In guided situations, the INTRODUCTIONS offered a multifaceted approach to works of art from the VIDEONALE.20. The aim of the INTRODUCTIONS is to intensify the holistic perception of video art through various approaches (e.g. physical, linguistic, textual, via sound/music). The new videonale format was originally created in collaboration between Annette Ziegert and the dancer and choreographer Anja Bornşek. For VIDEONALE.20, we worked with the artists Elsa Artmann, Lisa James and Maryna Makarenko, who each developed profound approaches to video works and invited us to sharpen our senses and perception.


WE HAVE BREATH IN OUR BODIES AND IT BLOWS
INTRODUCTION by Maryna Makarenko to the video work WHEN YOU WHISTLE, IT MAKES AIR COME OUT by Ana Torfs

The performance and video artist Maryna Makarenko repeatedly deals with breathing in her work. For VIDEONALE.20, Makarenko has developed a physical introduction to Ana Torfs' video work WHEN YOU WHISTLE, IT MAKES AIR COME OUT. Torfs' installation, whose rhythm is determined by the sound of the artist’s breath, is based on the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s studies of children's ideas of cause and effect. The children's surprising answers to questions such as »Where does the wind come from?« appear as lettering in an old light box.


WIE LANGE DAUERT ES, BIS EINE ERINNERUNG ZERFÄLLT?
INTRODUCTION by Lisa James to the video work SONNE UNTER TAGE by Mareike Bernien & Alex Gerbaulet

SONNE UNTER TAGE [Sun Under Ground] by Mareike Bernien& Alex Gerbaulet is an artistic-cinematic research project that explores the ecological, health, and social consequences of uranium mining by Wismut SDAG in Saxony and Thuringia during the GDR era. The INTRODUCTION by artist Lisa James shed light on the darkness and, together with the audience, unearthed fragments of memory related to the geographical locations and historical events of SONNE UNTER TAGE.


ORTE, AN DENEN MENSCHEN WIRKLICH ZU HAUSE SIND
INTRODUCTION by Elsa Artmann to the video work A PORTRAIT by Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz

In A PORTRAIT, eight queer performers take the spotlight on a large stage, one after the other. The conventional separation between character and persona is dissolved, and the performers embody what Maggie Nelson calls »the flickering, disoriented places where people are truly at home.« The INTRODUCTION by Elsa Artmann provided an opportunity to engage with both the internal and external aspects of the self in preparation for the video.