The W:OW Art Film & Video Festival – http://wow.engad.org
As a part of THE W:OW PROJECT and dedicated to the audio-visual medium, THE W:OW ART FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL is dealing thematically with the Present and Future of planet Earth under the influence of the human species. WE ARE ONE WORLD is not just another artistic
topic, it is the complex reality and at the same time an Utopia that matters.
The „world“ is not just planet Earth as an all encompassing whole, but also the „world“ in terms of the environment or place the individual is living in: family, circle of friends, society, city,
region, country or continent, or other sortlike unities marking the individual and collective identity, their relation between each other, and the responsibility of the individual for each other and the Whole.
THE W:OW PROJECT, respectively THE W:OW ART FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL
initiated by artvideoKOELN & The New Museum, of Networked Art – directed by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne – is representing such a sample world on a small scale, in which artists, curators and
worldwide networking partners and, not to forget, the audience are acting in mutual respect, demonstrating the diversity of artistic and curatorial concepts. The festival project is consisting of three (3) basic program components, the general festival selection, the contributions by invited curators from all over the world and curated selections from associated art film collections like artvideoKOELN Collections,The Refugee Film Collection or Collective Trauma Film
Collections, they form the fundament for a wide range of presentation formats like screening, projection and installation (exhibition).
According to its concept, the W:OW Project – incorporating different levels on a local and global scale – will manifest at many venues all over the world,
The W:OW Art Film & Video Festival has been presented in 2017 in different constellations in India (Kolkata & Kochi Muziris Biennial Kerala), Ecuador (Quito), Brazil (Belo Horizonte), Greece
(Athens), Cyprus (Nikosia), Venezuela (Caracas) & Ethiopia (Addis Abeba)
was launched 2017 as a media art project directed and curated by Agricola de Cologne to be realized in an exchange between virtual and physical space (online/offline) – the Global and the
Local, dealing with the most essential question of human existence, eg. the survival of the human species on planet EARTH. The project is covering a wide range of digital artistic media (moving, interactive and static images, and non-visual media like soundart) to be released in different presentation formats during a period of several years – the online/offline W:OW project core, the travelling W:OW Art Film & Video Festival and the virtual and physical W:OW exhibition in different constellations (digital & analogue media).
W:OW – We Are One World – that‘s a statement of self-confidence, a real existing positive value and philosophical knowledge, however, an Utopia only, but no real existing practice. As a topic, it is therefore not reduced to some essential issues like ecology, biodiversity or sustainability but the whole bandwidth of issues based on compliance with human rights, mutual respect, equal rights, equal access to education and equal chances for all, the freedom of movenment, freedom of the word, art and sciences which however are guaranteed just by a few democratic constitutions, but practiced in real even on a more marginal scale.
If we are truely one world, then whom does it belong to? Governments? States? Corporations, industrial companies, banks? Individuals? Or probably the citizens of the states, the inhabitants of the earth, that is, mankind? Or does it belong simply to life, and it is mankind as the only intelligent structure being able to take its responsibility for protecting the entire biological life in all its facets against any exploitation and misuse at the expenses of the Whole, no matter what biological system it is, whether the human, animal or plant life, the rainforest or the deep sea, or the meadows and streams before our own doorstep?
Without supranational administrative structures which would have the power to set through these fundamental rights for all inhabitans on Earth and solve the global threats, without the knowlege, that each individual on Earth has to take its individual responsibility for the Whole on a local scale, it will be a very long, probably too long way to overcome all the manifold threats preventing that the Utopia may come true – nearly all of them are –
human made – that’s also the basic keyword: just to name some threats – the exploitation of the natural resources to the shortnotice profit of just a few globally acting corporations destroying the natural environment sustainably– the global warming and the climate change as a result of this misuse taking a dramatic impact on the environment and the nature as the living habitat enforcing people to migrate, threatening animals, plants and the biological systems with extinct, making the resources of fresh water shrink on all continents which has the huge potential for military conflicts in future , the military conflicts of the Present to the benefit of some totalitarian regional powers like in Middle East, Africa or Ukraine enforcing people to migrate after persecution and expulsion, or the overwhelming globalization as a result of the rapid development of new technologies, making people anxious they might loose their identity and privileges, and populist political movements try to manipulate and misuse the emotional uncertainty of these people and destroy all the real civilizational achievements made during the past decades and centuries, by reviving most destructive ancient nationalistic, extremist, fascist and even terrorist ideologies which have the potential to catapult the human civilization back on an pre-industrial stone-age like state, while the true problems of global and local nature leave, however, unrestrained escalating.
Based on the two maxims „We Are One World“ and „The Global meets the Local“, referring to the biggest and the smallest nucleus alike – the planet as a whole and the smaller geografic and social unities like the continents, regions, country, town, village, community , tribe or family or nature as a biological living habitat – each one representing a cosmos of itsown: the smaller the unity, the more people feel emotionally affected being willing to take personal responsibility, the bigger the unity, the more the common world and taking responsibility for it becomes an Utopia.
The dynamically structured W:OW Project has to be considered as such a sample cosmos, a progressive and experimental common world on a small scale in which the participating instances (artists, curators, etc) are taking a particular responsibility for the “Whole”, as well as for each other. In this way The W:OW Project is representing for them the platform for approaching the Utopia by developing concepts, asking questions and giving answers through the creative works to be incorporated.
