{"id":54239,"date":"2017-07-12T14:42:01","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T12:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=54239"},"modified":"2017-07-12T14:42:01","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T12:42:01","slug":"conglomerate-melds-art-and-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/conglomerate-melds-art-and-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Berlin-Based Collective Melding Art and Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oedipusmas Oedipusmas Special<\/em> (film still)<\/p>\n

From the May 1969 exhibition \u201cTelevision as a Creative Medium\u201d at New York\u2019s Howard Wise Gallery, to Jasper Johns appearing in an episode of \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d, television and art have enjoyed a long and sometimes contentious relationship. To date, many works featuring TV can either be classified as New Media or Post-Internet, and only recently have artists turned to the format of television programming itself as a framework for further exploration. These efforts have generally been presented as either talk show-style programmes or shows dedicated to abstract video works. Provoked by this history, in 2016 a group of Berlin-based artists formed Conglomerate, a collective existing in the space between a medium for the masses and high culture. And the history behind the project is an interesting story in itself.<\/p>\n

\"Behind Behind the scenes of Desde el Jard\u00edn<\/em> at David Dale Gallery (David Dale Gallery)<\/p>\n

By early 2016, artists Christopher Kline and Sol Calero\u2019s project space, Kinderhook & Caracas (named after their respective hometowns in upstate New York and Venezuela), was already a success. Founded in 2011, their carefully selected programme, meticulous installations and collaborations with thought-provoking artists from the German capital and abroad had won them fans among the city\u2019s seen-it-all art crowds and critics.
\nAfter five years and two dozen gallery shows, Kline and Calero realised their digital exhibition media was enjoying a wider audience than the events themselves. So, they thought, \u201cWhy not make these digital creations the goal of the process?\u201d Thus, having extended invitations to Ethan Hayes-Chute, Derek Howard, and Dafna Maimon, the five artists and film-makers formed Conglomerate, and the Kinderhook & Caracas space has been, at least for now, dedicated to this new undertaking.<\/p>\n

\"Installation Installation view from Oedipusmas Special<\/em> at 1646<\/p>\n

Soon they began producing a series of videos \u2013 heeding the hyperactivity of present day thought processes, as well as the rapid-fire presentation of computer screen content. These include: \u201cDesde el Jard\u00edn\u201d, a titillating telenovela-inspired drama written and produced by Calero and Maimon; \u201cThe New Domestic Woodshop\u201d, produced by Hayes-Chute and Howard, in which a reluctant Bob Vila-esque host introduces viewers to the magic of modern woodworking; \u201cTelethon\u201d, a collaborative effort, which takes the enthusiasm of North American telethons to new extremes and Kline\u2019s \u201cThe O.K. Show\u201d, a clever riff on children\u2019s infotainment programming. The results are subversive, transcending both the pretensions of art and the vacuity of most TV and internet offerings. Presented in \u2018blocks\u2019, as the group call them, that leave the impression of having zapped through 30 minutes of an outlandish YouTube series, the visual and emotional moods of the segments differ dramatically.<\/p>\n

\n

Much like the lazy joys of flipping through stations, the content jumps from one idea to the next \u2013 the visual and emotional moods of the segments\u00a0differ dramatically<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The appropriation of the on-screen format has proved to be persuasive. As Howard points out, it\u2019s made the project \u201cvisible to audiences that may not regularly go to galleries and watch videos, especially in their entirety… The fragmented nature of Conglomerate\u2019s \u2018blocks\u2019 fits to how people are used to consuming video content, but the assembly of all those little parts into a solid \u2018block\u2019 creates a viewing experience that is at once schizophrenic yet oddly cohesive.\u201d Moreover, by presenting their videos online and rejecting the tradition of showing them either at white cube screenings or on TV networks, the group has greater autonomy and bigger audiences. \u201cWe wanted everyone to be able to see [our films] everywhere, not to be exclusive, to give it away,\u201d says Maimon.<\/p>\n

