Page 40 - Studio International - January 1971

Art on TV the artist sinking lower into the ground with screen image from top to bottom in complete
each shot—was 'acquired' and screened on silence—action and result, simple and perfect;
successive days as a series of four-second inter- Gilbert & George posing like statues in a
Charles Harrison ruptions of normal German TV programmes gently breeze-blown rural idyll, to the sound

(sponsored by two private collectors; it was of one of the drawing-room piano pops of
also later shown in Holland) ; and Jan Dibbets' yesteryear, their stillness broken by George
TV as Fireplace in which the TV screen is 'set on for an elegant drag at his cigarette; Mario
fire' for 20 minutes (in colour for the fortunate Merz drawing out the Fibonacci spiral on a
few). pane of glass upon the other side of which a
On 15 April 1969 the first production of Gerry Recently Gerry Schum has been working snail carries its own matching spiral.
Schum's Fernsehgalerie (TV Gallery) was entirely with videotape, and the Fernseh- The general quality of involvement in art,
screened over nationwide German television. galerie has become the Videogalerie, market- shown by television, certainly in this country,
The programme was called 'Land Art' and ing video casettes in limited editions. These has been almost consistently abysmal. It has
consisted of eight original works by eight editions can be played through any colour been characteristically second-hand and un-
artists loosely associated with what has been television set fitted with a videotape recorder. professional; art as high-camp news, art as
called Earthworks, Earth Art, Land Art, etc. Among the casette editions made so far have mystified by the art-critic-as-telegogue, art as
The eight works were : Richard Long, Walking been works by Joseph Beuys, Jan Dibbets, panel game, art as snob culture, etc., etc.
a straight line 10 miles long, out and back (Dart- Lawrence Weiner, Mario Merz and Gilbert & Gerry Schum has enabled and encouraged
moor, England) ; Barry Flanagan, A Hole in George. Each film is an original work. Several artists from several countries to make art in a
the Sea (Scheveningen, Holland) ; Dennis of these casette editions were previewed at the form which renders it available at first hand—
Oppenheim, Timetrack (Fort Kent, USA— Cologne Kunstmarkt during October 1970 as original material—to the whole vast tele-
Canada) ; Robert Smithson, Fossil Quarry and they have sold well at high prices. vision audience. He has also established a
Mirror (Cayuga Lake, NY) ; Marinus Boezem, Gerry Schum's second complete programme, means of operation and organization by which
Sand Fountain (Camargue, France) ; Jan `Identifications', was screened on 30 Novem- the artists can be remunerated for this as they
Dibbets, 12 Hours Tide Object with Perspective ber 1970 commencing at 10.50 pm on Pro- will never be by a 'cultural service' which
Correction (Dutch Coast) ; Walter de Maria, gramme 1 of Sudwestfunk Baden-Baden.
Two Lines, Two Circles in the Desert (Mojave Finance was one third by the TV station and
Desert, USA) ; Michael Heizer, Coyote (Coyote two-thirds by the town of Hannover. A pre-
Dry Lake, California). Each work was struc- miere was held at the Kunstverein, Hannover,
tured specifically for the medium of TV; what on 20 November. Twenty artists from six
was screened was the original work, not a film countries contribute one work each. Films by
of the work nor a film about the work. There Richard Serra and Keith Sonnier are in-
was no commentary. cluded by permission of Leo Castelli Gallery,
The 'Land Art' film has since been shown in NY; otherwise filming was done by Gerry
various club or gallery situations—for instance Schum. Material is included from some of the
at the ICA in London during the exhibition casette editions. Artists included were Joseph
`When Attitudes become Form' in August Beuys, Klaus Rinke, Ulrich Rückriem and
1969, and at the Museum of Modern Art, New Reiner Ruthenbeck (Germany), Gary
York, during the 'Information' show last Kuehn, Keith Sonnier, Richard Serra, Franz
summer—but has only recently begun to Erhard Walter and Lawrence Weiner
attract some real interest from the BBC. It is to (America), Stanley Brouwn and Ger van Elk
be hoped, and indeed seems likely, that this in- (Holland), Hamish Fulton and Gilbert &
terest will bear fruit before long. George (England), Daniel Buren (France),
The works in the 'Land Art' film vary in and Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier
quality, but the best are considerable works of Paolo Calzolari, Gino de Dominicis, Mario
art which bear witness to the artists' extra- Merz and Gilberto Zorio (Italy). The works
ordinary ability to come to terms with the last for anything from a few seconds (Fulton,
possibilities of a new medium. Richard Long's Buren, Rinke) to a few minutes (Beuys,
10-mile walk, out and back, with the camera Sonnier).
shooting six seconds of the landscape ahead at As in the 'Land Art' film the quality of the
each half-mile interval, or Jan Dibbets' works in 'Identifications' varies enormously,
superb play upon the relationship between flat but unlike the majority of the works in the
(vertical) screen and flat (horizontal) beach earlier film, most of the works in 'Identi-
could only have been realised in this form; they fications' involve some human presence or feeds off them as eccentric subject matter.
are marvellously precise in their use of the action. What is perhaps significant is that Although the 'Land Art' programme was
medium. many of the most successful contributions are extremely well received by critics, and
Gerry Schum's role is that of master tech- made by artists whose work is often hard to although 'Identifications' deserves to be so
nician, using his own expertise as a film-maker record and display otherwise without dis- equally, Schum cannot count on continued
to facilitate the realization of the artists' ideas traction or loss in context or translation: financial support for these programmes unless
without imposing upon them. He has also Beuys hunched up to his felted-over TV set, those ultimately responsible for television
acted as impresario and agent. The 'Land drawing on boxing gloves and beating hell out schedules become convinced of the feasibility
Art' film was financed by a television station in of it before indulging in a deliberate and and desirability of screening original con-
Berlin, and a part of the budget for the film was apparently purposeless series of actions with a temporary art. It's a lot to hope for; by and
used by Schum to cover the artists' expenses. blutwurst and a sharp knife; Klaus Rinke large the programme planners seem to be
Schum has sold two other independent works tipping over a huge drum of water and stand- conscious of all the wrong responsibilities. But
to German TV stations: Keith Arnatt's Self ing poised as it spills and spreads in slow at least the possibility and the precedent have

Burial—a series of nine photographs showing motion across an asphalt area, filling out the now been established.
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