[artinfo] VIDEO ART from the South East Europe - Call for Submissions (SEE)

[geert lovink]

From: "marko stamenkovic" <eyeqlla at yahoo.com>

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing on behalf of Mr. Milan Atanaskovic, Vice-president and Editor
in Chief of a satellite TV channel for countries of South East Europe ("SEE
TV Channel"). We are pleased to present the basic information on our project
and invite you to take active and constituent part in it.

SEE Channel is currently inviting all video artists from the SEE region (or
the SEE artists living and working elsewhere) to submit their video material
to the SEE Channel Office in Belgrade in order to make the South East
European broadcasting video-art database. The program is intended to have an
open international character and to be European oriented. The basis of the
program during the experimental broadcasting will be focused on the cultural
diversity of the region. The main slogan will be "Do you SEE me?" which is a
pun on both the official geographical name of the region  (SEE = South East
Europe) and the conditions of the view, based on the possibility of mutual
communication and comprehension.

We would be grateful if you could help us fulfill this mission which would
enrich and benefit both the regional art network and the global image of the
countries of the South East Europe. Preference is given to video works
coming originally from the artists living in countries of the SEE region.
Special attention will be given to works displaying contemporary visual
aspects, as well as to non-commercial works. Short films, documentaries,
video art, video clips, and musical programs / concerts will be a part of
the scheme during the experimental stage. The materials selected would be
transmitted and repeated (at least 10 times) on SEE TV. We should be
absolved from any royalty payment for broadcasting and permit the programs
to be shown on local TV networks in our region, should such a need arise. A
showcase of video art works is destined to give greater incentive and
effective support to video artists, in terms of their regional and
intercontinental promotion, and to develop a broad showcase, in terms of
genres and countries of origin, of the potential and achievements of
contemporary video works, and in the affirmation of the new SEE video art
network as well.

You are hereby kindly invited to send us your own video works or those from
your collection, preferably in the high-quality video formats (BETA SP, DVD,
DV etc.; the VHS copies will be accepted only in case no other format can be
provided by an artist), containing the following data: the name of the
author, biography, original title, English title, duration, language, year
of production, short description (the concept of the work), and the
authorization permit included. All the material should be with original
sound.

For first selection, works must be sent until 1 December  2003, together
with the correctly filled data, to the following address:

Milan Atanaskovic / SEE TV
Kneza Milosa 64
11000 Beograd
Serbia & Montenegro

Please confirm your participation as soon as possible.

For any further information please contact:

Milan Atanaskovic

atanas at see-tv.net

I look forward to hearing from you and I am grateful for your cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

Marko Stamenkovic

marko at see-tv.net

SEE Channel Coordinator
Belgrade
Serbia and Montenegro

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Subject



SEE TV Channel is the first joint TV channel of the South East European
countries: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro,
Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia.
Association SEE Channel has been registered in Paris, where our operational
secretariat is to be based. The project is also getting international
support as many TV stations, institutions and individuals have expressed
their desire to support and help us start this venture. We consider their
support and understanding as a positive step towards success, which would
make the countries of the region get closer to each other and surpass the
whole range of misunderstandings provoked by different ideological and
political reasons from the past.



An experimental broadcasting would start on satellite W2, two weeks from
now, using the capacities of our strategic partners EUTELSAT from Paris and
"Interactive Technologies" from Sofia, and will cover not only the whole
territory of Europe, but also the large parts of the Middle East, North
Africa and the Eastern Coast of North America. The experimental phase will
last 100 days.



Scope



A visual and content identity of our new TV channel will be based
specifically on visual forms of expression, thus avoiding the communicative
obstacles among 11 nations living in the region. We are aware of the fact
that the emergence of video in the SEE region was related to the generation
of conceptual video artists, who, with their iconoclastic gestures, media
pluralism and radical and transformative criticism of the existing state in
the society, met with the inherent resistance of the modernist puritans who
dominated East European art and criticism at that time.



Therefore SEE Channel stresses the importance of contemporary visual
practises, and aims at promoting and diffusing video and the new visual and
communication media as contemporary art forms of expression and presentation
of all positive spheres of life in our region. For that reason, and also
under the influence of the social and cultural trends of the era, we
consider the function of video as part of a wide front of cultural
unification and integration which combines forms of social and cultural
reflectivity and diversity, advocating the application of concepts of
creative solidarity and distribution of knowledge and information within the
South East European region.