Last Saturday, we went at the last moment to the Media Arts Festival in Leeuwarden. The festival lasted until Sunday. The festival took place in the old prison of the city and showed works of art made by graduates in new media. Some of the works were exhibited  in the solitary confinement cells while others where shown the corridors and other areas of the building.

For me the most interesting contributions where:
Eric Parren – Genepool  http://ericparren.net/works/genepool.html
Aram Pourdjafar – Identiteit van een vluchteling
Tim Scheidegger – klei/gezichtsculptuur
Jan Merlin Marski – Entropie http://www.screenfly.eu/?page_id=165
Martha Benedikte Hjorth Jessen- http://marthabenedikte.dk/portfolio/works/
en tot slot Marcel Brosens – Equal is not Equal http://marcelbrosens.com/?p=work

You should really check out the links

Although the works differ very much, from recorded performances and photography to interactive displays, the visitors were asked to vote for ‘the best’ art work. I voted for Tim Scheidegger’s ‘klei/gezichtssculptuur’.
It is a video of about 15 minutes that was shown in one of the confinement cells. The video shows the face of the artist filmed close-up against a white background…Suddenly from out of nowhere (at least the viewer can’t see it) someone trows a piece of wet clay in his face really hard.. And when I say hard I mean really painfully hard.

Trapped in the small space of the cell the viewer is forced to watch how one piece of clay after another lands on his head. Over time the artist has difficulties to see and breath and is transformed into a statue. The small cell just got a little bit smaller in just fifteen minutes. Great work!

The winners were announced last Sunday but it isn’t published on the website. Oh well.. had a great time. Will certainly go next year as well.

Mini Projection by Aike Lütkemöller

Mini Projection by Aike Lütkemöller

Loom by Jan Willem Deiman

We Are Between You And Me, Pearls by Barbara Amalie Skovmand Thomsen

Tim Scheidegger klei/gezichtsculptuur (from gerritrietveldacademie.nl)

Architectural Recalibration by Martha Benedikte Hjorth Jessen

Architectural Recalibration by Martha Benedikte Hjorth Jessen

Festival page: http://www.mediaartfriesland.nl/