Source Video Magazine of Contemporary Art

Source - No ordinary video

Friday night, curled up on the couch with a bowl of munchies and a video. But "Source 8" is no ordinary video - it is a magazine of contemporary art. I'm watching the eighth in a series of one-hour productions comprising about fifteen brief features, by and with famous and not-so-famous artists. And with a content that sometimes causes me to choke on the munchies.

Simina Astilean is an artist and producer of "Source" - Video Magazine of Contemporary Art, a non-profit project. She is also designer and photo editor for the newspaper, "Space."
Dorinel Marc is an artist and producer of "Source" - Video Magazine of Contemporary Art, a non-profit project. In August he will invite the Swedish art world and others to join him on a journey to Romania to observe a lengthy solar eclipse, 2 minutes and 23 seconds long.
Annika Hansson is the chief editor of CRAC in Context www.crac.org . At the same time, she contributes to the Moderna Museet web site www.modernamuseet.se. Earlier, she was the chief editor of Art Orbit www.artnode.se/artorbit .

The introduction to “Source 8” purrs pleasantly on the video. It resembles a road movie: the camera quickly glides over bridges and roads, with brief clips from upcoming features interspersed. Reminds me of early MTV, really cool. And as I said, it’s appealing like a well-produced road movie with power under the hood and an indefinable but tangible sense of freedom. I understand what Source is at least I thought I did.

Thirty minutes into "Source 8" and my perception of the project has changed with each new article. By then, "Source 8" has taken me from Chris Burden’s b-car at Magasin 3, Anna Åhdahl in a blonde wig accompanied by dumb-blonde jokes, and a cartoon by Samuel Nyholm, to Steven Bachelder’s interpretation of camera movements over bodies riddled with bullets, Designerpool’s gorgeous models, and rubbish displayed at one of New York’s most respected galleries. And somewhere along the way, the munchies stuck in my throat, thanks to Kendell Geers’ film of the lynching and murder of a black woman in South Africa, accompanied by the words of Marcel Duchamp.

push the play button to view the intro to Source 8 in real video

"Source 8" continues to offer surprises for another thirty minutes, with features including Erik Aalto’s Fauna, in which a tree is chopped down, Ann-Sofie Sidén’s muddy QM, Rineke Dijkstra’s techno-swaying teenagers, and Tobias Sjödin’s skateboarders who never get anywhere.

"Source" is produced by artists Simina Astilean and Dorinel Marc. They want "Source" to be viewed as just one of many contemporary channels with the unique quality of doing justice to the art using moving pictures and sound. This is a venue for video art, computer animations, performances, happenings, objects, and documentation of exhibitions quite simply, whatever captures the interest of Simina and Dorinel. And the comprehensive artistic concept and form bind the subject matter together.

Neither Simina nor Dorinel wish to be limited to roles as producers or designers of "Source." They are artists first, and Source is just one of many projects. With "Source" they take responsibility for showing contemporary art that must be reproduced in video format, but at the same time, each issue is a personal masterpiece comprising their highly personal selection, editing, design, and sound. An independent creation by Simina and Dorinel is also presented in every issue.

While "Source" does not adhere to themes, a unifying thread often appears during the course of the project. Much of the content of "Source 8"is violent, notes Dorinel. And there is room here to consider how violence is interpreted through different representations; Geers’ film, Bachelder’s models, and Nyholm’s cartoon feature "Planet Invasion."

"Source," first produced in 1994, evolved when Simina and Dorinel discovered that there was no forum for contemporary art with moving pictures and sound. All they could find was SVT’s Bildjournalen (Photo Journal), which occasionally presented this component of contemporary art. The MTV of the early nineties inspired Simina.

In her own projects, Simina works with music and text alone; experimenting, blending, and trying new techniques. For the moment, she has found the ultimate combination of narrative wordplay, political commitment, and a relaxed attitude in Romanian hiphop. High and low, effectively packaged.

While Simina’s approach is more reserved, Dorinel, on the other hand, exercises direct confrontation with his audience. He uses invitations to convey certain aspects of reality to the world of art and vice versa. There was the time when he invited the Red Cross to a first aid demonstration at Smart Show in Stockholm. Or when he invited the public to see a woman who demonstrated day in and day out on the square, Sergels torg, for the right to her own children. Last year he invited an audience to witness his own premiere visit to the new Modern Museum; this fall he plans to hold his retrospective exhibition there as well.

Planning for the fall and winter issues of "Source" is now underway. Once again, Simina and Dorinel browse among artworks of known and unknown artists, among foreigners and Swedes, among objects they find on the street and works at major exhibitions. But, be careful; you may choke on your munchies.

Source" is on sale at the following outlets:
Stockholm: Galleri Index, the bookstore Konstig, the bookshop at the Modern Museum
Göteborg: Göteborgs Konsthall (Art Gallery)
London: ICA
Tokyo: distribution will begin shortly

Source subscription,
Contact Source Video Magazine of Contemporary Art
e-mail: source1@hem1.passagen.se
website: http://hem1.passagen.se/source1/

Translation by Susan Larsson