Videoex: The Experimental Film & Video Festival in Zurich – 25th Edition in 2023

Video is becoming more and more important for photographers, and so experimental moving images are becoming more and more fascinating. Videoex, the Experimental Film & Video Festival, invites you to this topic, which will be held in Zurich for the 25th time from Thursday, May 25th to Sunday, June 4th, 2023.

The Videoex, Experimental Film & Video Festival, is the only Swiss festival that is explicitly dedicated to experimental film and video creation and, with this orientation, positions itself at the important interface between art and cinema. This year the 25th edition will take place from Thursday, May 25th to Sunday, June 4th, 2023 in the Kunstraum Walcheturm in Zurich.

This year the 25th Videoex will present itself in a particularly atmospheric way (Photo: Lorenzo Pusterla)

The highlights of the 25th edition are the films by the renowned Brazilian artist Ana Vazwhich uses complex layers of found footage and its own material to explore the interactions between colonialism, modernity and the Anthropocene, the world premiere of the Taiwanese artist’s new film Chen Chieh-jen and the cinematic works of Ellen Paul (Hong Kong), Su Hui-Yu (Taiwan) and Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore).

Among the Swiss highlights, the focus is on the media artist’s computer-generated animations Yves Netzhammer and a special on the artist’s poetic audiovisual compositions Doris Schmid. The guest program on Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore is dedicated to the diverse currents in contemporary video art from the three island states.

While the Swiss and International Competitions represent a representative snapshot of experimental filmmaking, the scoring of Teinosuke Kinugasas Avant-garde classic Page of Madness (1926) by the composer and multi-instrumentalist Otomo Yoshihide (Japan) and the two live acts with Mark Chua, Li Shuen, Aqilah Misuary and Vivian Wang (Singapore) for immersive cinema experience.

The 2023 program

Artist Focus – Ana Vaz Ana Vaz explores the interactions between colonialism, modernity and the Anthropocene with complex layers of found footage and her own film material. The winner of the Kazuko Trust Award 2015 takes a critical look at human consumption and the destruction of natural environments and indigenous communities as well as historical, geographical and political entanglements in her native Brazil and beyond.

In dealing with colonial aftermath on land, humans and non-human life forms, she simultaneously questions the hierarchical view of ethnographic filming and focuses on narratives that are absent from historiography or have been deliberately erased. Along fictions and frictions, Vaz’ films show the dynamics of memory and suggest that without coming to terms with the past, no sustainable, shared future is possible.

Guest program Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore The guest program is dedicated to the diverse currents of contemporary video art from the three island states of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Driven by exports, rapid industrialization and high economic growth, they have joined the ranks of the richest regions in the world as leading financial centers and pioneers in the manufacture of electronic components. The high concentration of people, resources, production and capital results in a high level of tension and creative intensity.

Video stills by Chen Chieh-jen, Ellen Pau and Su Hui-Yu

In addition to their status as economic powerhouses, they also share a common heritage in terms of language and culture: they are all predominantly Chinese societies with a colonial history. A look at the experimental filmmaking of the three islands reveals a complex picture: where some see urban utopias sprouting, others recognize dystopias, i.e. oppressed societies ruled by technology or the police. The proximity to utopia or even dystopia is reflected in many works and provides insights into the dynamic processes of change in these geostrategically important centers. Particularly interesting from a western point of view is the almost self-evident combination of spirituality and cutting-edge technology, of mysticism and microchips, which characterizes many of these films.

CH Focus – Yves Netzhammer Computer-generated animations are at the center of the work of Yves Netzhammer, who represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale in 2007. With his minimalist, genderless figures, shiny surfaces, rooms in cool colors and scenes that appear almost sterile, the media and installation artist has created an unmistakable formal language. In addition to the marionette-like human figures, his videos are populated by animals, ambiguous creatures and reduced elements with which he creates surreal sequences. Individual and environment, inner and outer world, dead and alive, animal and human meet and are interwoven to explore the boundaries, points of contact and transitions between subject and world. With their abstraction, the figures serve as an ideal projection surface to explore questions of identity, identification, states of being, ways of thinking and relationships.

Practices of Viewing – Videoessays von Johannes Binotto In a series of experimental video essays from 2021 and 2022, university lecturer and experimental filmmaker Johannes Binotto examines new media and old techniques, past history and current viewing habits and how both are connected: a lesson in altered seeing.

Expanded Cinema & Live-Acts The expanded cinema and live acts invite you to an immersive cinematic experience: the setting of Teinosuke Kinugasa’s avant-garde classic “Page of Madness” (JP 1926) by the composer and multi-instrumentalist Otomo Yoshihide (Japan) together with the New York alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, the in collaboration with Cabaret Voltaire, the program presented Ciné Dada with a selection of Dadaist film experiments by painters, artists and photographers Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Walter Ruttmann, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Fernand Léger with new settings by the international Šalter Ensemble, and finally the both live acts with Mark Chua, Li Shuen, Aqilah Misuary and Vivian Wang from Singapore.

International & CH competition As every year, there will be an international and a Swiss competition, in which the audience and a specialist jury will be able to see the outstanding and most up-to-date works from video and experimental production. The award ceremony and the screening of the award-winning films mark the conclusion of the festival.

Videoex – Internationales Experimentalfilm & Video Festival

When? May 25 to June 4, 2023
Wo? Walcheturm art spaceKanonengasse 20, Zurich
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