Instants Vidéo 2012

The 25° Instants vidéo will stand Marseille on 6th to 17th november 2012, and, from October in several cities in the world: Oran, Cairo, Beirut, ....

Les Instants Vidéo in Milan from 6 to 24 november: http://www.dotbox.it/main/

see a part of Instants Vidéo screening on Visual Container TV until the end of november on : http://www.visualcontainer.tv/

In Marseille, two steps of "Our World"/ international workshop will happen.

More information:
www.instantsvideo.com
http://www.facebook.com/
www.instantsvideo.com/archives/pmb/opac_css/

25th INSTANTS VIDEO (M)EDITORIAL

by Marc Mercier

« Nothing like art takes us away from the world, nothing like art brings us back to it so surely » Goethe

… AND WE ARE BEAUTIFUL

On February 21st , four young girls (The Pussy Riot) burst with guitars and sound on the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and sing a mock prayer in which they implore the Virgin Mary to chase Putin away.
They are sentenced in August of two years of penal colony for “organised gang vandalism led by religious hatred.”. They are beautiful.
During the “Spring Arts” in Marsa (Tunisia), on June 10th , Salafist factions destroyed and torn of contemporary art pieces under the watchful eye of authorities. Mid-August, the artists Nadia Jelassi and Mohamed Ben Slama are summoned by a judge for “disturbing public order” and incur an up to five years prison penalty. They are beautiful.
We dedicate to them all these 25th Instants Vidéo. And to all those who resist against commercial, military or religious tyrannies.

NO DEBT NO MASTER
In Russia, Greece, Syria, Egypt, and almost everywhere else, contemporary world is characterised by a representation crisis. Then, here and there, self-organised popular initiatives emerge, such as the Indignants movement or the so-called “Arab Spring” Revolutions.
This representation crisis not only concerns the discredit granted to politicians and institutions they are supposed to serve, but also images. Video and digital art, when they not only meet market demand, when they assume their experimental, poetic and critical vocation, may take part in the awakening of conscience and sensitivity, buried under a heap of frustration.
Either on a social or artistic level, frustration is not a consequence of unfulfilled desire. Desire is always groundless, it is a vital energy. It is the daughter of transcendence.
In its name, (God, State, Nation, Balanced Budget, Economic Growth ...), Masters of this world ask us to submit. When these false values are not active enough to maintain their illusory legitimacy, weapons take place of words (as currently in Syria). Or, in a subtler way, they contrive to make us feel collectively guilty for the poor state our lives are in.
What’s the name of this magic boot, guaranteeing social consensus and voluntary servitude, what has better resisted the ravages of time than the Athens Acropolis, the Roman Coliseum or the Angkor Khmer site ? Debt!
German language reveals the secret of its corrosive power : the word “schuld” means both debt and guilt. The sacrifices that banks charge us are the lesser of two evils given the magnitude of our sins : we had too much fun! The same scenario happens almost everywhere in Europe, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages : the one who could not pay his debt was reduced to slavery. He might compensate the creditor with something he owned, « he still has in his power, for example, his body, his wife, his freedom and even his life ... » (Nietzsche).
©rami-cd-Beyrouth
Austerity is the name given to policies that claim to reduce debt. It not only affects our purchasing power, public services and employment, it also attacks our body and our sensitivity. Our collective imagination is in danger. Animated by sad passions (resentment, racism, fear ...) men get desperate. Taking part in new emancipation processes initiated last year by our friends in the southern Mediterranean countries implies that we re-inject joyful passions in our lives, whose excesses make man greater than himself.
This idea led us to call these 25th Instants Vidéo ... and we’re beautiful! These are the last words of the video The devil by Jean-Gabriel Périot, uttered with great enthusiasm by a Black Panthers activist. A bitter and happy cry that sweeps aside the morbid slogan revolution or death, that has had its day. How revolution can be made desirable?, that is the question.

INouieAUGURA(c)TION
In this same (dis)order of idea, the central location of the festival in Marseille (The Cartonnerie at La Friche la Belle de Mai) will be on November. 7th , from 6 pm, temporarily transformed into The Excess Town Hall. After a tribute to young Greek video creation, the Mayor (Jean-Pierre Eyraud) will conduct a wedding ceremony where anybody, after having divorced Plutus (Greek god of money), will get married to Dionysos (God of passion), committing to live and love excessively. And we will be beautiful!

EUPHORIA
Relieved of the debt weight, we will open to poetronic creation euphoria. On November 6th and 7th : opening of installations and video flood in Marseille. From November 7th to 11th , at La Friche : international video programmes, performances, conferences, digital creation workshop, free meetings and delights of all kinds ...
Among adventures we invite you to, you may check if boxing for poetry is a fighting sport, reveal your urban fantasies to RedPlexus (solar) agency, taste Croatian, Swiss, Indian or Middle Eastern video creation..., practice photographic hugs, immerse yourself in the prehistoric times of the origins of cinema and video art, celebrate any decolonisation (video art as a liberation movement of images and sound) ...
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CONSTELLATIONS
If you have wings, take part in our space drifts, become meteorites crisscrossing the poetronic Instants Video constellation from October to November, in Oran, Tlemcen, Cairo, Beirut, Milan, Cordoba, Buenos Aires, Martigues, Vitrolles, Rennes and Alexandria.

GRÊVASSER
More than ever : free and open admission.
This is not the year when the Instants Vidéo attack the idolatry of Plutus, the Greek god of money, that we will start to pay for access to the artistic creation of our times. We are a service to the public. We have been demanding absolute free access to / for culture for a quarter of a century as well as education, health, water, food, shelter ...
Instants Vidéo is an invitation to grêvasser : ability to stop working to let imagination roam wherever it wants.
Beautifully yours.

Marc Mercier Juin 2012
(Translation Aline Maclet)

Les Instants Vidéo à Oran dans le cadre de Nuit Blanche:
Article in Soir d’Algérie news paper of 8 october 2012