International Biennale for Media Arts WRO 2009

Premier festival showing in Ukraine of the INTERNATIONAL BIENNALE FOR MEDIA ARTS WRO 2009 and video presentation of works by Nam June Paik – international star of media arts.

Presented by Agnieszka Kubicka-Dzieduszycka, WRO curator

16 June at 5.30 pm – Presentation of international and Polish art project from WRO’09.
17 June at 5.30 pm – Video presentation of the exhibition "Nam June Paik, Driving Media": archival interviews and documentation of Nam June Paik’s principle projects.

The international biennale for media arts WRO is the leading forum for new media arts in Poland and Central Europe. From the moment of its creation in December 1989, WRO has worked with art forms that use contemporary methods for creating and communicating.

Biennale WRO started as the Sound Basis Visual Art Festival and at the beginning was dedicated principally to audio-visual creations in the following formats: video and computer art, instillations, performances and multi-media presentations. Since 1993, the festival has been exploring new territories of expression in digital arts. WRO is the examination of the relationship between the artist and existing technologies, as well as the blurring of boundaries between high and popular culture, between the local and international communities, between commercial and independent activities.

WRO’09 Flash is a dynamic and intensive collection, with the most well-known events and tendencies in media-art that were presented at the biennale WRO’09.  The collection contains performance recordings, documentation of media-installations, exhibits and events that occurred in city spaces, and represents concepts, personalities and problems that arise when imported ideas influence the local art scene.

The "Expanded Tour WRO 09" program,  prepared by WRO art director Piotr Krajewski,  represents the most interesting works from the thirteenth international  biennale for media arts WRO, which took place in May-June 2009 in the city of Wroclaw. The "Expanded Tour" program is composed of the International Video Tour thatrepresents a wide selection of works from the international competition program of WRO’09, and the Polish Video Tour, which demonstrates contemporary Polish video in all its variety and is filled with new energy.

Nam June Paik (1932 - 2006) was a composer, performer and important artist, who first introduced electronic media into contemporary art. He was the author of the first video works, interactive instillations, video sculptures and media objects that united popular culture and philosophy with strategies of mass communication. The collected works at the show "Nam June Paik, Driving Media" held at the WRO Center came from various collections and represent the entire period of Paik’s artistic activity. Lesser known graphics, drawing and sketches on paper are united with media works: installations and tapes provide the opportunity to appreciate the genius of the interdisciplinary artistic path of the "father of video art." The exhibition is supplemented by unique recordings of Paik’s demonstrations, including those that were done by German television WDR, which participated in Paik’s activism going back to the1970’s, as well as biographical documents from the New York collection of Electronic Art Intermix.

Organizers:
Polish Institute in Kyiv
Center for Urban History of East Central Europe
Media Art Laboratory
Foundation for the Center for Contemporary Art