Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

A Third Version of the Imaginary traces an encounter with the video and film library of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation in Nairobi. We follow the station?s librarian through tightly-packed shelves of video cassettes: he is searching for a specific image, and must sift through the identifying paperwork from a number of tapes. As he methodically moves among the stacks, a Swahili voice-over speaks about the arrival of video technology in Kenya and its impact on the archiving of television images: video may have cheapened production, but its material expense put pressure on storage. Later, the librarian converts a basement storage closet into a makeshift cinema, in order to screen some 16mm film material. The voice-over shifts accordingly, moving from video to film, and to the linguistic problem posed by the very word ?image? in Swahili. A visual and narrative echo chamber, this video addresses video?s address of film: the material facts of these media become the aesthetic facts of the work.

Benjamin Tiven lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, US. Forthcoming exhibitions, 2014: ICA Philadelphia (solo); gallery 1/9 Unosunove, Rome, IT (in collaboration); Courtisane festival, Ghent, Belgium. Recent exhibitions: Henningsen Gallery, Copenhagen, DN; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, DE; Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Copenhagen; Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY; Vivo Media Arts Center, Vancouver; Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. Recent film screenings: Rotterdam International Film Festival; Migrating Forms, NY; Museum of the Moving Image, NY; Cinéphémère, FIAC, Paris, FR; Vienna International Film Festival, AT; Arsenal Cinema, Berlin, DE; FID Marseille, FR; RIDM Festival, Montreal, QB; Oberhausen Short Film Festival, DE; 25FPS Festival, Zagreb, HR; Images Festival, Toronto, ON. Journal contributions: Triple Canopy, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Bidoun, Bulletins of the Serving Library, Roulotte issue #10, ACM, Barcelona, ESP. Public presentations, 2013: the Drawing Center; the Colloquium for Unpopular Culture, Westfälischer Kunstverein.