It is because the nightingale
Sang all night long;
From her sweet noise,
In echo and re-echo,
The roses have sprung up.

— Die Nachtigall, Theodor Storm, 1885

Friedl vom Gröller (London, England 1946). Studies at Graphic Instruction and Research Institute Vienna. Photography exhibitions at Centre Pompidou (Paris), Frankfurter Kunstverein, etc; Austrian State Prize for Photography (2005). 40+ films since 1968; screenings at Austrian Filmmuseum, International FIlm Festival Rotterdam, Anthology Film Archives (New York), etc. Founder of School for Artistic Photography and School for Independent Film, Vienna. Lives in Vienna, Austria. Fifth appearance at Media City including retrospective screening and exhibition in 2010.

An animation made from damp- and mould-damaged juvenile hall ledgers from the years 1940-1960. The Rorschach-like patterns that have formed over the years overrun the notes like dark shadows, representing the psychological impact of detention on the young inmates.

James Sansing (San Rafael CA 1970). Studies at San Francisco Art Institute. Works in film, painting and sculpture. Eighteen films and media artworks since 1991; screenings at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Cleveland Institute of Art, Los Angeles Film Forum, etc. Lives in San Francisco, California. First appearance at Media City.

Inspired by Dziga Vertov’s Lullaby (1937) as well as by Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests (1964-66), VIS à VIS turns black and white portraits into a set of Romances, a notebook of sexualities: lesbian, gay, straight, s/m, solo… a celebration of friends and divergent (d)alliances. Out of the past comes a vision of the future as a set of erotic possibilities.

Abigail Child (Newark NJ 1948). Studies at Radcliffe College, Harvard University and Yale University School of Art. 40+ films since 1970; screenings at all major venues for artists’ film worldwide; in permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), etc. Fulbright (1993) and Guggenheim (1996) Fellowships; Rome Prize (2010). Six volumes of poetry since 1983. Lives in New York, USA. Third appearance at Media City including retrospective screening (2004).

Image is of production notations for not far at all, from the artist’s notebook.

Peter Gidal (Mount Vernon NY 1946). Studies at Royal College of Art. Cinema programmer (1971-74) at London Film-makers’ Co-operative. 30+ films since 1967; screenings include solo presentations at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museum of Modern Art (New York), etc. Author of Structural Film Anthology (1976), Andy Warhol: Films and Paintings (1971), Materialist Film (1988), etc. Lives in London, England. First appearance at Media City.

“The film is not about the amusement park that one normally associates with this name. The spectacle in the film takes place in a much more basic sense. More than the close-ups of anatomical details and the associated sexuality, what is actually “unsettling” about Im Wiener Prater is the gaze forced upon the viewer: this woman looks at us, questioning and self-confidently — now that’s pure cinema of attraction.” — Naoko Kaltschmidt

Friedl vom Gröller (London, England 1946). Studies at Graphic Instruction and Research Institute Vienna. Photography exhibitions at Centre Pompidou (Paris), Frankfurter Kunstverein, etc; Austrian State Prize for Photography (2005). 40+ films since 1968; screenings at Austrian Filmmuseum, International FIlm Festival Rotterdam, Anthology Film Archives (New York), etc. Founder of School for Artistic Photography and School for Independent Film, Vienna. Lives in Vienna, Austria. Fifth appearance at Media City including retrospective screening and exhibition in 2010.

“What can be called the condition of spectating is the awareness of being viewed at the same time one is viewing — which is, in the end, an ideological condition.” ― Peter Gidal, Andy Warhol: Blow Job (Afterall Books, 2008)

Andy Warhol (Pittsburgh PA 1928 – New York NY 1987). “I always thought I’d like my tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment’.” — Andy Warhol