From the Collection: The collection consists of office files, artists files, audio and video recordings, programs, posters, photographs and artifacts and ephemera relating to the Performance Art Festival (PAF) held annually from 1988-1999 in Cleveland, OH. Created and collected by festival founder Thomas Mulready, the PAF Archive was donated to Case Western Reserve University in 2015.
These files contain application forms, photographs, newspaper clippings, books, and other textual explanatory material. They may also include audiocasettes, CDs and CD-ROMs, posters, correspondence between the artist and Mulready.
Also, of note are the festival performances that were recorded on video tape, usually from two camera angles, and which make up a large part of the archive. Over 100 performers would participate over the several days of the festival each year.
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The fourteenth edition, held in Sesc Pompeia, celebrated a special occasion: the 20th anniversary of Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, by now already recognized worldwide as the main convergence point for the so-called southern scene artistic output. The long-lasting partnership with SESC-SP gave birth to the largest exhibition ever, featuring the “Displacements” theme, a phenomenon which permeates contemporary life. Artists from Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Eastern Europe were featured in the event, which focused on work from the geopolitical south of art for the first time. A retrospective show of 30 years of video’s national production, curated by Arlindo Machado, was included in the History Axis, while the Contemporary Axis featured an important exhibition of art from Lebanon, a country constantly facing the “Displacements” concept. Christine Tohme and Akram Zaatari curated this exhibition. Festival payed tribute to Brazilian artist Waly Salomão, an active collaborator with Associação Cultural Videobrasil. A DVD entitled “Nomadismos: Homenagem a Waly Salomão” (Nomadisms: A tribute to Waly Salomão) was released. The DVD was specially produced with the aid of friends and partners. Waly, who integrated the programming commission, died a few months prior to the Festival. Beginning with this edition, video and new medias now competed in the same category.
This work operates as a distributed bio-performative system in which biological matter, formal logic, and urban surveillance are brought into direct operational alignment.
The procedure begins with a controlled ingestion process: Californian worms are fed with material derived from the Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, reduced to pulp and reconfigured as a biological substrate. The theorems are not interpreted; they are metabolized.
DNA extraction follows. The resulting material is not archived, preserved, or stabilized. It is displaced.
The displacement occurs through a repeated action: the dripping of extracted DNA in front of six traffic cameras in Köln. The gesture is minimal. The system is not.
Each camera functions simultaneously as:
a recording device
a distributed observer
a non-consensual laboratory condition
The experiment unfolds across time, extending into a three-year continuous process of exposure, decay, and accumulation. The dripping areas are not monitored for results but for persistence. The system does not seek verification.
Parallel to the physical operation, a secondary layer is activated: the continuous reading of Gödel’s theorems. This reading does not clarify the process. It introduces recursive instability.
Gödel 1, 2, 3 is a distributed net-performance operating across biological, mathematical, and infrastructural systems.
The work originates from a sequence of actions involving the ingestion of printed fragments of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems by Californian worms. These biological agents function as processors, converting formal logic into organic residue. From this process, DNA traces are extracted and subsequently reintroduced into the urban environment.
The second stage unfolds through a network of traffic surveillance cameras in Köln. These cameras, designed for regulation and control, are repurposed as passive witnesses to a non-indexable event. The act of dripping DNA occurs within their field of vision, yet remains unregistered within the system’s operational logic.
No data is captured. No event is recorded. No transformation is acknowledged.
The system observes without knowing.
Gödel’s incompleteness theorems demonstrate that within any formal system, there exist propositions that cannot be proven or disproven from within the system itself. Gödel 1, 2, 3 translates this condition into a performative and technological field.
The cameras operate as a closed logical structure. The biological material introduces an external inconsistency. The system remains intact, but epistemically incomplete.
Parallel to the physical actions, the online interface presents a sequence of selectable options — databases, regulatory frameworks, submission protocols — none of which produce any functional output. Interaction is simulated, but never resolved.
The user is positioned within a system that requests decisions while systematically nullifying their consequences.
Selection does not lead to execution. Input does not generate output. The interface remains structurally active and functionally void.
The work constructs a space in which:
Biological processes are translated into symbolic failure
Surveillance systems are rendered perceptually active but epistemically blind
curated by Andreas Walther
This exhibit displays art whose basic media consists of machinery, electronics or electronic media. These works are acts of conversation, with many different connections – a condensing process in space and time. Themes presented by active artists of Taiwan and Germany are integrated: on one hand, they point out that in the new era of globalization, new media is the mainstay of the new world order; the mixing of different countries and the establishing of a global network is realized, shrinking distances in space and time. On the other hand, in the backdrop of creative forces hailing from different backgrounds, we hope to analyze what differentiates the two sides, what connects them, and if they can maintain their own uniqueness.
Taipei Fine Arts Museum
No.181, Sec. 3, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan Dist.,
Taipei City 10461,
Taiwan,R.O.C.
61 projects, more than 60 artists and groups from 17 countries, coming together for the
first time on the net.
