28.08.2024, 19:00-21:00, live DJ performance

After the start of the war in Ukraine in spring 2022, the Videocity team was corresponding with Ukrainian artists. From our exchange, we learned that we can help by giving their works a presence in the art world. So, we showed Ukrainian video art in Basel and Bern, followed by exhibitions in other places.

In the third year of the war, we ask – what is the role and task of art and cultural workers in the face of a war that continues and has become an “everyday normality" in its monstrosity?

Despite the barriers, we try to work together, discuss works of art and support artists in the war zone in producing new works. The fact that this has been successful is almost a miracle in view of the absurdity of different everyday experiences. As the war continues, we believe it is important to show Ukrainian artists as often as possible in order to share their perspectives and to stand by their side.

Artists: Copa & Sordes, Maksym Khodak, Olia Fedorova, Yana Bachynska, Sergey Bratkov, Diana Derii, Marina Dykukha

Curators: the Videocity Team

Live-ACT: DJs u&me4ever: Stefan Geissler & Walter Seidl interpret the videos, which are shown without their own soundtrack, musically by reacting to the flow of images in front of the audience and turning the cycle into a unique new sound and space experience.

Previously
25.01.2023, live DJ performance

You are being watched. Whether by another’s gaze or an artificial lens, rarely a moment goes by uncaptured in today’s world. The visual information we receive profoundly shapes our worldviews yet is infallibly susceptible to our own subjective experiences and beliefs. Our understanding of sight and its relation to our beings has only been complicated by digital immediacy and the prevalence of technology. What was once a question of reality phrased in relation to not being seen, is now phrased in relation to not being documented, as being “seen” has taken on a completely new meaning in the wake of personal cameras, surveillance devices and digital media platforms. Technology has not only duplicated the realms of our existence, the physical and the digital, but it has also proliferated questions of consent and ethics. Most profoundly, it has left us wondering whether the consent to being susceptible to the “public eye” also extends to being subjected to CCTV cameras and other surveillance measures, and whether such surveillance measures are conscionable to begin with. “eye_view,” the theme of the evening depicts the multifarious “Big Brother” situations that have subtly emerged in our physical and digital lives. Getting away from this reality is also no longer possible with regard to a “Big Sister” situation. 

Artists: Yana Bachynska, Sergey Bratkov, Marina Dykukha, Olia Fedorova, Maksym Khodak, Mykola Ridnyi.

Curators: Andrea Domesle, Walter Seidl.

DJs: u&me4ever: Stefan Geissler & Walter Seidl.