Accompanying program: Sculpture in Video

Traditionally, the axes of a room form part of the characteristic dimensions of sculpture. Height, width, length serve to describe and define a sculpture, which, constructed as it was from sturdy materials such as iron and bronze, was actually meant to be durable, indeed immortal. As of the mid-1960s this state of affairs, which for centuries had gone unquestioned, began to be discussed anew. Fresh ideas coupled with the new technologies that became available prompted artists to venture down new, media-oriented paths. While, on the one hand, live happenings and performances made accessible the inalienable experience of the uniqueness of corporeal presence to the audience watching the event, recording it on video offers new ways of formulating how we perceive space and time. At this historical juncture, two opposing principles (that are mutually-complementary phenomena) came together and it was only when both were considered at once that the fundamental change in the parameters of sculpture became evident. From this point onwards, sculpture was no longer rooted in the spatial dimensions, and instead could henceforth also exist in the temporal dimension. There were (and indeed still are) traditional pieces of sculpture made of stone and ore, but there likewise sculptors started to emerge who worked with photography and video, and created procedural works of art.

The artists invited to participate in the current show will be presenting their works, all of which are subject to the conditions of sculpture in the media age. The concluding panel discussion serves to probe how far we require a tangible physical experience of space and time, and likewise need the media to convey this, if we are to be able to appreciate a piece of sculpture as such. How does sculpture develop in the »wire frame« of cyber space?