\"Desde Desde el Jard\u00edn<\/em> (still)<\/p>\n

One of the thrills of Conglomerate\u2019s work is waiting to see who they\u2019ll collaborate with next. As Maimon explains, one of their founding concepts is to draw in artists from their social and artistic milieus in Berlin and beyond as collaborators. \u201cEarly on, we decided to never have thematic curation \u2013 in the sense that no \u2018block\u2019 has a particular theme. This lets us work with artists we know or know of and want to work with.\u201d The list of past and future participants is long and impressively diverse, including Keren Cytter, Jeremy Shaw, Christine Hill, Dull- TechTM, Stephen G. Rhodes, Ming Wong and Hanne Lippard. Some of these artists have been invited to produce pieces independently, but this year, the role of Kinderhook & Caracas as a project space has been to proffer their rooms to artists for the creation of a film set turned exhibition \u2013 or vice versa.<\/p>\n

\"The The New Domestic Woodshop<\/em> (still)<\/p>\n

Compared to the often-sombre art world, the visually lush universe of Conglomerate is a respite. Add to this the vertiginous, agile wit interspersed throughout the videos and the project\u2019s appeal is manifold. According to Hayes-Chute, \u201cWe all have a good sense of humour so that naturally spilled into Conglomerate. It\u2019s always balanced; there\u2019s no obligation to be funny or serious.\u201d In light of all this, one might wonder: Is it art or entertainment? Kline believes it\u2019s both: \u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s art first and entertainment second, though it\u2019s a blurry line at times. We\u2019ve obviously gone to pains to try to make certain shows interesting or funny, and there\u2019s a backdrop of criticality, but a lot of television has both as well.\u201d If there is a social criticism here, it\u2019s not mordent. But it does call into question television\u2019s waning status as the dominant cultural and social medium as well as the recent radical evolution in our preferred viewing methods.<\/p>\n

\"The The O.K. Show<\/em> (still)<\/p>\n

\n

Is it art or entertainment?<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Laughter isn\u2019t limited to the final cut of Conglomerate\u2019s shoots. While scripts are written out and studied ahead of time, and potential props, backdrops, and costumes are prepared, the filming process reveals a conviviality that fosters impromptu decisions. It\u2019s during editing, which is done as a team, that final sequencing decisions are reached. The sets aren\u2019t just created in Berlin either. They\u2019ve also been produced in the context of exhibitions abroad, including Calero\u2019s 2016 exhibition at Glasgow\u2019s David Dale Gallery, which was transformed into the set for an episode of Desde el Jard\u00edn, and at the 1646 project space in The Hague, where the group devised and filmed the 2016 Oedipusmas Special.<\/p>\n

\"Telethon Telethon<\/em> (still)<\/p>\n

If, as some have argued, film is art and television is a medium, then Conglomerate is bridging the gap between the two. Their epigrammatic body of work suggests a mocking acceptance of high and lowbrow formats combined with an authentic self-awareness of their generation\u2019s place within it. The work wouldn\u2019t be conceivable without their blithe, tongue-in-cheek charm, which is utterly humanising in a medium that frequently dehumanises.
\nAs a team, Conglomerate\u2019s work exceeds the sum of its parts, and accesses an almost infinite landscape of visual possibilities and collaborations. When asked about what the limitations of the project were, everyone agreed: time. Kline summed it up best: \u201cI think that the main limitation is time. If Conglomerate could transcend linear time, it would probably become some kind of black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Oedipusmas Oedipusmas Special<\/em> (still)<\/p>\n

“Block 3<\/a>” is now available to stream on Vimeo<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berlin collective Conglomerate make TV-inspired videos bridging the gap between art as form and content<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[8990,4274,8991,4372,8992,968,8993,1847,8994,8995,8996,4377,1420],"class_list":["post-54239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-blocks","tag-christopher-kline","tag-collective","tag-conglomerate","tag-desde-el-jardin","tag-film","tag-oedipusmas-special","tag-sol-calero","tag-telethon","tag-the-new-domestic-woodshop","tag-the-o-k-show","tag-tv","tag-video-art"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nThe Berlin-Based Collective Melding Art and Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Berlin collective Conglomerate make TV-inspired videos bridging the gap between art as form and content.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/conglomerate-melds-art-and-entertainment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Berlin-Based Collective Melding Art and Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Berlin collective Conglomerate make TV-inspired videos bridging the gap between art as form and content.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/conglomerate-melds-art-and-entertainment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-12T12:42:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. 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