Conference: Gerry Schum - TV as a Fireplace

 
Film maker and programmer Gerry Schum (Cologne, 1938-1973) was a pioneer in the art and media landscape of the 1960s and 1970s. In collaboration with Ursula Wevers, Schum realised for German television Fernsehgalerie; a unique and unconventional exhibition project that offered artists the opportunity to create a new artwork specifically for the medium television. By broadcasting the works on public television, Schum managed to break the usual art circuit of museums and galleries and bring art work in the living room.

Land Art (1969) and Identifications (1970) are the two main television exhibitions. With these two works, Schum abandoned the current format of the art documentary and invited artists like Joseph Beuys, Gilbert & George, Alighiero Boetti, Jan Dibbets, Richard Long, Mario Merz and Robert Smithson to make a piece of art for television.

In the context of the exhibition Time Extended / 1964 – 1978. Part II, Herbert Foundation organizes the symposium Gerry Schum -TV as a Fireplace in collaboration with Art Cinema OFFoff.

With lectures, conversations and screenings, Schum’s vision, his oeuvre and unique position in the international arts and media landscape are discussed. During the symposium, TV as a Fireplace (1969) by Jan Dibbets, Land Art (1969) and Identifications (1970) will be screened.

 
PROGRAMME

2 p.m.   Welcome
2.15 p.m.   Robyn Farrell: Gerry Schum, vision and oeuvre
2.45 p.m.   Screening: Land Art
3.15 p.m.   Break
3.30 p.m.   Eric de Bruyn: Schum within the mediascape of Germany
4.15 p.m.   Screening: Identifications (selection)
4.45 p.m.   Panel with Jan Dibbets, Eric de Bruyn and Robyn Farrell
5 p.m.   End of the conference
5 – 7 p.m.   Opening of the exhibition Time Extended / 1964 – 1978. Part II
 

SCREENING

Jan Dibbets, TV as a Fireplace (1969)

Gerry Schum, Land Art – Fernsehausstellung I, Fernsehgalerie Berlin (1969)

-Richard Long, Walking a straight 10 mile line forward and back shooting every half mile (6’3”)
-Barry Flanagan, A hole in the sea (3’44”)
-Dennis Oppenheim, Timetrack, following the timeborder between Canada and USA (2’6”)
-Robert Smithson, Fossil quarry mirror with four mirror displacements (3’12”)
-Marinus Boezem, Sand fountain (4’11”)
-Jan Dibbets, 12 hours tide object with correction of perspective (7’32”)
-Walter de Maria, Two lines three circles on the desert (4’46”)

Gerry Schum, Identifications – Fernsehausstellung II, Fernsehgalerie Berlin (1970)

Selection:
-Joseph Beuys (4’55”)
-Gilbert & George (1’25”)
-Stanley Brouwn (1’5”)
-Ger van Elk (1’25”)
-Giovanni Anselmo (1’10”)
-Alighiero Boetti (2’8”)
-Gino de Dominicis (1’55”)
-Mario Merz (1’30”)
-Richard Serra (2’48”)
-Lawrence Weiner (50”) 


Identifications is screened integrally at the exhibition Time Extended / 1964-1978. Part II
 

SPEAKERS

Robyn Farrell is curator, writer and curatorial assistant in the department of contemporary art of the Chicago Art Institute. Farrell’s academic focus lies on new forms of media art, (European) artists networks and on the distribution and exhibition history of film and video art.

Eric de Bruyn is lecturer of Media Theory and researcher at Leiden University. The research of the Bruyn focuses on ‘media topologies’: genealogies of topological structures, models and strategies in modern and contemporary art.

Jan Dibbets begins in the 1960s with a study of visual perception and photographic reality. With his work, Dibbets adheres to the conceptual movement of the 1960s to 1970s. Due to the frequent use of the landscape, his work is regularly discussed within the context of Land Art.