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Myriam Thyes - After tiepolo

10:15, 2013, Video Art
 
AFTER TIEPOLO

2013, HD video for large projection at the ceiling, 10:15, loop, stereo.

At the Wurzburg Residenz, M. Thyes recorded the famous 18th century ceiling fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Gyratory video sequences are the basis for an animated collage. Tiepolo’s catholic sky/heaven is slowly filled with planets, stars, and galaxies. Science and technology are developing, human production on earth increases: High-rises and power plants replace Tiepolo’s merchants, artists, and craftspeople. The buildings reach to the sky and hide the view on it. Eventually, the smother of a cooling tower conceals the stars. The christian and europe-centric view of the world (earth and sky/heaven) is augmented, enriched, updated. But our modern knowledge of the infinite universe doesn’t lead to a broader mind (looking at societies in general). We are too busy with our complicated lives in our environment full of goods, buildings, means of transport and of communication.

Thanks to: Guido Magnaguagno, Visarte Zurich, the Bavarian Palace Department at the Wurzburg Residenz, photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov
DirectorMyriam ThyesProducerMyriam ThyesWriterMyriam ThyesCameraMyriam ThyesEditorMyriam Thyes
 

CountryGermanyEdition2013 BudgetLimited budgetScreeningsRaumwelten, exhibition at Museum Baerengasse, Zurich, Switzerland, 2013: www.thyes.com/facts/raumwelten.html
Simultan Festival, Timisoara, Romania, Oct. 2013.
Espacio Enter, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, Canary Islands, ES, Nov. 2013.
 

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Interview

 
Who is Myriam Thyes?
Myriam Thyes is a new media artist from Switzerland, living in Germany.
1986-92 Academy of Fine Arts, Dusseldorf, Prof. Nan Hoover. Since 1994, Thyes participates in exhibitions and festivals internationally. Artistic media: video art, animation, photography and digital imagery. Initiates and realizes as well participatory projects and media art projects in public space.
Best known works: participatory animation project Flag Metamorphoses; video installation Malta As Metaphor.
Fundings by: City of Dusseldorf, Swiss Federal Office of Culture (2004, 2007), Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia (six times, 2004-2012), State of Luxembourg, State of Northrhein-Westfalia (Germany).
AIR: Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (1990); Malta (2006); Glasgow, UK (2008); Macedonia (2010).
Awards: Depict! Award 2005, Encounters Festival, Bristol, UK; MultiMedia Prize 2006, Avanca Festival, Portugal.
Nominations: Marler Videokunst-Preis, Germany 2004; Screengrab New Media Art Award, Australia 2009.
Publications: UmBildungen / ReVisions (2007); Glasgow Styles / Magnify Malta (2012), both Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg.



What is After Tiepolo about?
At the Wurzburg Residenz, I recorded the famous 18th century ceiling fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Gyratory video sequences are the basis for an animated collage. Tiepolo’s catholic sky/heaven is slowly filled with planets, stars, and galaxies. Science and technology are developing, human production on earth increases: High-rises and power plants replace Tiepolo’s merchants, artists, and craftspeople. The buildings reach to the sky and hide the view on it. Eventually, the smother of a cooling tower conceals the stars. The christian and europe-centric view of the world (earth and sky/heaven) is augmented, enriched, updated. But our modern knowledge of the infinite universe doesn’t lead to a broader mind (looking at societies in general). We are too busy with our complicated lives in our environment full of goods, buildings, means of transport and of communication.



How did you start with film? And do you have an educational background in art or film?
In 1990, I was AIR at the Cité Internationale in Paris, for 6 months. I walked a lot, drew and painted outside (water colour sketches). The strong light and hard edged shadows on the city architecture, as well as the lively moving crouds of people on squares and markets, inspired me to work with movement, light and sound. So when I got back to the Art Academy in Dusseldorf, I started taking technical video courses and attended gatherings at the video art class of Nan Hoover.



Could you explain how you work, what themes or concepts you use and what is important to you?
My themes deal with symbols, myths and visual signs from architecture, politics, films, and religions. My artworks are explorations of their meanings, a questioning, reassessments, and creations of new associations. In order to undermine entrenched representations, I work directly with them, to develop them further, transform them and juxtapose them against new representations. My works are conceptual and sensual at the same time, using animation, abstraction, and found footage to present critical views of political, social and religious systems. Symbols and mythic figures undergo transformations, start to communicate and build new relations - symbols of identities turn into elements of dialogues.



How long do you usually work on one project?
This may vary greatly. But every project has got its sources in years of researches, living, thinking, visual work.



Do you carefully plan the production process or do you work more intuitive?
I prefer a mix of both. I plan in a way that experimentation remains possible.



How does the title relate to the work, and how do you find a fitting title?
Finding titles is rather easy for me, as I work a lot with symbols and cultural heritage. The title appears within the process of developing the artwork itself.



Where do you get your ideas or inspiration from?
Cultures, people and peoples, politics, journeys, talking, reading, ...



How important is sound in film, and if you use sounds, do you create your own or use existing?
Sound is sometimes very important in order to understand the work. Sometimes I use sound just for the atmosphere. Often, I produce the sound myself (partially recording it, partially buying royalty free sound files). Only once so far, I have asked a professional musician to compose a music for my animation (Kristina Kanders for Global Vulva).



How does content relate to the form of your work?
It is ONE.



What possibilities of the web are yet to be explored?
Certainly more than I can do or know ...



Did the web changed your view on art, or your career?
YES, definitely a lot. Without the internet, my researches for artworks and the appearence of the works in juried exhibitions and festivals wouldn’t be possible.



Where would you place your work; cinema or art. And what is the difference between those according to you?
Visual Art.
For me, a main difference lies in the ways of narration.
Story telling, linear narratives, talking and acting people within such stories, are for the cinema. The cinema rarely accepts other forms than fiction or documentary.
I don’t want to produce stories. I don’t want my audience to identify with a protagonist. Mostly, my videos and animations don’t include protagonists at all. I prefer visual associations, metamorphosis and relations of elements from our lives and cultures. They resemble philosophical chains of arguments, or thoughtful dialogues.



How influential is the reaction to your film by the audience?
Influential are the reactions of some friends to whom I show a work before it is completed! They make my work better.
Unfortunately, later most of the times I don’t learn much about the reactions of the audience.



What is your next project about?
I’m working on www.zuerich-video-tags.ch

 

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