A look behind the scenes of the ZKM Karlsruhe

This 1987 work “Les Larmes D’Acier” (tears made of steel) by video art pioneer Marie-Yo Lafontaine was shown for the first year of the same year at Documenta 8 in Kassel. The fact that the installation is now running in the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) borders a miracle. This requires expertise, spare parts, money, time and passion. A lot of everything.

Tears made of steel

Media art is extremely fragile and difficult to preserve. After a few years, most electronic works are no longer functional – unless an army of experts take care of them. Disease the data carrier, software is quickly outdated, saved things are no longer readable.

Lafontaine’s installation is one of several media art work that has been extensively restored worldwide for the new collection presentation of the ZKM Karlsruhe, one of the most important centers for media art. Tube monitors have not been produced for more than ten years, and luckily the ZKM has a huge stock of spare parts.

This is the only reason why the installation in the continuous operation of an exhibition can still be broadcast to 4: 3 tube monitors, the specific image quality is retained. The video material was digitized. The laser discs, to which it was migrated to better preservation in the 90s, would theoretically still run, the problem is spare parts for the antiquated players. “The Story That Never Ends” is the title of the exhibition, which deals with the almost infinite task of keeping electronic and digital art up to date over the years.

Expertise for data backup

In addition to curator Clara Runge, the restorers were largely responsible for the exhibition. An interdisciplinary team of engineers, technicians, media archaeologists, art historians, whose work is otherwise not noticed. 100 installations, video work, sound works of art and computer -based art from the 1980s to the present day have selected the 12,000 works and 200 archives comprehensive Collection of the ZKM. Much has not been seen publicly for decades, or even never before, because of conservative challenges or because the works of art in the male -dominated canon have so far not played a role.

In addition to respected names such as Nam June Paik, Bill Viola or Jeremy Shaw, female and various positions move into the light. For example, the geometric-abstracted body sculptures by the artist Pezold alias Friederike Pezold, in which she indicates mouth, breasts, venus hills in the form of rectangle, circle and triangle and alive with small moving image sequences. Or a recorded performance of the South Korean SOUN-GUI KIM, in which a television made of ice and the room around it becomes a sound sculpture.

One of the chapters is about transmission technology and the “art of signals”. It quickly becomes interactive in the area of ​​body images. For example, in older work, such as the M16 rifle by Lynn Hersman Leeson, one of the most important representatives of feminist media art. In this weapon installation of 1993/94 you can aim and fire yourself – and suddenly sees your own picture recorded on site.

Younger works such as “Captureed” by the Finnish artist Hanna Haaslahti from 2019 also play with interactivity. Real-time face recognition technology has already been developed here, scans the faces of volunteers. An avatar is created and this facial clone with a stylized body is part of a virtual environment seconds later and marches through a room with other avatars.

What your own character drives can no longer be controlled, which makes up part of the fascination. It ranges from harmony to violence to figs. The artist sensitizes the different behavior patterns in groups. The critical examination of exploitation, surveillance and violence is present in many work and employ artists of all generations.

There was a comparable insight into your own collection several years ago, at that time under the direction of the legendary long-time ZKM director Peter Weibel, who retired in 2023 and died shortly before he said goodbye. The Briton Alistair Hudson has headed the house since 2023. The view behind the scenes of the restorers fits his program. Hudson’s passion applies to socially changing, community -based media art. He relies on “Agency”, on personal responsibility: Understanding how the technology works, in order to then use artificial intelligence, algorithms, blockchain and Co.

With the ZKM restoration expertise, only the Tate Modern in London can keep up worldwide, says Hudson on the opening weekend. Younger museums such as the M+ in Hong Kong are currently expanding their know-how. Many museums do not even accept media art in their collection, out of concern that they cannot receive them in the long term.

“For our culture and art history, however, this means that there is an empty space here,” says Margit Rosen, head of collection at the ZKM. “Future generations may be surprised that a society that was characterized by electronic and digital technologies was either unable to preserve the art of its time.” Especially since the topic of data backup also affects private memories: How long will we be able to read the photos on our smartphones?

Media art is often a black box. In many cases, only the artist himself knows how to work his work. If a computer-based work from the 80s is included in the ZKM collection, the technical set-up must best be analyzed, understood, documented. Even if the original storage media and computers are still running, a “plan B” is always needed for the company, the restorers say. Otherwise there is a risk of data loss.

So that this does not happen, the ZKM maintains a “laboratory for antiquated video systems”, which houses a comprehensive collection of running devices from all times. A team of three people digitizes 1000 video bands a year. At the moment, the archives of the German video art pioneer Ulrike Rosenbach and the ligaments from the possession of Holger Czukay, a member of the Kraut dry band Can, are being processed. Tens of thousand more video tapes are waiting for digitization.

The data is stored in different locations and on different media, including on so-called solder straps. They are cheap, do not need a server place and reliably survive the next 15 years. Nobody knows what comes then. Next to it cannot be thought about data backup.