European Media Art Festival: Identity :: April 23 - 27, 2008 :: Osnabrueck, Germany.

The motto of this year’s European Media Art Festival is IDENTITY. Besides focusing on the issue of one’s own identity in a globalised world, the general changes associated with the expansion of digital technologies into all areas of private and public life will also be under discussion.

The festival shows film as a contemporary work of art in cinemas and exhibitions, both performed and multimedia. As an important forum for international Media Art, films, videos, performances, multimedia installations and digital media, such as DVD and internet, will be presented. The productions of internationally renowned artists will be represented at the 21st EMAF 2008 alongside innovative works of talented young people from higher education institutions and academies of art. For five whole days, Osnabrueck becomes a lively, prominent meeting place for curators, lenders, gallery owners and specialists from the field of art, culture and the media, as well as for an interested international audience.

REGISTRATION: If you don’t want to miss it, register now. Detailed information can be found at www.emaf.de. Make use of the special conditions we have arranged with a number of hotels. We are, of course, also happy to help you plan your trip, and will guide you through all of the festival dates once you arrive. We look forward to hearing from you. Please note: final registrations will be accepted on April 11, 2008.

PROGRAMME PLANNING: Around 2200 contributions are currently being viewed by the EMAF team. These were sent from
Germany, the USA, Brazil, South Korea, New Zealand, Lithuania, Romania and Iran — in other words, from all five continents. Submissions were received from a total of around 50 countries. The programme is currently being planned and selections are being made for all areas of the festival: CINEMA, EXHIBITION, EXPANDED MEDIA, LIVE CINEMA, INTERNATIONAL STUDENT FORUM, CONGRESS.

It is anticipated that around 350 new installations, films and videos will be presented at the festival, giving viewers an extensive
insight into the tendencies of current Media Art, which addresses both the experimental film market and the art market.

CONGRESS: The Congress takes up the topic of IDENTITY and reflects it in its series of talks. Ricardo Mbarkho, employee at the Acadimie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Beirut, will talk about the Media Art scene in Lebanon, where artists reflect the identity crisis in the context of their socio-political and geographic environment. The Dutch Sophie Ernst, who lectures at the Academy of Art in Lahore/Pakistan, will give a talk on the Pakistani art and academy scene. Digital Identity - forms and consequences of the increasing collection of private data and their commercial use are the topics covered by Ralf Bendrath. Another topic is explored by Prof. Birgit Richard. She will lecture on youth identities in web 2.0 and will show creative works by adolescents - YouTube Favorites on the one hand, and stage-settings by game fans on the other.

RETROSPECTIVE: This year’s retrospective, introduced by the expert Brigitte Burger-Utzer, is of the Austrian avant-garde film-maker Kurt Kren, who experimented with 8mm und 16mm as early as in the 1950s.

AWARDS: Three awards will be presented at this year’s festival: the “EMAF Award” for a trend-setting work in Media Art, the “Dialogpreis” of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the promotion of intercultural exchange and the “Preis der deutschen Filmkritik” for the best German experimental film.

EMAF ON TOUR: In 2007, the EMAF tour programme was shown in numerous cities in Europe, such as Vienna and Athens, as well as in Mexico and the Dominican Republic.