Kathrin Becker

Spaces, Territories  Contemporary Video Art from Berlin, selected from the collection of Video-Forum at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), Berlin, DE, 2007

Urban space is not only an accumulation of architectural structures, advertisement and traffic. Rather, the urban area is conquered and defined by different groups of interests, so that new spatial planning forms successively. Territories are marked and territorial claims are made clear by indication. To whom does public space belong? Is the city with all its expansions in depth, width and height only a gigantic platform for communicating land tenure and spheres of influence? Does only the one have a voice, which also possesses the area? How do individuals exert influence in public space? What can they conquer and what do they have to defend? In this way or similarly, some questions can be outlined, which play an important role for a discussion of the urban space, public space, territories and urban life in art. The program ‘Spaces, Territories’ from the collection of the Video-Forum presents a selection of work of international artists living (partly temporarily) in Berlin, who concern themselves in different way with these questions. A part of the work circles around political questions and shows examples of aggressive penetration into foreign territories or exclusion and displacement from certain spheres of influence (Kulik, Moser and Schwinger). Other work deal more strongly with the everyday life in the city and its peripheries, e.g. during food hunting in a supermarket (Jankowski) or on behalf of a snack bar on two legs (Gomila). Also the relationship of language and space (Bastos) and genuine errors in the linguistic field when occurring foreign territories (Liotet and Schulbaum) are brought up for discussion, as well as the conditions in completely virtual spaces (Buzari, Cortés) and the field of human memory and remembrance (Abughosh).