of artists and sometimes
clips. All will hire work for screenings and exhibitions often on a variety
of formats and many will also sell works to institutions.
There is certain amount of crossover in terms of the work they have although each distributor has its own focus (we have tried to give some idea of this below). Distributors will usually charge a hire fee for a work to be screened and will have a sliding scale of pricing to deal with such things as extended exhibition periods and gallery installation. All of the distributors of artists' film and video are not-for-profit organisations who have contractual relationships with the artists to represent their work, will pay a percentage royalty on each hire or sale direct to the artist.
In terms of approaching distributors it is a good idea to research their catalogue in the first instance especially as most of them now have these available on their websites. All distributors have staff that know their collections well, so it is worth contacting them with specific programming enquiries, especially when looking for work that deals with particular subject matter. All distributors have viewing facilities onsite to preview work, and some will provide preview tapes for a small fee (although this is usually discretionary and often limited to institutions).
If you wish to hire work from a distributor give as much notice as possible, at least 3 weeks, because of the time it takes to process and ship orders. Also it is important to note that many require payment in advance of shipping and may require you to supply a courier account number to ship the works from and back to them. In terms of the works themselves you will also need to arrange insurance while they are onsite and in transit.
International Distributors of artists' film and
video
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235 Media
Cologne, Germany
www.235media.com
German and international video art
Argos
Belgium
www.argosarts.org
Belgian video art
AV-Arkki
Helsinki, Finland
www.av-arkki.fi
Finnish media arts
British Film Institute
London, UK
www.bfi.org.uk
International experimental film
Bureau des Videos
Paris, France
www.bureaudesvideos.com
International artists' video
Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center
Toronto, Canada
www.cfmdc.org
Canadian and international experimental film
Canyon Cinema
San Francisco, USA
www.canyoncinema.com
US and international experimental film
Cinenova
London, UK
www.cinenova.org.uk
UK and international Women's cinema
Collectif Jeune Cinema
Paris, France
www.cjcinema.org
International experimental film
Danish Video Art Databank
Haslev, Denmark
www.videoart.suite.dk/videobank
Danish video art
Electronic Arts Intermix
New York, USA
www.eai.org
US and international video art
Filmbank
Netherlands
www.filmbank.nl
Dutch experimental film
Filmform
Sweden
www.filmform.com
Swedish experimental film
Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek
Germany
www.fdk-berlin.de/verleih
German and international experimental film
Heure Exquiste!
Lille, France
www.exquise.org
French and international video art
Image Forum
Toyko, Japan
www.imageforum.co.jp
Japanese experimental film and video
Independent Exposure
www.microcinema.com
international touring programmes
The Kitchen
www.thekitchen.org
US video art
Lightcone
Paris, France
fmp.lightcone.org:8000/lightcone
French and international experimental film
LUX
London, UK
www.lux.org.uk
UK and international experimental film and video art
Montevideo
Amsterdam, Netherlands
www.montevideo.nl
Dutch and international video art
Museum of Modern Art
Circulating Film and Video Library, New York, USA
www.moma.org/docs/collection/filmvideo/studycenters
US experimental film and video
New York Filmmaker's Co-op
New York, USA
www.film-makerscoop.com
US and international experimental film
Sixpackfilm
Vienna, Austria
www.sixpackfilm.com
Austrian experimental film
V Tape
Canada
www.vtape.org
Canadian video art
Video Data Bank
Chicago, USA
www.vdb.org
US and international video art
Video Out
Canada
www.video-in.com
Canadian video art
Videographe
Canada
www.videographe.qc.ca
Canadian video art
Women Make Movies
USA
www.wmm.com
Galleries
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There are no real standard arrangements for accessing works that are held in
gallery collections; it really depends on the individual gallery and the artist
in question as well as the context in which you are proposing to exhibit it.
The main difference to be aware of is commercial galleries that represent particular
artists and public galleries and museums that may hold particular works in
their collection.
Commercial galleries are usually more flexible and will usually involve the artist in the negotiations. In the case of one-off screenings these may often be dealt with in a fairly ad hoc manner as this is not usually a very important part of their business. Furthermore, commercial galleries will usually be more interested in larger scale exhibition projects. In the case of small screenings it may often be worth contacting the artist directly.
Large public galleries and museums are much slower to react to enquiries and the process of loaning work can be slow (up to six months in advance is sometimes needed) and may have restrictions on who they can make loans to.
In terms of cost, you should at least expect to cover the cost of shipping, insurance and technical preparation that is needed to facilitate the loan. In terms of fees, this varies dramatically from free to very expensive, and may depend on the nature of your exhibition.
One of the real difficulties is trying to find out which gallery represents which artist, or which gallery holds a particular work in their collection. The best place to start is on the internet. In terms of finding out about a particular artist's gallery representation, check to see where they have been having shows: there are a number of good international portal sites which list past and future shows. One of the most useful is The Gallery Channel, at www.thegallerychannel.com, that has a good archive and powerful search functions.
It is rather more difficult researching for particular works in collections. Again, a general internet search may be the best thing to do first, as many of the major galleries and museums have full listings of their collections online. It may also be worth trying a major portal site such as the US Librarian's Index of the Internet, at www.lii.org, that has more links to many of the large international museums and galleries.
