An exhibition of film and video works by eight national and international artists in the entire Beursschouwburg building. Variation is curated by Katerina Gregos.

The European Media Event, Contour Mechelen vzw, and The People’s Cinema have the pleasure to present ‘Variation’, an exhibition of film and video works by eight national and international artists in the multi-disciplinary art centre Beursschouwburg, Brussels. The exhibition takes place within the framework of the European Media Event 2009 (7-11 September 2009) and is an off-site event of Contour 2009 – the 4th Biennial of Moving Image. ‘Variation’, a platform for presentation of cutting-edge works in the moving image, is curated by Katerina Gregos, curator of Contour 2009.

The exhibition has been specially designed for the European Media Event. The ‘Variation’ segment of EME is entitled “Past Imperfect” and takes its cue from the conceptual framework of the Contour 2009 Biennial, which probes history, advocates its importance and revolves around questions of historical representation and historiography; exploring how historical narratives are constructed, engaging in a process of historical re-evaluation and demonstrating the increased importance of historical context in a large segment of contemporary art practice. How does one deal with the spectre of history and the ghosts of the past? How is history written and by whom? Whose history is it?

“Past Imperfect” continues along these lines and presents works by three artists in the Biennial as well as other related artists who are preoccupied with questions of history – whether social, political or cultural - and whose work demonstrates a keen interest in exploring diverse modes of documentary narrative, on the one hand, and performative practices relating to historical monuments and public space, on the other. The works presented thus oscillate between private and public space, between the microcosmic and the macrocosmic. A number of them focus on contested personal histories, pointing to the relativity of memory, while others probe questions the physical representation of historical events in public space. Finally, the exhibition can perhaps best be described as echoing a line from the voice over to Chris Marker’s 1983 film Sans Soleil "We do not remember; we rewrite memory much as history is rewritten."

The exhibition consists of a series of single channel video works, which will create a parcours throughout the premises of the Beursschouwburg.

Participating artists: Lene Berg (Norway, 1965), Marina Gioti (Greece, 1972), Jasper Rigole (Belgium, 1980), Yorgos Sapountzis (Greece, 1976), Zin Taylor (Canada, 1977), Rebecca Ann Tess (Germany, 1980), Angel Vergara (Spain/Belgium, 1958), T.J. Wilcox (USA, 1965).

Curator: Katerina Gregos