German television station ikono is hosting a twenty-four-hour video art festival, something that hasn’t ever been done before. While this is a completely new idea for a television station, notable video artists such as Bill Viola, Alfredo Jaar, and William Kentridge have already been conformed to be broadcasting their works on television as well as through an online live stream.
The festival follows ikono‘s main aim of creating visual bridges between periods of time, various movements and disciplines, and combines contemporary non-narrative films and other time-based art practices from the last few decades with a retrospective from the ikono collection of video clips focusing on art from antiquity to the present.
Elizabeth Markevitch, founder of ikono told Slow Art Day:
I thought why not achieve for the arts with TV as radio has been achieving for music? Why not use this mass medium for bringing the entire world of arts into the homes of an international public? Over the past few years, we have established a wonderful collaboration between art historians, curators, and cameramen in working with artists and international art institutions. We are producing video clips about artworks from all time periods, movements and disciplines, highlighting single exhibitions as well as the most stunning collections and treasures of our cultural heritage.
The “On Air Festival” will be broadcasted 24/7 from September 6th to 29th on German television station ikono, make sure to subscribe to festival updates here.
