Fast Forward: Media Art : Sammlung Goetz

At this point in art time, new media work needs no longer be prefixed by "new." With a firm place in institutional and private collections, with an ever-burgeoning range of practitioners, media art can safely be considered a part of the contemporary canon. And hence Fast Forward, a hefty, thorough reference guide, a virtual catalogue raisonn of the medium, from works found in the Goetz Collection. Over 180 film and video works by almost 80 international artists are represented, including: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Doug Aitken, Chantal Akerman, Francis Als, Emmanuelle Antille, Kutlug Ataman, Matthew Barney, Andrea Bowers, Janet Cardiff, George Bures Miller, Tacita Dean, Rineke Dijkstra, Stan Douglas, Tracey Emin, Peter Fischli, David Weiss, Douglas Gordon, Rodney Graham, Mona Hatoum, Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler, Pierre Huyghe, Annika Larsson, Sharon Lockhart, Steve McQueen, Bj0rn Melhus, Arnout Mik, Tracey Moffatt, Sarah Morris, Gabriel Orozco, Tony Oursler, Paul Pfeiffer, Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, Pipilotti Rist, Santiago Sierra, Beat Streuli, Sam Taylor-Wood, Diana Thater, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel, and Gilian Wearing. The book is rounded off with introductory essays by Peter Weibel, Stephan Urbaschek, Mark Nash, and Sabine Himmelsbach, plus short essays on individual artists, and bibliographic and technical information.

Peter Fischli and David Weiss were both born in Zurich, Switzerland--Fischli in 1952 and Weiss in 1946. They began to work collaboratively in 1979, and had their first solo exhibition in 1981 at the Galerie Balkon in Geneva. Solo exhibitions of their work have been organized by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others. They represented Switzerland in both the 1995 and 2003 Venice Biennales, winning the Golden Lion award in 2003, and were included in the 1987 and 1997 Documentas. They live and work in Zurich.

Tracey Emin was born in London in 1963. She has become one of the most important British contemporary artists, renowned for her deeply autobiographical artworks. In her solo exhibition I Need Art Like I Need God at the South London Gallery, 1997, Emin proved her ability to challenge what art is and presented an intimate insight to her life with the work 'Everyone I Have Ever Slept With'. Since then, Emin has had group and solo shows worldwide, including at the Tate Gallery, London; Lehmann Maupin, New York; Modern Art Oxford; Ferragmo Gallery, New York, and White Cube, London. Emin lives and works in London.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila was born in 1959 in Hameenlinna, Finland. She started working with audio-visual media in the late 1980s, exploring experimental narrative storytelling techniques, including the connection between short films and commercials, and the possibilities of narration in splitscreens and multiscreen installations. Her films have been successfully screened in over 50 international film festivals and on television, while her installations of the films have been mounted at such venues as Documenta11 and at the Tate Modern in London.

Doug Aitken (b. 1968) has created a body of work that explores the evolving ways people experience memory and narrative and relate to fast-paced urban environments. During the past decade, the artist has created innovative contemporary video art by fracturing the narrative structures of his films across multi-screen environments. His work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York (which commissioned a large-scale outdoor video installation--the first of its kind at the venerable institution), and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. In 1999 he was awarded the International Prize at the Venice Biennale, and in 2000 he won the Aldrich Award.

Francis Alys was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1959. Trained as an architect, Alys moved to Mexico in 1986 and within a few years began to work as a visual artist. Known initially for his paintings, Alys has also become a highly regarded video artist, interventionist and performance artist. His work received a great deal of attention in 2002, when he staged a ceremonial procession commemorating The Museum of Modern Art's move from midtown Manhattan to its temporary home in Long Island City, Queens. Alys has also exhibited work in group exhibitions at The Hayward Gallery, London, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York.