xname on Sun, 17 May 2009 21:28:44 +0200 (CEST)


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Re: <nettime> Media Mutations - Life | Registration | Simulation (was: Political Work in the Aftermath of the New Media Arts Crisis)


> jaromil said:
> Montevideo / Time Based  Arts ...  which is now called Nederlands
> Instituut voor Mediakunst  (NIMK, BTW)
> if  we speak of a national  institute that started in  a squat in
> Amsterdam 30 years  ago

Hello.

I did not remember that the 'Nimk' was started in a squat: isn't this the
story of Paradiso and Melkweg?

As far as I know the 'Netherlands Media Art Institute' was born when
'Monte Video' and 'Time Based Arts' merged (1993).

Monte Video was founded by René Coelho in 1978, and initially operated
from his house in Amsterdam. (was that squatted? I tend to doubt.)
Monte Video focused on video art and provided equipment for producing
works and space to show them (soon collecting and distributing...
video-tapes!).

Time Based Arts was founded in 1983 by the Association of Video Artists,
so it was an artists run association creating a network for distribution;
it was more performance oriented than Monte Video, according to the story
that was narrated to me, and which I deduced from the collection. (Can
anyone confirm this, please?)
Were they squatting? But they were getting funding...
I am somewhat curious.

Maybe other people on this list know more.

There is a page of history on the nimk.nl, but i saw no wikipedia entry on
this topic.
I find the *story of this institute quite beautiful and paradigmatic in
the development of the (non-linear) chain of media mutations (which could
off course be expanded):

happening/performance (art=life)
electronic art
video-art (art=registration)
media-art, software-art (art=simulation)

I paste it below.

Best,
Eleonora

===

**History**

1978
Monte Video is founded by René Coelho. From his home on the Singel in
Amsterdam he makes equipment and documentation available, and furnishes
one room as a gallery. The first video artist whose work is shown here on
the Singel was Livinus van de Bundt, Coelho's inspiration. Other artists,
such as Bill Viola, Gary Hill, Shelly Silver and Gabor Body, soon make
contact. It is not long before Monte Video has a large selection of works
available for rental.

1983
Thanks to government funding Monte Video is able to move to Amsterdam
North. There is now sufficient space to offer regular presentations. Not
only Dutch artists, but also those from other countries are given a chance
to show their videos or installations.

1986
Government funding received by Monte Video is cut back to almost nothing.
Monte Video does receive several small transitional grants from the city
of Amsterdam.
Time Based Arts, which had been founded in 1983 by the Association of
Video Artists, is fast becoming well-known as a distributor of video art,
and continues receiving government funding.

1986-1993
René Coelho continues on his own. Monte Video moves back to his home on
the Singel. The acquisition of production facilities, distribution,
documentation and promotion goes on, financed from his own income and by
organizing large projects. One of these, as an example, was 'Imago', an
exhibition of Dutch video installations which toured worldwide for five
years beginning in 1990. There were also plans laid for the first
conservation programs for video art.
The chairman of Time Based Arts, Aart van Barneveld, died; his death was
followed by many conflicts within the organization. In the early 1990s
Time Based Arts also lost its subsidies and threatened to go under. Monte
Video and Time Based Arts decide to provide a joint art program for
Amsterdam cable TV, Channel Zero.

1993
Time Based Arts merges with Monte Video. Their work is continued under the
new name of Netherlands Media Art Institute, Montevideo/Time Based Arts.
This fusion does free up national funding. In both 1997 and 2001 the
grants are expanded and converted into a structural subsidy for four
years.

1993-2002
The Netherlands Media Art Institute moves twice, in 1994 to the Spuistraat
and in 1997 to its present location on the Keizersgracht.
The Institute continues to grow through these years, and adopts the
following mission statement: The Netherlands Media Art Institute supports
media art in three core areas: presentation, research and conservation. At
the same time, through its facilities it offers extensive services for
artists and art institutions. Among these services are educational
programs, to be developed to accompany all activities.

