Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck & Media Farzin Artwork “Chronoscope, 1951, 11pm,” Selected for Tate Collection
In conjunction with our media partner Gallerist, Moving Image, Contemporary Video Art Fair, is very pleased to announce that artists Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck & Media Farzin are the recipients of the inaugural Moving Image Award. The Moving Image Award funds the acquisition by Tate of artwork exhibited at the fair, as selected by Tate’s Curator of Film, Stuart Comer.
Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck in collaboration with Media Farzin. Chronoscope, 1951, 11pm; 2011 (gallery view)Single channel HD video installation, 24:49 min, B & W, stereo sound. Ed. 5 + 2AP Photo: silversalt, courtesy of Artspace, Sydney
Presented at Moving Image by Green Art Gallery (Dubai, UAE), Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck & Media Farzin’s work Chronoscope, 1951, 11pm is a collaboration between an artist and an art historian. It is a video-collage of six television episodes of an early American current affairs program called “The Longines Chronoscope.” The discussions that have been selected are mostly from 1951 and relate to the situation in Iran soon after the nationalization of the oil industry by Mohammad Mosaddegh, as prime minister under the young Shah and before the 1953 coup by the British and American secret services.
Since the mid-‘90s Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck (born 1972, Caracas, Venzuela) has developed a hybrid practice that incorporates the activities of a researcher, archivist, historian, and curator. He has worked with a wide range of themes and mediums, challenging traditional conventions of style and categorization. His productions formally resemble or incorporate the works of others, stressing notions of authorship and cultural authority. Balteo Yazbeck’s work aims to reveal the political strategies and motives at work in the world by analyzing the dynamics of power and propaganda in modern history and aesthetics. His productions have been shown internationally since the mid-‘90s and are represented in institutional and private collections.
Media Farzin (born 1979, San Diego) is a New York-based art historian. She has a BA in Fine Arts from Tehran University, an MA in Modern Art History / Curatorial Studies from Columbia University, and is currently a PhD candidate at the City University of New York. Her research looks at language-based art in the 1960s and ‘70s in relation to performance. She is a lecturer at the City College of New York and an instructor at the Museum of Modern Art.
Regarding his selection, Stuart Comer noted “Chronoscope, 1951, 11pm highlights the convergence in the early 1950s of images, information, global politics and the emerging cultural dominance of broadcast media. Through careful research and clever appropriation, Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck and Media Farzin provide an archaeological approach to media and a blueprint for understanding the intricacies and contemporary legacies of the Cold War.”
ABOUT THE MOVING IMAGE AWARD
Gallerist, the host of the official online catalog for Moving Image (movingimage.gallerist.com), established the award to raise awareness of the importance of incorporating video and film into the permanent collections of major art institutions. The award was inspired by San Francisco collectors Pamela and Richard Kramlich, who have supported contemporary artists working in video, film, and new media through their private collection and through the New Art Trust, a non-profit organization they founded to advance the collection, preservation, exhibition, and understanding of technology-based art forms, particularly at the Trust’s three supported organizations, Tate, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
“The Moving Image Fair surveys an impressive, international selection of recent film and video work thoughtfully installed and shown at its best,” said Stuart Comer. “Tate is grateful to Gallerist for this award, which helps to extend our commitment to representing innovation in film and video in the Collection. We are delighted that the award highlights the pioneering achievements of Pamela and Richard Kramlich, whose longstanding commitment to Tate and the New Art Trust has contributed substantially to our support of artists working with the moving image.”
The Moving Image Award grants $10,000 to Tate Modern to purchase new work for their collection. Speaking on the award, Pamela Kramlich responded, “My husband Dick and I thank Galerist for so kindly honoring us in this way. We’re very happy that the Tate’s collection will be enriched and that our names will be associated with this new acquisition, particularly at a moment when the museum’s lively, informed, and highly important contribution to media art is made even more conspicuous by the advent of the Tanks and the programs planned for these spaces, which include the frequent presentation of time-based and moving image art.”
Gallerist founder and CEO Do?an Perese explained the media company’s support for the award: “Gallerist is honored to sponsor the 2012 Moving Image Award. Our goal is to support the local arts community of each fair we partner with. The prestige of this year’s judge and museum acquisition bring this to a global level.”
Moving Image co-founders Murat Orozobekov and Edward Winkleman noted that the Moving Image Award was designed to honor a collector couple who have greatly increased awareness about the issues involved in collecting, preserving, and exhibiting moving-image-based artwork. “Pamela and Richard Kramlich have been instrumental in setting the gold standard for conservation and the presentation of video art,” said Winkleman. “Through both their private collection and the educational and conservation efforts of the New Art Trust, they have helped support so many artists and museums dedicated to the medium. We are delighted that the award affords us an opportunity to honor their contributions to this emerging field, to acknowledge the fine work of Tate’s Curator of Film Stuart Comer, and to enrich the collection of Tate with Comer’s selection of work from the excellent offerings of this year’s Moving Image London fair through a gift made in the Kramlichs’ name.”
ABOUT GALLERIST
Gallerist is an integrated web platform specifically designed to meet the needs of art world professionals. By empowering art fairs, galleries, institutions and arts organizations with better technological resources, Gallerist provides them a stronger and more convenient bridge to interact with global collectors. Implementing such features as high resolution scalable images, automated digital catalogues, online inventory and collection maintenance applications, purchase processing, Skype, private messaging and a secure, client-customizable viewing platform for images and video art, Gallerist aims to enhance the way people exhibit, experience, and exchange art around the world. (www.gallerist.com) Gallerist also funds the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Award, which is presented at the Dallas Art Fair and the NADA art fair.
ABOUT MOVING IMAGE
Moving Image, the contemporary video art fair, will return to The Bargehouse, October 11-14, 2012, during Frieze Art Fair in London. Located within short walking distance of Tate Modern, the Bargehouse is just behind the Oxo Tower on the South Bank. Moving Image will be free to the public and open Thursday – Saturday, October 11 – 14, 11 am – 7 pm, and on Sunday, October 14, 11 am – 4 pm. An opening reception for Moving Image will take place Thursday, October 11, 6 – 8 pm. Moving Image was conceived to offer a unique viewing experience with the excitement and vitality of a fair, while allowing moving image-based artworks to be understood and appreciated on their own terms. Moving Image London 2012 will feature a selection of international commercial galleries and non-profit institutions presenting single-channel videos, single-channel projections, video sculptures, and other larger video installations.
Moving Image October 11-14, 2012 Bargehouse Oxo Tower Wharf
