5 days in 50 minutes (in 50 words)
A huge crowd gather together at the Kikker Theater for the opening of the festival, an overview of the days to come called “5 days in 50 minutes”.
Arjon Dunnewind, the festial director, officially anounced the start of the 20th edition of the festival and introduced Stoffel Debuysere and María Palacios Cruz, the festival guest curators, who briefly spoke about the exhibitions, conferences and screenings that will be featured during the next few days, within the “Accelerated Living” theme, that will be an artistic exploration of the way technology affects our perception of time. Two of the artists that will take part in the program, Bruce McClure and Guy Sherwin, were briefly interviewed by Arjon. And then, the Panorama program was also introduced. An annual overview of the most representative film and video art from around the world, this year's selection will include stunning works such as Marco Brambilla's Civilization and the emotionally resonant work of Camille Verbunt entitled Beautiful, both of which were previewed for the audience tonight. As part of Panorama, Impakt Invites consists of a program that will give a certain focus to selected artists and organizations. One of the featured organizations is OK Video Jakarta, whose director Ade Darmawan was also present tonight and who said a few words about the work Bercerobong, by Eko Nugroho. This is the bird's eye view (of the bird's eye view) of the program.
These are probably a bit more than 50 words...but the gala went on for a bit more than 50 minutes, so in a way this is an accurate chronicle of last night. We hope you can come by and discover the rest of the program for yourselves during the week.
The futurist manifest: opening concert
A dark screen projects a vague image of early black-and-white film onto the back of a male torso. The torso slowly changes positions, revealing different parts of the old back-and-white footage. The screen demands your attention, your concentration, but somehow still allows you to let your mind wander. Thomas Koner does not make it easy on his audience.
This same contradiction can be found in the music. The dreamy, echoed sounds of Carl Faia's prepared piano and electronics are countered by the cold and sometimes scarily distorted voice of the otherwise lovely Iris Garrelfs. The individual parts come together in perfect harmony.
All in all, a consuming performance.
Posted by: Nikki Gijselhart and Miguel Escobar
