Festival miden

Is. The. Message. Medium. The.

Curators: Gioula Papadopoulou & Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos

Criticizing aspects of pop culture in a radio interview on CBC’s “Other Voices” in 1965 (where the host of the program, Jim Guthro, introduces him as “the world’s first pop philosopher”) Marshall McLuhan explained the “Andy Warhol effect” (duplicating an image over and over again) saying: “we have mentioned how that has a strange effect upon the image: if you take a picture of Liz Taylor or anybody at all and repeat and repeat it, the effect is to transform Liz Taylor into a corporate, massive and non-private picture of any given individual at all. This is one of the most strange transformations going on at the electric age, more and more corporate or iconic imagery is being formed, while private, individual image takes a smaller and smaller place.” So, the initial “message” or “reference” is actually gone.

But probably, McLuhan’s “pop philosophy”, and especially his most repeatedly reproduced and famous quote “the medium is the message”, should be viewed under the same light: repeated over and over again for almost 5 decades, it has actually lost its meaning. In 1967 McLuhan himself “sabotaged” his own message transforming it to a “massage”. Regardless whether the author himself or the “demon of typography” is responsible for the final title (there are two versions of the story in bibliography), the book “The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects” (co-created by McLuhan and graphic designer Quentin Fiore) left its own mark in the history of media analysis, mostly due to its self-mockery title. In any way, the establishment and acceptance of the error (an inside sabotage of the message via a playful “language game”) is a clearly artistic gesture, which brings to mind many pioneer artists (and especially video artists) who experimented with the new electronic media from mid 60s and on. A common ground for these artists (and groups) was an “inside critique”, using the new media of their time (such as TV broadcasting, video, closed circuits etc) as mediums for their art, with the purpose to criticize or to alter the medium itself and, subsequently, its meaning. And, of course, when it comes to arts, things can get far more complicated. Understanding their “medium” is not always the key to their message. Even more, sometimes their real medium is not exactly what you think…

“Is. The. Message. Medium. The.” is a video art selection with works that have been previously screened in h (Kalamata, Greece). Via diverse expressive forms of video, all works have in common a strong reference to their own medium(s). But, clearly, to just define the medium as video, or even video art, is not enough: the spectator should unfold all layers of mediums -and references to other mediums- to unveil the message. Or to create one.

Participating artists/videos

  1. Tal Amiran, Untitled (band in a studio), UK 2006, 2.23
  2. Kelly Oliver and Keary Rosen, First Firing, USA 2007, 2:35
  3. Ignacio Sanchez Bravo, The English Echo, UK 1999, 4.30
  4. Mary Zygouri, Decadent parade, Italy 2007, 3:10
  5. Krister Kennedy, No thoughts at last, Sweden 1996, 2.30
  6. Paul Freeman, Sigmund & Jacques: Beneath the Valley of Object A, Canada 2011, 3.35
  7. Rajorshi Ghosh, As a rule, USA/India 2011, 2.12
  8. Makis Faros, LEBENSWEISHEITSPIELEREI (from Wallace Stevens’ poem), Greece 2009, 3.13
  9. Tobias Zehntner, Aquarium, Denmark 2008, 1:58
  10. Stefan Adamski, Induction, Poland 2010, 3.16
  11. Jennifer Campbell, Precipitate, USA 2010, 3.42
  12. The ManosBuckius Cooperative, 101 Ways to Humanize Technology, USA 2007, 3.11
  13. Timo Wright, Self-Portrait, Finlad 2010, 2.19
  14. Boe-lin Bastian, Jellies (Coupling Series), Australia 2010, 4.13
  15. Joacelio Batista, If I ask myself, Why do my lips refuse to answer?, Brazil 2010, 3.00
  16. Magdalena Pederin, Voice from the Loudspeaker, Croatia 2006, 4.51
  17. Antti Savela, My Way, Sweden 2010, 4:50

Duration: 57 min

Video Art Festival Miden

Festival Miden1, the first Greek video art festival presented in open public spaces, is an annual video art & new media cultural event held in Kalamata, GR. It is an independent organization founded, organized and curated by a team of contemporary Greek artists. Since 2005, Festival Miden has been gradually established as one of the most successful and interesting video art festivals in Greece and abroad and has been a significant point of cultural exchange for Greek and international video art, creating an alternative, peripheral meeting point for emerging and established video artists. Info: www.festivalmiden.gr


  1. Miden means “zero” in Greek [↩]