Reconstructing swiss Video Art from the 1970s and 1980s

This publication refers to the 2008 exhibition and symposium "Reconstructing Swiss video art from the 1970s and 1980s" by the AktiveArchive research project.

The exhibition and symposium were created in collaboration with the Museum of Art Lucerne and were implemented on its premises. AktiveArchive combines art-scientific and conservation-restoration research in the field of electronic art. Historical and methodical research, documentation and analysis are as intrinsic to the project as are questions relating to re-performance, data transfer, restoration, and long-term conservation.

The exhibition provided the first opportunity to present an overview of 20 years of Swiss video art. More than 20 installations and over 30 videos were selected as being representative, and they were shown whenever possible with equipment dating from the time when the works were produced. Accompanying the symposium were discussions by both specialists from Germany, Holland and Switzerland as well as by the general public. These focused on the concept of the exhibition, the principle of re-performance implemented in the reconstructions, and the problems raised by the long-term conservation of electronic works.