Wednesday | 08.06.2011 | 19.45 | zeise 2

 

Manuel de Santaren lives in Boston and he collects video art. At the Hamburg International Short Film Festival (IKFF), he will leave the white spaces of the museums in order to enter the darkness of the cinemas. His presentation does not only offer us the unique opportunity to present art from overseas, but it simultaneously enters an ongoing debate as well: How to present film and video art? Isn’t it perfectly located in the interaction between the concentrating spaces of museums and the rooms of desires in the cinema?

Manuel de Santaren’s collection consists of more than 100 time based media and is considered to be one of the most important ones of contemporary American video art. De Santaren advises several museums and artistic establishments in the United States, and it is on their behalf that he travels the European art scene as well. He is a board member of the photography commitee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts,where he is also a member of both the board of overseers and the department of contemporary art’s visiting committee.

IKFF Where does your passion for video art stem from?

 

Manuel de Santaren My collecting programme started in photography. Over the years as the collection grew I started noticing stills from video works which intrigued me. From this point I began to look at the video works that the still had been made from, and I had an aha moment. It was a very profound shift, and I have never looked back.

 

What are the characteristics and criteria of your collection?

 

The collection is comprised of several characteristics: performance based work, animation and works composed using stop time techniques, appropriation of mass media imagery, short film documentary (new collecting area). The criteria are instinctual, more than methodical. I look at the overall composition of the work in question and ask myself several things: Does the artist have a singular voice or imprimatur when referencing historical works as a source of inspiration or is it purely derivative? Is there a cohesive theme or story line to the piece? Is the production quality of the piece of a level that directly relates to the story? In other words: Is the ›home-made‹ quality actually a part of the work, or the high production value important to the story? These things are critical.

 

You get around a lot. Can you identify a current trend among US video artists?

 

One current trend that I see happening here in America is the re-visiting of feminist art. There is a whole generation of young artists looking back at the women whomade impacts in the medium. Most of these works are performance based. I am also seeing many artists creating video works that use environmental issues in different ways. Not always political but with perhaps the subliminal intent of showing the majesty of nature to get people to think about what we are doing to the planet. I have also noticed that there is a quiet trend developing where existing imagery from iconic film and TV programmes are being manipulated to express seeing the familiar in a new way.

 

Museums and galleries are complaining that video art is both difficult to present and to sell. Visitors hardly ever take enough time to view the exhibited films and installations in full depth and length. Is there a need for new modes of presentation?

 

It is absolutely necessary that museums and galleries address the presentation of video and film. I spend a lot of time in museums observing how people look at video. In many instances they stand there for a minute, and then walk away. I think this is in part fault of the way the work has been installed. If there is no place to sit how can one expect someone to stand for 15 minutes to view the work? Proper viewing spaces need to be created in both venues where a viewer can experience the work as it is meant to be seen. There is also the problem of several works being shown at once in an open space and sound travelling creating a cacophony which is very disruptive. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is creating a new media gallery, which will have the capability to be physically flexible and accommodate the different criteria/specifications requested by artists as to how they want to have their works shown.

 

The art scene and its institutions are interested in a restriction of artistic output in order to keep the value steady, but also to ensure some kind of ›species conservation‹. Cinema is all about multiplication (copies, attendance etc.). Do these differences constitute the rift between the viewing space of the art scene and the cinema?

 

It most certainly does, but I think that there is a way to combine both in order to create a new model. Why not use the theatre space in a museum to have a ›video week‹ where viewers can come at specific times to see a number of works by the same artist, or a group of artists? I think this would be most interesting, and probably would be well attended. This is only a part solution of course but I also think that artists need to think about how their work will be shown. I don’t think they always take this into account when they create their works. I often have this conversation with artists, not to limit how they think, but to give them another way of exploring the idea of their works in specific spaces.

 

Which artistic works call for the imaginary black box of the cinema and which are the ones that need the concentration of a white cube museum or gallery?

 

Epic works – works that have visual gravitas as well as highly developed narratives – are best suited for the black box. Then there are artists that can work in both manners. Claire Langham is a perfect example. Her cinematic works are nothing short of sublime, and her pieces that are shown on monitors are equally powerful but in a much more intimate way.

 

There are very few significant video art collections in the world. Are you and your colleagues the last dinosaurs of this medium or the prophets of a video art renaissance?

 

I like to think of myself a prophet ... I am 53 years old, and I hope to have many more years ahead to collect time based works. For me the medium is perhaps the last frontier in artistic expression. Technology is continuously morphing and developingallowing artists to come up with new ways of exploiting the medium. As well anytime I have a chance to speak in front of collectors (which I do often) I do my very best to spread the gospel!

 

Many artists like Pipilotti Rist, Miranda July, John Smith, Jay Rosenblatt and others presented their early works at festivals like the International Short Film Festival in Hamburg, before moving to the museum. Others return from the exhibition room into the dark of a movie theatre. Can you offer an explanation?

 

For me this is very exciting! Artists are crossing the boundary of art/film making. In the extreme I use Shirin Neshat as an example with her full length film ›Women Without Men‹. Although I suspect that many of the viewers were already fans of her work, the fact that the film had worldwide theatre distribution surely exposed people who did not know of her to her extraordinary talent. I predict that there will be more of this in the future. I also believe that many artists working in the medium are frustrated by the exhibition room’s inability to properly show works that are let’s say 30 minutes (plus) long ... The Short Film Festival is the perfect venue for this type of work. Some of us dinosaurs are already starting to explore short films as necessary additions to our collections.

 

You state about your person that you are a collector and philanthropist. Is that the happiest or the worst combination?

 

It’s bittersweet ... For me an important part of my collecting criteria is following the career of emerging artists, offering them advice, introducing them to other collectors and curators with the hope that they will encourage their growth, and development in the same way I do. Friendships tend to form along the way, which is one of the wonderful benefits of being a patron and collector. Then there comes a time when I know that the work has to be made available to a wider audience, and I donate to Museums these treasures that I have been nurturing for a long time. Initially I feel a sense of loss, but in the end it gives me tremendous joy that I am helping the artist and institution.

 

The interview with Manuel de Santaren was conducted via E-Mail in the spring of 2011. Questions by Birgit Glombitza and Mirjam Wildner.

 

Manuel de Santaren will show works of Laurel Nakadate, TYPE A, Kate Gilmore, William Lamson and Marie Jose Arjona at the IKFF.

 

The Programme:

MARIA JOSE ARJONA | White Series | 8:56 Minutes

TYPE A | 4 Urban Contests | 5:02 Minutes

KATE GILMORE | Standing Here | 8:46 Minutes

LAUREL NAKADATE | American Gothic | 2:42 Minutes

WILLIAM LAMSON | Compilation | 13:11 Minutes

Total Video time is approx 38 Minutes