and

**History of the Collection**

The collection of the Netherlands Media Art Institute, Montevideo/Time
Based Arts reflects the turbulent history of the Institute. In addition to
the collection of Monte Video, the predecessor of the Netherlands Media
Art Institute, the Institute administers the collections of four
institutions: the Lijnbaan Center (1970-1982), Time Based Arts
(1983-1994), De Appel (1975-1983) and the Institute Collection
Netherlands. This combination of artists' initiatives (Time Based Arts, De
Appel and the Lijnbaan Center) and more formal institutions (Institute
Collection Netherlands and the present Netherlands Media Art Institute)
affords the collection a surprising diversity. In addition to renowned
artists like Bill Viola, Nam June Paik and Gary Hill (who were represented
in the collection as far back as the 1970s), there are internationally
known Dutch artists who experimented with the medium for only a short
period in the 1970s, such as Marinus Boezem, Jan van Munster and Pieter
Engels.
Before any institutions at all had yet been created for the purpose of
collecting small centers were set up in various parts of The Netherlands
which facilitated and promoted the use of video by and for artists. The
earliest examples of this were Agora Studios in Maastricht, the Lijnbaan
Center in Rotterdam (itself a merger of the studio of Venster in Rotterdam
and the video studio which was set up for the Sonsbeek exhibition in 1971
in Arnhem), and a couple of individuals such as the artists Miguel-Ángel
Cárdenas and Jack Moore in Amsterdam, who made their cameras available for
other artists. Many of the works which were made in this earliest period
of Dutch video art only surfaced from oblivion in the course of the 1990s.
Surprising discoveries among them are the works of Dennis Oppenheim, Terry
Fox, Wim Gijzen, Nan Hoover and Tajiri.

With the arrival of the collection of De Appel an enormously rich
collection of video records of performances was added. De Appel flourished
in the 1970s as one of the most progressive international work sites for
performance art. The collection of this institution contained unique works
by Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Gina Pane, Carolee Schneemann and
others. But in addition to records of events in her own gallery, Wies
Smalls, the founder of De Appel, also built up a collection of
international video art in order to enable the Dutch public to become
acquainted with what was happening internationally, including work by
Douglas Davis, Ulrike Rosenbach, Joan Jonas and Alison Knowles.

In the early 1980s, with De Appel as its base, efforts were begun to
establish an association for video artists, which later created the Time
Based Arts Foundation. The collection of this artists' association, in
addition to works by artists based in The Netherlands, such as
Abramovic/Ulay, Hooykaas/Stansfield, Ben d'Armagnac, Christine Chiffrun
and Lydia Schouten, also included work by international artists like Mona
Hatoum and General Idea.
Time Based Arts maintained an active collection policy, in which any
artist who worked with video could try to have his or her work included in
the collection. As it grew the collection became enormously diverse and
afforded a good overview of the various ways that video could be employed
in the visual arts. Through in to the 1990s Time Based Arts played an
important role in the collection, distribution and support of video art
until, in 1994, under pressure from the municipal authorities of
Amsterdam, it entered into a merger with Monte Video.

René Coelho began his video gallery Monte Video in 1978, and in doing so
laid the foundation for the present Institute. Monte Video was a gallery
which specialized in electronic art and especially in video art that
sought out the creative possibilities and qualities of the medium itself.
An important impetus for establishing the institution was the work of the
Dutch video pioneer Livinus van de Bundt. He was therefore the first
artist to be shown in the gallery. Later the Vasulkas, Bert Schutter,
Peter Bogers, Matthew Schlanger and many others followed. In addition to
the works that were to be seen in the gallery, Monte Video began to be
active in collecting and distributing work. Bill Viola, Gary Hill, Shelly
Silver and Gabor Body were for instance artists who 'stabled' their work
with Monte Video. The gallery owed its international success chiefly to
this. When in the 1990s the conservation of video works became a pressing
problem, the then merged Montevideo/Time Based Arts established itself as
the goad and later as the center of technical expertise for carrying out
the Conservation of Dutch Video Art project. As well as the collections
described above, there was integral cooperation with museums that over the
course of time had also collected video work. In addition to much
technical research, the conservation efforts also prompted considerable
recording work and research into content. Among questions dealt with were
the status of the vehicle, the significance of the material chosen and
establishing the boundary conditions for proper exhibition. Because of the
differences in approach among the institutions from which they came,
considerable time was spent integrating the collections with one another,
and getting the possibilities for the use of the works coordinated with
one another. But now, with the end of the conservation project in sight,
the gaps between the collections appear to be closing ever more, and we
can proudly present our multi-faceted collection to the public, as we do
here.


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