Saturday, 9th December 2023 at 15.00 in Cirkulacija², Ajdovščina underpass, Ljubljana – finissage of a  week long video-spatial installation

VIDEOLETTERS / Henrike von Dewitz and Simon Svetlik

This video installation is the second edition of an exchange of video files between Henrike von Dewitz and Simon Svetlik. Some years ago, they discovered that their videos speak a similar language and started a video dialogue. The only rule is to manipulate the video file that each artist receives from the other and send it back after transforming it into something new. Until the final result arises, those videos are handled by both artists a certain number of times. Both the creators themselves and the viewers will find it hard to detect who produced the video material composing the finished works.

Opening: Friday, 1st december 2023 at 20.00
Closing: Saturday, 9th december 2023 at 15.00

After the opening the exhibition is open every day, except sunday – from 2nd to 8th december 2023: from 15.00 to 19.00. On Saturday the matinee starts at 11.00.

The videos made by von Dewitz and Svetlik are based upon the manipulation of original footage of almost casual, documentary character. Promenades in natural environments and cities, documentation of ephemeral installations, objects and animals, landscapes and textures materialize, vanish, fade in and out and superimpose. This composition method leads to video art works with a strong sense of movement and suspense, multiple possible narratives and a specific mixture of abstract and documentary aspects.

Henrike von Dewitz was born in Cologne, Germany in 1981, where she studied anthropology, geography and African studies, German as a foreign language (Goethe-Institut) and later translation of German-Spanish literature in Seville at the University of Cologne. She lived in Cologne (Germany), Montevideo (Uruguay), Nancy (France) and Ljubljana (Slovenia); she works as a German teacher, translator and as a photo and video artist. From 2013 to 2019, she participated in the selection team for documentary films at the Nancy-Lorraine International Film Festival. In December 2019, as artist in residence at Laboratorio CINE Fac en elCCE in Montevideo (Uruguay), she also started working with Super 8 and 16 formats. Her artistic journey began during the three-year workshop of the Cologne Theater with black and white photography and work in the photo laboratory at Studiobühne Köln (Germany).

Her most important works and solo exhibitions:
We’ll see us tomorrow, documentary, Museo de la Memoria, Montevideo (Uruguay) December 2019
Depart – Høld & Nova, video, January 2019
L’Éternité – Høld & Nova, video, October 2018
4 Éléments 4.0, open-air video installation, in the frame of the Festival International du Film de Nancy, Cours de la manufacture Nancy (France), August 2018
4 Elements, pop-up video installation, Kino Otok Izola Cinema (Slovenia) June 2018
Midva – Dva Jasa, photography, Atelje 10, Tovarna Rog Ljubljana (Slovenia), November 2017
Referendum, video intervention in public space in the frame of Meta City Symptoms, train station Ljubljana (Slovenia), October 2017
Die 4 Elemente, at.tension #7, video projection Kino-Hanger, Kulturkosmos Gelände, Lärz, Mecklenburg Vorpommern (Germany), September 2017
Les 4 Elements (The 4 Elements), video exhibition, Galerie 9, Nancy (France), August / September 2017
Freier Fall (Free fall), Video Installation, in the frame of Meta City Symptoms, Sodarska Steza, Ljubljana (Slovenia), April 2016

Simon Svetlik was born in 1973 in Ljubljana, where he also graduated in painting. He also lives and works in Ljubljana. He creates with all accessible media and does not limit himself stylistically; his exploration of the connection between the visual and other media and the free choice of subject matter can hardly be described with a common denominator, an ism. He has created various works of art (paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, ambient installations, installations, performances…), platforms and participated in many group projects. Co-founded the group “Art group rgb” (collective artistic research “laboratory” – 2001), and the platform Symptoms of a Meta City (non-institutional art platform – 2015); works as an associate member of the Cirkulacija2 platform in Ljubljana; co-created the scenography for Francia Slaka’s latest film “As in Heaven, So on Earth”; as a designer and producer, he creates a series of performative events with the single title O, dedicated to multi-institutional/independent and non-profit production.

A selection of documented artistic presences:
Future trip interactive light installation (RGB) – (Lido, Venice 2005)
Eyecandy abstract animation – 1st price (Video tapestry concourse, Velenje 2005)
Sketch box 0.6 interactive light installation (RGB) – (Rog, Ljubljana 2007)
Transcentrala social artistic experiment (RGB) – (Rog, Ljubljana 2006 – 2007)
Feel the sun short video – (Signes de nuit, Paris 2006), (Cine pobre, Rio de Janeiro 2007)
Blodnjak video ambient installation – (Alkatraz Gallery, Metelkova mesto, Ljubljana 2008)
Buddha box light ambient installation (RGB) – Space for new dialogue – (Museum of Contemporary Art MUSUM, Vojvodina, Novi Sad 2008)
Parallel worlds group video installation – (Metelkova mesto 2006 – 2011)
RGB embassy – open studio/ performative space/ gallery – questioning the simulacrum of contemporary art production – (Rog, Ljubljana 2013 – 2021)
Meta City Symptoms – (various locations from 2015 onwards)
O – ambient music video of movement performances (various locations from 2011 onwards)

Production: Cirkulacija 2

Cofinancing: City of Ljubljana

Foto: Tatiana Kocmur

Excerpts:

VIDEOPISMA 2

VIDEOPISMA 3