There are a few galleries and museums that offer onsite public viewing facilities for their film and video collections - these include:
Georges Pompidou Centre
Paris, France
www.cnac-gp.fr
ZKM
Karlsruhe, Germany
www.zkm.de
Centre for Contemporary Images
Geneva, Switzerland
www.centreimage.ch
More resources are listed in the 'UK screening venues' and 'International screening venues' sections in the Links page, in Resources.
Festivals
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Festivals are a very good way of seeing a large amount of work in one place
at one time. There are a huge amount of festivals all over the world, all with
different characters and showing different work, and there are a number which
specialise particularly in artists' film and video work.
Many of these events offer accreditation passes for curators that usually give free entry to the screenings. Most also offer other facilities which are very useful to curators such as viewing rooms that allow you to look at tapes of the works in the festival (essential for those with limited time), information on print or tape sources and sales, and visitor contacts lists which make it possible to arrange meetings while at the event.
Even if you cannot visit the festivals, many of them have good websites which have comprehensive information on the works included and the print/tape sources, which make them a great place to find information and track down works.
There are a number of 'portal' (search) sites for festival lists including:
Video Art Suite
www.videoart.suite.dk/videofestivals
An excellent listing of experimental and video based events
The British Council Film Department
www.britfilms.com/festivals
Guide to international film festivals, broader based with more focus on mainstream
festivals.
European Film Festivals
www.eurofilmfest.org
Flicker
www.Hi-beam.net
A great portal site for experimental film and video maintained by US artist
Scott Stark, with artist pages, notice boards and comprehensive links.
Frameworks
www.hi-beam.net/fw.html
Lively discussion list based around experimental film and a great place to
find advice when trying to track down work.
Festival sites:
Alternativa
Barcelona, Spain
alternativa.cccb.org
Biennial of Moving Images
Saint-Gervais Geneva, Switzerland
www.centreimage.ch/bim
Clemont-Ferrand Short Film Festival
France
www.clermont-filmfest.com
Dallas Video Festival
USA
www.videofest.org
European Media Art Festival
Osnabruck, Germany
www.emaf.de
Image Forum Festival
Japan
www.imageforum.co.jp
Impakt Festival
Utrecht, Netherlands
www.impakt.nl
Images Festival
Toronto
www.imagesfestival.com
International Media Art Prize ZKM
Karlsruhe, Germany
www.swr.de/medienkunstpreis
Kasseler Documentary and Video Festival
www.filmladen.de/dokfest
London Film Festival
UK
www.rlff.com
Mediawave
Gyor, Hungary
www.mediawavefestival.com
Microwave Festival
Hong Kong
www.videotage.org.hk
Montreal Festival of New Cinema and New Media (FCMM)
Canada
www.fcmm.com
Mostra de Video Independent & Fenomens Interactius (OVNI)
www.cccb.org/ovni
New York Film/ Video Festivals
www.filmlinc.com
Oberhausen International Short Film Festival
Germany
www.kurzfilmtage.de
Rotterdam International Film Festival
www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com
Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival
www.kinoforum.org/shorts
Split Festival of New Film
Croatia
public.st.carnet.hr/split-filmfest
Stuttgart Filmwinter
Germany
www.filmwinter.de
Tampere Film Festival
Finland
www.tamperefilmfestival.fi
Transmediale
Berlin, Germany
www.transmediale.de
Videobrasil
www.videobrasil.org.br
VideoEx
Zurich, Switzerland
www.videoex.ch
Vila do Conde International Short Film Festival
Portugal
www.curtasmetragens.pt
Viper
Basel, Germany
www.viper.ch
WRO
Wroclaw, Poland
www.wro.art.pl
Presenting Work
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Two non-commercial organisations that can help you to actually exhibit work
if you need equipment:
Film and Video Umbrella
London, UK
www.fvumbrella.com
LCD Projectors, DVD players, plasma screens, touch screens
Glasgow Media Access Centre
Glasgow, UK
www.g-mac.co.uk
Video, 16mm, Super 8 projectors and video decks
Insight Lighting
London, UK
www.insightlighting.co.uk
Video projectors, 16mm, 8mm, slide projectors, lighting, video decks and monitors
Halo Presentations
London, UK
www.haloco.co.uk
Video projectors, 16mm, 8mm, slide projectors, lighting, video decks and monitors.
SPECIAL RATES FOR ARTISTS AND GALLERIES
Kino Club
London, UK
Email: d.leister@virgin.net
Run by film-maker/performance artist David Leister, Kino Club provides best
technical advice and projectionists for film exhibition, and hires exhibition
equipment including 16mm, 8mm and slide projectors, screens and 16mm loop formers
for long term exhibition of gallery loops.
Lumen
Leeds
www.lumen.net
Video projectors, video decks, computers
MITES
Liverpool, UK
www.mites.org.uk
Hires a range of video projectors, monitors, and video decks at subsidised
rates. MITES also provides a very competitively priced DVD burning service.
They also publish a very useful guide to exhibition technologies, The Mites
Manual available directly from them.
Picture This Moving Image
Bristol, UK
www.picturethismovingimage.co.uk
Video projectors, monitors and video decks
XRay Hire
London, UK
Tel: 020 7 739 8747
email: info@xrayhire.co.uk
www.xrayhire.co.uk
Specialises in video projection systems and new media equipment. They can provide
consultation, technical support and related services.
