THE JO’BURG FRINGE VIDEO BERLIN: Agter die Berge, 7hours

Agter die Berge (Behind the Mountains) is a group show showcasing contemporary South African video art. Hopping from quasi-documentary (Adrian Loveland and pascal schmitz, unhinged), to internecine violence (Kyle Southgate, Agter die Berge) to performance and mock political satire, the pieces touch upon themes relating to the aftermath of post- apartheid South Africa. Never explicitly political, violence, racial segregation and AIDS are read through telegraphic statements (Why did I die, Maria van Rooyen) or cartoon concept metaphors (Terms of Endearment, Johan Thom). There are also purely visual, delicately minimalist pieces, reaching back to the origins of screen art – such as Marcel Duchamp’s Anaemic Cinema – one which, Luminenz by Hilarion Manero, dominates the back room, and draws the viewer into its hypnotic changes and movements.

The exhibition shows 44 pieces by 35, mainly South African, artists, and is itself reminiscent of an expansive installation. The viewer is confronted by a bank of eight old-school cathode ray television monitors in pairs in the main room, suggesting a role-reversal: the monitors become the audience, and the viewer the screen.

On Saturdays, 11th June and 18th June, 7hours are showing some of the works including Agter die Berge on a large outdoor screen in what is possibly one of the most bucolic settings of any gallery/project space in Mitte – they are located in the gardens of the Vet Science campus off Chausseestr.

The main exhibition runs until Saturday 11th, with an additional outdoor performance on June 18th.

Photos courtesy of 7hours.

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Additional Information

7hours @ Haus 19
Exhibition opens on June 7 at 8pm and runs to June 26, 2011
In the Park Campus Nord
Humbold University
Access via:
Reinhardstr. 18 – 20 und 4
Philippstr. 13

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