This exhibition explores how artists have continuously expanded audiovisual storytelling across different technologies and artistic forms, delving into the formative years of MonteVideo, the first gallery dedicated to video art in the Netherlands. It showcases pioneering and contemporary works that highlight experimentation with emerging technologies from the 1970s onwards, reflecting new ways of making and experiencing art.
Pioneers of Media Art: The First Years of MonteVideo invites visitors on a journey through ten spaces, each examining how artists have continually pushed the boundaries of audiovisual storytelling through evolving technologies and artistic forms. Created in collaboration with LI-MA – living media art, this exhibition revisits the foundational period of MonteVideo, the Netherlands' first gallery dedicated to video art.
Through works drawn from the LI-MA archive, the exhibition reveals the experimental spirit of artists from the 1970s onward as they harnessed new technologies. This includes the development of electronic images to challenge traditional painting and the embrace of portable video cameras, demonstrating novel approaches to art creation and perception. The exhibition features seminal works by artists such as Livinus and Jeep van de Bundt, Nam June Paik, Nan Hoover, SERVAAS, Tom Klinkowstein, and Trevor Batten, alongside contributions from contemporary innovators like 4DSOUND, Balfua, Boris Acket, Children of the Light, and Lumus Instruments. Together, these diverse works illustrate the continuous dialogue between artistic practice and shifting cultural, social, and technological landscapes.