In 2004, Wilfried Agricola de Cologne started curating “art & moving images” in the beginning for – VideoChannel – international platform of art & moving images – which was launched at a part of the Internet based project [R][R][F] – @ Biennale of Electronic Art 2014 in Perth/Australia.
Agricola de Cologne was running this platform exactly 10 years and finalized it at the end of 2013.
In 2005, Agricola de Cologne founded artvideoKOELN is a new curatorial platform and started afterwards a new online project “CologneOFF – Cologne Online Film Festival” – which was actually only meant to act on the net, but hardly online, there were so many requests to show selections from this festival curated by Agricola de Cologne, that he re-named this project to
CologneOFF – Cologne International Videoart Festival and re-designed its progressive delevoping experimental curatorial and artistic concept.
In 2009, Agricola de Cologne re-designed CologneOFF again profoundly as a worldwide acting nomadic festival project realized in collaboration with networkiing partners all over the world
entitled: “CologneoFF 20XX – videoart in a global context” paying also attention to the aspect of videos as a global medium of art.
Since 2012, artvideoKOELN; directed by Agricola de Cologne extended CologneOFF about some new formats
1#minute Cologne – Cologne One Minute Film Festival –
animateCologne – Cologne Art & Animation Festival and –
exDox – Experimental Documentary Film Festival
artvideoKOELN – audio-visual experiences
d/i/light – Darkness Into Light Festival
The W:OW Art Film & Video Festival
At the end of 2014, Agricola de Cologne finalized Cologne International Videoart Festival as an active platform after 10 years, which was an enormous artistic and curatorial achievement.
During these 10 years, he was not only part of the development of digital art, but also part of the development of digital video, in particular. From his global networking, he received many impulses for his work as a curating artist, but he gave also many impulses to his networking partners and the audience.
As a dynamic enterprise, in 2015 CologneOFF was transformed into CologneOFF – International Festival Network, consisting of networks on different levels – the internal and the external network, incorporating the global festival partners. Run by artvideoKOELN, the festivals act also as exhibition formats in the framework of major presentations of “art & moving images”.
The curated programs are characterized by their individual compositions, apart from some exceptions each venue is and was screening the curated program exclusively. Thus, regarding the travelling aspect, the festival is travelling, but not the programs. In terms of curating as Agricola de Cologne’s specific art expression, the individual composition under an individual topic becomes an individual time based, eg. temporarily limited art work.The curated program does also not represent just a compilation of some individual videos, but follows the curators philosophical ideas around the topic. Even if certain programs are screened occasionally more than once, the art work gets another meaning through the difference of the venue and its audience and how the individual is interpreting the individual videos and the entire composition. Since Agricola de Cologne started working as a curator like that, an huge curatorial work arised during more than 15 years.
Many of the events listed below are documented on The Blog @ The New Museum of Networked Art
.