Upgrade! Östersund-Stockholm: PERFORMANCE & GAME ART - Rasmus Albertsen [SE], Nathalie Fougeras [FR], Bendix Freutel [CH] :: January 10, 2009; Exhibition: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm; presentation about machinima and performance in virtual worlds by Rasmus Albertsen: 3:00 pm :: Ahlbergshallen i Östersund, Rådhusgatan 42.

Rasmus Albertsen: “There are three keywords which have fitted my artwork through my art praxis: humour, cut-up and some sort of nostaligia. I am interested in new-media art and I work mainly with video and sound. I have explored this new-media art in a very basic way. In many of my latest work I have been using sampling to a large degree – using sound and video I find in second hand shops or on the web. I edit it and mix the sources together, so it becomes something completely different. I have often been taking the copyright issue very lightly. Another issue I sometimes deal with is gender roles“.

Nathalie Fougeras is an artist and a performer. She obtained a post-diploma at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs de Paris (Atelier for Interactive Media) and she studied at the University Paris 1 Sorbonne and Paris 8 in the art department. She took part in several video art and new media art festivals but also in some big exhibitions like “Jouable Paris-Kyoto-Geneva”, in the “protocols meta” in Palais de Tokyo, in iMAL the Center for Digital Cultures and Technology in Brussels with “Stream On You”. In 2003 Nathalie tries out performances with interactive sensors and live art performance. She was teaching in the theatre, cinema and art department in Montpellier University and in Paris and she curated some events like “Nuits blanches off in Saint Denis”, “Stream On You” in Brussels and now she takes part at the Upgrade Östersund-Stockholm with Björn Eriksson in Sweden where she lives part time there and in Brussels. She collaborates with other artists and in several groups and networks to write and create some pieces for live and streaming performances (”CMYK” for the group “aether”). She was artist-in-residence in “bains connectives art laboratory” in Brussels, and she will also be in “La Raffinerie” (center of choregraphy) in february 2009 and in the “Synapse” program (Ecole d Art de Rueil Malmaison, France) in march 2009. Her last project is a live art performance in the context of a mixed reality and a double installation with an avatar and a virtual architecture and 3D sounds. “I want to raise questions about the body and the space and create a trouble in the genders.”

Bendix Freutel aka Eifachfilm Vacirca is a videast, he was the movie director in the theatre Schauspielhaus in Zürich between 2003 and 2007. He worked with Christoph Schlingensief, Falk Richter, Christoph Marthaler, Meg Stuart, Stefan Pucher, Rimini Protokoll. He worked and collaborated with some artists and for the theatres and TV programs as Theatre video master. Now he investigates the platform of Second Life with the avatars where he creates and plays some live art performances. “They adopt you because they know the moving image is of great power and I am the master there, not really belonging and hidden in the society so they even have more trust because I am like invisible and must be like not existing. I am http://d-oo-b.cc. Creative commons is my answer”.