The Videonale is a festival for video and time-based art forms that takes place every two years in Bonn. Each Videonale shows up to 30 works by international artists, selected by a jury from a large number of submissions from all over the world. The works are then presented for six weeks in an exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Bonn and the exhibition is accompanied by a diverse festival program
The VIDEONALE will take place in its 19th edition from 31.03. - 14.05.2023 with an exhibition of 27 video artworks at Kunstmuseum Bonn and a diverse program in the midst of the exhibition and at satellites in the urban area of Bonn.
With each work, a new window is opened to the diverse range of contemporary productions from the field of video art and moving images. The themes are as varied as they are relevant to the present. Each of the 27 works opens a new window onto the multifaceted spectrum and diverse themes of contemporary productions from the field of video art and the moving image:
Copyright: Videonale.19
Together with the artists, it takse a look at the power imbalance between the Global North and Global South and cast a view on the effects of this imbalance on nature and humans from different—oftentimes indigenous—perspectives. Via the stages of performative mise-en-scènes, it enters into the worlds of queer notions of the body that not only give an account of the difficult path to finding one’s identity in a heteronormative environment, but at the same time relate the search for new, autonomous forms of community. They tune in to the stream of selfie formats and listen to autobiographical stories of experiencing discrimination and everyday racism. Experiencing how art and culture cut their way through the cracks in the walls of censorship and how the struggle for freedom of speech is resolutely and permanently inscribed in public urban space—always and at all times present for everyone.
Among different activities, the festival program includes screening of (DON’T) SLIDE INTO MY DMS with Ji Su Kang-Gatto. It is addressing the term of Sliding into the DMs, which is a colloquial term for posting a private message on a social media platform and SEX WORK IN THE DIGITAL AGE: GENDER, CLASS AND ACCOUNTABILITY with Will Fredo, Leo Galileo and Misal Adnan Yıldız. In ›SHTV: EL ÚLTIMO TOUR DEL MUNDO‹ Will Fredo accompanies human rights lawyer and porn actor Leo Galileo. Screening of clips of the film and discuss with artists how sex workers use the internet to renegotiate their relationship to society.
After the festival, we will permanently show all works that have been approved by the artists in the online video archive of the Videonale. More than 140 video artworks from past Videonale festivals are now freely accessible for research and viewing. You can find the archive here: archive.videonale.org