Press Room

PRESS RELEASE # 3: ACCREDITATIONS [04.05.2005]

Media accreditation gives you free admission to all WRO 05 events. You can order the accreditation in advance by sending us an e-mail with the subject "accreditation" to the address: info@wrocenter.pl, don't forget to add your name and information about your editorial office. You can pick up the accreditation at the infocenter in Teatr Wspolczesny from May 11th on, having your press ID or a confirmation of your editorial office.

PRESS RELEASE # 2 [18.04.2005]

The selection committee of the 11th International Media Art Biennale WRO (Wroclaw, 11-15 May 2005) has evaluated all submitted entries - 75 works qualified for the WRO 05 competition - installations, performances and concerts in Contemporary Theater - special screenings and monographic presentations - special exhibition in the National Museum.

The WRO Biennale, since 1989 an acclaimed forum for contemporary art related to advanced communication technologies, has been internationally renowned due to a high level of the WRO competition. Its participants are both debuting and well-known artists, and the works nominated for the final competition are evaluated by jury panels including outstanding artists, theoreticians and curators.

This year's competition has gained a record-breaking attention: from among nearly 1200 entries from all over the world, after a series of intensive previews conducted at the beginning of April, the selection committee appointed 74 video works, installations, software projects, Internet-based works, art CD-ROMs, objects and performances. In addition to traditional video art pieces, a noticeable increased number of live performances and interactive media installations could be observed, many of which are often created with the use of custom software. Visible is also a turn from decorative computer animation and growing critical interest in tool, medium and different forms of real and communicational environments.

The main festival venue is Contemporary Theater (Teatr Wspolczesny ) in Wrocław. On 11-15 May 2005 its main scene will be the showcase for competition screenings and special compilations prepared by curators from leading media art centers including: Heure Exquise! (FR), Sixpackfilm (A), La Safire/Video les beaux jours (FR).

An extensive monographic program devoted to Robert Cahen, a French media art classic and a screening prepared by Magdalena Kardasz and Hanna Wróblewska, curators from National Art Gallery Zachęta in Warsaw will be also presented there. Live performances and concerts from WRO 05 competition along with special presentations featuring a film-performance "Demi-pas" by Julien Maire (FR) and Gameboyzz Orchestra Project (PL) will take place on the upper scene. Competition installations, objects and Internet based projects will be integrated into other spaces of the theater.

In addition to the competition part of the Biennale, a special exhibition of media installations "The Other Book. Digital Book and Text Outside of Book in the New Communication Era" will be held in the National Museum in Wrocław on 11-29 May 2005. Running for three weeks, the exhibition will present works dealing with the issues of a book as an electronic object and text outside of book that make a part of the modern culture and communication. It consists of the following interactive media installations: "Beyond Pages" by Masaki Fujihata (1995, JP), "Surprising Spiral" by Ken Feingold (1991, USA), "Text Rain" by Romy Achituv & Camille Utterback (1999, USA/AU), "Tombe avec les Mots" by Robert Cahen (1997, FR), "Kidai-shoran" by Joachim Sauter, Ralph Ammer and Tobias Schmidt (2000, D). An annex to the exhibition consisting of selected electronic network installations and an installation by Ira Marom (IL/D) will be presented in Mediateka, the multimedia library of Bertelsmann Foundation and Wrocław Municipal Public Library. The exhibition is targeted mainly at young audiences in order to present unique artistic interventions in the otherwise unified world of multimedia projects and to stress the continuity of word, script and text culture tradition in our ever-changing civilization.

PRESS RELEASE # 1 [21.03.2005]

Record-breaking number of entries for the 11th International Media Art Biennale WRO 05 - the reviewing process continues - program preparations are coming to an end.

The selection committee has reviewed almost all of the 1174 entries for the WRO competition submitted by artists from 46 countries. From among this record-breaking number of works several dozens of works will be selected by the end of March. They will be presented to the audience and the international jury during the 11th WRO Biennale taking place in Wrocław, Poland, on 11-15 May 2005.

Robert Cahen, still from "Sept Visions", 1995 (FR), WRO 05 Biennale monographic program.

The WRO competition includes not only screen works, the jury will also evaluate media installations, performances, Internet based works and art CD-ROMs. The complete list of works and authors qualified for the competition will be published on 31 March 2005 at WRO website, http://wro05.wrocenter.pl.

In addition to the competition screenings, the special and monographic programs will be presented by the curators from WRO and other media art centers from Austria, France, Canada, Serbia and Montenegro, USA and Great Britain. Also, especially for the foreign visitors of the Biennale, the presentation of Polish works, consisting of the best of 214 newest Polish entries, will be of great interest.

Once again after a few years break, the festival activities will take place in Teatr Współczesny [Contemporary Theatre], where the competition, monographic and special screenings, performances and installations will be presented. Additionally, up to 29 May 2005, the Wrocław National Museum will be hosting the special Biennale exhibition of interactive media installations, prepared by WRO in cooperation with the National Museum.

The International Media Art Biennale WRO is the leading forum for new media art in Central Europe. When it debuted in December 1989 as the Sound Basis Visual Art Festival, WRO was devoted primarily to audiovisual works in formats ranging from video and computer art to installations, performances and multimedia presentations. Since 1993, the festival - now a biennial event - has also explored digital art as a form of creative expression. WRO is an ongoing enquiry into the artist's relationship to the blurring boundaries between high and popular culture, between local and global awareness, between commercial and independent endeavours. It puts particular emphasis on individual artistic strategies in the face of global tendencies, and on the fluidity of artistic responses to the culture of the society of the spectacle.