UWE RÜTH

I have deliberately selected a work from the early days, contrasting it with the mature sequences of images from the last few years: Then as now, the work fascinates with its banal, minimalistic short form. One which, in an incessantly repeated loop, makes the nature of video art clearly visible when it shows both the temporal happening and the behaviour of the material, and in this way the nature of the existing reality – both living and dead.

In the last 30 years, Videonale – like the Marl Video Art Award founded in the same year – has, with its consistent efforts, made a decisive contribution towards establishing video art as an art form on an equal footing with the classical genres. My expectations, which I expressed in 1986 in the catalogue of VIDEONALE.2, have been more than fulfilled: »I am hopeful that video art will livelily continue on its way to becoming an accepted, independent art genre as it has done in the last few years.« Nowadays Videonale has become an indispensable part of the art scene.