Director: Florian Zeyfang
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Biography: Florian Zeyfang born 1965 in Stuttgart, Germany. 1987 to 1993 at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin. 1997/8 at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York, currently Professor for Video/Installation at the Art Academy in Umeå, Sweden. In his texts, videos and installation work, the Berlin based artist, videomaker and writer Florian Zeyfang critically looks at the connotations of a globalized world of media signs and at the consequences for the society and the individual, taking into account historic aspects of both art and political movements. His projects are conceived within different forms of the moving image: film, video, slide projection, animation. Spacious installations as well as slide series ("slow films") form an important part of his discussion of “time-based media.” Florian Zeyfang regularly takes part in exhibitions nationally and abroad, recently in Kunstverein Köln, at A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and Artists Space, New York; at the 2nd Tirana Biennale, at ICA Moscow, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Kunstverein Hannover, at the 6th Werkleitz Biennale in Halle and at the KW Berlin. Furthermore, the artist curates projects for institutions like CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warschau, sala rekalde in Bilbao, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, the 8th Havanna Biennale, the foto festival in Houston, in the Museum for Applied Arts Wien, in the MAK Schindlerhaus in Los Angeles and the Swiss Institute in New York. Currently, Florian Zeyfang works on exhibition projects ranging between Art and experimental film (“Poor Man´s Expression”, Berlin 2006; “1,2,3 Avant-Gardes”, Warschau/Stuttgart/Bilbao 2006-2008).
Lisa Schmidt-Colinet and Alexander Schmoeger are architects and live in Vienna. Since 2001 Schmidt-Colinet/Schmoeger and Florian Zeyfang have collaborated on exhibitions and projects. Together with Eugenio Valdés Figueroa they published “Pabellón Cuba,” an extensive reader on art, architecture, and film in Cuba.
Country: Germany
Year: 2008
Synopsis: INTRODUCTION TO A SHORT HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY sheds a new light on early discussions of mass distribution of images. Florian Zeyfang´s video experiments with the photographs, the printed reproductions from the books that Benjamin had at hand when writing his essay “Small History Of Photography.” The video changes stills to moving images, searching for traces, zooming in, opening a new view onto materiality and structure not visible in the original print. The fast edit and the soundtrack render the initially still visible gesture of turning the pages into a rapid image cosmos. The musical score of the first version of INTRODUCTION TO A SHORT HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY from 2006 is "In C", conceived originally by Terence Riley in 1964, interpreted 2003 by the Japanese group Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. For the second Version, INTRODUCTION TO A SHORT HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPH - FORMALIST HEADY PATTERN VERSION (2008) new musical piece was conceived by Alejandra Salinas und Aeron Bergman. Cinematic premiere 2006 in Kino Arsenal as part of the project "JETZT - The Now of Recognizability".
Forum participation year: 2008