As a global networking project between artvideoKOELN & The New Museum of Networked Art and associated networking partners, „The W:OW Project“ is inviting cultural activists like artists and curators from all over the world working in different disciplines to reflect (critically) Present and Future of our planet as the place where life as such, the amazing diversity of a magnificent nature and the human species had the chance to arise with all the civilisatory achievements based on humanity, empathy and creativity, expressed for instance, in art, the sciences and a free and open society –
W:OW – We Are One World.
Both core statements are manifesting themselves also in the W:OW Project presentation formats. While the online/offline core is standing for the Global, as as a basic component of all presentation formats, The W:OW Art Film and Video Festival is standing for both – the Global – by travelling around the globe – and the Local by making stops at many local venues – allowing the multi-facetted exhibition of moving images via screening, projection and installation
Besides the diversity of a global and local media art creation, The W.OW Project would like to present a diversity of curatorial concepts, as well as how students (schools, artschools, universities) reflect “We Are One Word” in a collaborative context. Therefore, another call is inviting globalwide curators to prepare curated contributions in moving, interactive and static images on one hand, and collaborative projects (video and poster) on the other hand.
But the curatorial aspect gets a particular local dimension. While THe W:OW Project core does not include physical objects, the “exhibition” as a presentation format may be a way to do so. Local curators may be invited to prepare a physical counterpart to the globally oriented W:OW Project core, which allows them to realise their individual curatorial concept by including local artists – the Global meets the Local – and confronting or integrating different artistic media (analogue & digital) – “Art is indivisible” – as another core statement.
[/coff_spoiler]
We Are One World.
WOW.01 / India
23-26 February 2017
@ Kochi Muziris Biennial 2016/2017
Kerala – India
WOW.02 / Brazil
@ TimeLine Video Art Festival
5-7 May 2017 – Belo Horizonte/Brazil
WOW.03 / India
@ Alliance Francaise du Bengale
28 April 2017 – Kolkata/India
5-7 May 2017 – Dharmasala/India
WOW.04 / Greece
@ TWIXTlab Athens
6-7 May 2017 – Athens/Greece
WOW.05 / Cyprus
@ 4th International Motion Festival Cyprus 2017
11-14 May 2017 – Nicosia/Cyprus
WOW.06 / Ecuador
@ MIVA 11 – Muestra Internacional de Videoarte
Casa de la Cultura Ecuadoriana – Quito/Ecuador
23-25 August 2017
WOW.07 / India 4.0
@ Calcutta Diaries Kolkata
23 September 2017
WOW.08 / Venezuela
@ 3rd NodoCCS – Videoart Festival Caracas
21 & 26 October 2017
WOW.09 / Ethiopia
@ Addis Video Art Festival – Addis Ababa/Ethiopia
24 Dec 2017 – 4 Jan 2018
WOW.10 / India 4.0
@ 4th TENT Little Cinema International Festival
8-10 December 2017 – Kolkata/India
.
WOW.12 / India 5.0
@ TransArt ” Kolkata/India -21 January 2018
WOW.13 / Russia
@ Now & After International Videoart Festival Moscow – 7-16 February 2018
WOW.14 / Ukraine
@ National University Kharkiv/Ukraine 10-12 April 2018
National House of Cinema/Say By Body Art Festival – Kiev/Ukraine 13-15 April 2018
WOW.15 / Greece 2.0
@ ADAF – Athens Digital Art Festival – 24-27 May 2018
WOW.16 / Finland
@ VAFT – Videoart Festival Turku/Finland – 23 – 27 May 2018
WOW.17 / Greece 3.0
@ Eyes Walk Digital Festivakl syros/Greece – 27-29 July 2018
WOW.18 / USA
@ Torrence Art Museum (Los Angeles/CA) – 21 July – 14 December 2018
WOW.19 / Bulgaria
@ Quarantine Film Festival Varna/Bulgaria – 12-14 July 2018
WOW.20 / Mexico
@ Codec International Video Art Festival Mexico City – September 2018
WOW.21. /India 6.0
@ Alliance Francaise du Bengale Kolkata/India – 10 November 2018
.
WOW.22 / Russia
@ Now & After International Videoart Festival Moscow – 17 April – 12 May 2019
WOW.23 / Latvia
@ 6th International Holocaust Conference Riga/Latvia – 21-22 May 2019
WOW.24 / Malta
@ 12th Video Vortex Conference – K-Spazju Kreattiv- Valletta – 26-28 September 2019
WOW.25 / Ethiopia
@ Addis VideoArt Festival Addis Ababa /Ethiopia – 26 December 2019-1 January 2020
WOW.26 / India
@ Alliance Francaise du Bengal Kolkata/India – 12 September 2019
WOW.27 / Tunisia
@ 8th MasterPeace Monastir (Tunisia) – 7-11 October 2019
WOW Jubilee 2020
WOW Jubilee 2020 Cologne
@ Halle Zollstock 1 March 2020
WOW Jubilee 2020 Berlin
@ Institute für Alles Mögliche 12 July – 26 August 2020
WOW Jubilee 2020 Los Angeles
@ TAM Torrance Art Museum – 18 July – 20 September 2020
WOW Jubilee 2020 Athens
@ ADAF – Athens Digital Art Festival 12 July – 5 August 2020
WOW Jubilee 2020 Lucca
@ Over The Real Videoart Festival – 30 September – 04 October 2020
WOW Jubilee 2020 Kolkata
@ Birla Academy of Art & Culture Kolkata – 15 October – 22 November 2020