Artists:
Anke Schafer,
nikki anderson,
Genco Gulan,
Soo Yeun Ahn,
Neal White,
Winston Yang,
Robert J. Krawczyk,
Maria Beatriz de Medeiros
Tomasz Konart,
Agricola de Cologne,
Lane Last,
Trang Chung,
Sergio Maltagliati,
Andrea Flamini,
babel,
Karen J Guthrie,
Jody Zellen,
Rozalinda Borcila,
Plasma Studii,
Doctor Hugo,
Judson Wright,
Faruk Ulay,
Richard Kriesche,
Cardarelli Luigia,
Philip Foeckler,
Caroline Bell,
Agence TOPO,
Tlaolli Arguello
Servin,
Andamio Contiguo,
dane,
Jorn Ebner,
helghi,
Isabelle Sigal and Jay Murphy,
Lorie Novak,
Marcello Mercado,
Garnet Hertz,
Garett Lynch and Michael Sellam,
Andrea Polli,
Doron Golan,
Bikem Ekberzade,
Ernest M Concepcion,
Stanza,
Ana Maria Uribe,
Michael Mandiberg,
Annette Weintraub,
doll yoko,
Paula Cordova,
Pat Badani,
Ian Haig,
Kurt Ralske,
Seth Thompson,
keserue zsolt,
Marina Zerbarini,
Nicolae Comanescu,
Stefan Sun,
Nicolas Clauss,
Dooley Le Cappellaine,
Miguel Uza
Jeanne C. Finley, John Muse, François Bucher, Jowita Kepa, Scott Stark, Hester Scheurwater, Alex Heim and Marcello Mercado
Program 86m.
Chicago Filmmakers (773)293-1447, 5243 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor, 8. Optimism
Short Runs
Repertory & Revival
Ray Pride
* = Recommended Fri 13
*Casablanca
(1942, USA) Directed by Michael Curtiz. No further information available about this obscurity dug up by those high-falutin’ Batavia intellectual-types. 102m. A double feature with «Play It Again, Sam.» $4. Fermilab (630)840-8000, Ramsey Auditorium, Wilson Hall, Fermilab, Pine St. off Kirk Rd., Batavia, 8.
The Flower of the Lake
(1999, Greece) Directed by Stamatis Tsarouchas. Ambitious historical drama of ancient Macedonia. 90m. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.
Little Angel, Bring Me Joy
(Angelochek sdelaj radost) (1993, Turkmenistan) Directed by Usman Saparov. 88m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.
*Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
(1936, USA) Directed by Frank Capra. Screwball comedy with Gary Cooper turning down a $20-million inheritance and Jean Arthur the «news hen» out to discover why. Funny. 115m. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.
*Radiohead: Meeting People is Easy
(2001, England) Directed by Grant Gee. Road movie: Radiohead on their «OK, Computer World tour. Enervated but not enervating. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.
Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Animation
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight. Sat 14
Little Angel, Bring Me Joy
$8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5:45.
*Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.
On Edge: New Experimental Video
Including work by Jeanne C. Finley, John Muse, François Bucher, Jowita Kepa, Scott Stark, Hester Scheurwater, Alex Heim and Marcello Mercado. Program 86m. $7. Chicago Filmmakers (773)293-1447, 5243 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor, 8. Optimism
(2002, USA) Directed by Christopher McDonald. A juvenile escapes a mental hospital and takes a rural road trip. 82m. 16mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.
*Planet of the Apes
(1968, USA) Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. Astronauts find themselves marooned on a planet where apes are in charge and humans are slaves. Rod Serling’s script has some interesting ideas and Charlton Heston’s ass has an embarrassing cameo. Or, as Heston rants at the film’s timeless twist ending: «Damn you! Damn you all to hell!» Panavision. 112m. Shown with Robert McKimson’s 1948 cartoon, «Gorilla My Dreams.» $5. LaSalle Theater (312)904-9442, 4901 W. Irving Park, 8.
Takhir and Zukhra
(1945, Uzbekistan) Directed by Nabi Ganiev. The Uzbek «Romeo and Juliet.» 92m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 4.
*Radiohead: Meeting People is Easy
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.
Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Animation
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.
The Undercover Angels
(1967, USA) Directed by Jess Franco. 80m. Video. Free. Delilah’s (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.
Sun 15
Girl on a Motorcycle
(1974, England) Directed by Jack Cardiff. Marianne Faithfull and Alain Delon star. Video. Free. Delilah’s (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.
Hit Makers: The Teens Who Stole Pop Music
(2001, England) Directed by Morgan Neville. 90m. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8:45.
*Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.
Mon 16
The Flower of the Lake
$8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.
Martin & Orloff
(2002, USA) Directed by Lawrence Blume. A South by Southwestern film festival entry that dabbles in latter-day surrealism. 86m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.
Tue 17
Devil Face, Angel Heart
See May 11. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.
Takhir and Zukhra
$8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.
Thu 19
Hit Makers: The Teens Who Stole Pop Music
$8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8:45.
