Final Cut - Media Art and Cinema

The European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück is one of the largest media art events in Europe. In commemoration of the festival's 20th anniversary, this exhibition focused on commercial cinema, or "Hollywood" cinema, as an important system of reference for media art. On one hand, media art taps into the potential of narrative cinema and its seductive magic, while on the other hand, critically questions the values, codes and patterns of the film genre. Media artists are free from cinema's entertainment mandate, its narrative plot logic and realistic representation, because - in contrast to movie studio directors - they are solely responsible for the "final cut". Based on the positions of young and internationally renowned artists, the exhibition revealed that media art's relationship to commercial cinema fluctuates from admiration to self-reflection.

Artistic director: Hermann Nöring
Participants / artists: Candice Breitz (ZA), Pierre Huyghe (F), Mischa Kuball, Paul McCarthy (USA), Alex McQuilkin (USA), Bjørn Melhus and others

Venue and schedule:
Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche, Osnabrück, 25 Apr. - 20 May 2007