Africa Reflected, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam

At the beginning of 2009 the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA) team started a research project under the title ‘Africa Reflected’. This project looks closely at representations of Africa within contemporary art production, with the aim of finding alternatives to predominantly stereotypical mass media representations. The research is designed to arrive at a critical discourse: it is after all about how our images of Africa are shaped, and how we seek to nuance this with the support of visual art, and not about ‘development work’ which reinforces the average European citizen’s dominant image of Africa.

Participing curators : Kobena Mercer, Simon Njami, Didier Schaub, Nontobeko (Nonto) Ntombela Mabong, Koyo Kouoh, Oyinda Fakeye.

Participating artists: Jude Anogwih, Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, Theo Eshetu, Achilleka Komguem, Vincent Meessen, Emeka Ogboh, Mark Aerial Waller,...

Various locations : SMBA/ Montevideo/Maison Descartes

October 12-14, 2009.

30 participants : see the SMBA website for details.

Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival, Germany

26th Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival, November 10 - 15, 2009

Impakt Festival, Utrecht (The Netherlands)

The 20th edition of Impakt festival will take place from October 14 through October 18 in Utrecht. For the Accelerated Living program, Impakt invited two guest curators : Stoffel Debuysere and Maria Palacios. Their program include works by Bruce Conner, Dryden Goodwin, Philip Hoffman, Gordon Matta-Clark, Kurt Kren, Michel Pavlou and many more.

Next to the thematic program of Accelerated Living, the Festival features the annual panorama program which provides an annual overview of contemporary cutting edge film and video art. It includes new works by artits and filmakers such as Doug Fishbone, Steve Reinke, Manuel Sainz, Björn Melhus, Vincent Meessen, Yves Netzhammer, Erkka Nissinen,...

KunsFilmBiennale, Köln/Bonn

As a unique combination of exhibition and festival, presenting short and feature-length, experimental and narrative film, the Cologne-based KunstFilmBiennale has since 2002 systematically been exploring the borders between art and cinema. From October 28 to November 1, 2009, The KunstFilmBiennale will once again offer an overview of what is currently happening with film in art and art in film - in movie thetares, galleries and museums in Cologne and Bonn.

Participing artists : Doug Aitken, Eija-Liisa Athila, Keren Cytter, Nathalie Djurberg, Bruno Dumont, Omer Fast, Adam Leech, Mark Lewis, Vincent Meessen, Samuel Maoz, Deimantas Narkevicius, Bjorn Melhus, Sarah Morris, Sam Taylor-Wood, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Javier Tellez, Clemens von Wedemeyer,...

Venues in Cologne : Filmforum im MuseumLudwig, CINEDOM, Filmpalette

Venues in Bonn : Kunstmuseum Bonn

Cabinet Jurino / Potential Estate, MuHKA extra muros, Antwerp

Ars Electronica, Linz (Austria)

Argos is one of the eight European media art archives and collections that is networked within the GAMA portal (Gateway to Archives of Media Art). As such, this provides a common online research platform and an improved access to media art. On the occasion of the launch of www.gama-gateway.eu at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, highlights from the archive collections are being screened. Argos’ director Paul Willemsen compiled for the occasion works relating to the programme theme Psychogeographies. The term psychogeography refers to the architectural or geographical surroundings and the way that these relate to perception and mental experience. A psychogeographical analysis starts from the exposure of relationships, relating a genuine, material environment to an imaginary or potential environment. Each work investigates questions of: documentary versus fiction, private versus public, and the real versus the imagined.

Psychogeographies

Brucknerhaus, September 5 - 8, 2009

A Necessary Music. Beatrice Gibson, 2008, 29'09", video, colour, English spoken.

N12°13.062'/ W 001°32.619' Extended. Vincent Meessen, 2005, video, colour, 8'25", sound.

What I'm Looking For. Shelly Silver, 2004, video, colour, 15'00", English spoken.

Dear Adviser. Vincent Meessen, 2008, video, colour, 8'00", English spoken.

Inch'Allah. Ria Pacquée, 2005, video, colour, 18'40", English spoken.