Some minutes of a time
time based art by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne

Some minutes of a time is the title of a cycle of mainly experimental videos by the Cologne based media artist Agricola de Cologne, created between 2004 and 2008. As time based art, the essential aspect of these works represents “time” and “history” and its subcategories “memory” and “identity”.
Agricola de Cologne came quite late to the medium of video, or how the artist calls his works “moving pictures”, which already gives the idea about his artistic intentions.
Some minutes of a time – this is in first place the very personal time, the artist is offering the audience for participating in his experiences, perceptions and stories transformed into moving pictures via the medium of video. The viewer gets the unique opportunity to place himself for a short time into the historical context the artist is acting in.
Soon, very specific characteristics become visible, all videos have quite a short duration, but according to the artist’s special pictorial language a lot of things happen on different levels of perception so that the viewer is not able to get the totality of the work just in one single screening, Differently than a conventional film, the story or better the course of events are not linear, but follow their own non-linear rules, producing the unexpected, the not-yet-experienced. In so far, these works incorporate a strong interactive component, even if they are not interactive, as such. Even if all works were presented on numerous festival and received prizes and awards, they can actually not characterized as shortfilms or videos in a conventional sense, also not the type of looping clips we all know them from gallery exhibitions, but the works represents “hybrids”, which incorporate aspects and components of all these media types, as art works they need to be run continuously looping, for instance, so that the viewer has the chance to go deeply down to the essence of the work step by step by reviewing and reviewing again.
Visible becomes also the diversity of representation, since each work is differently structured than the other, so the complex diversity can be seen as another essential component of the video creation.
The artist’s works are all based on personal experiences and incorporate film material the artist shot during his numerous travels around the world. Many works are expressively inspired by visits at certain places, and incorporate this way additional aspects of history which are not related to the artist himself, but by filming and incorporating these movie components the artist is setting himself into a new historical context. Visible becomes also the intensive, but very careful use of colour and space.
Another relevant aspect represents the fact, that the artist started working with video only when the medium of digital video became popular, and in this way the production of film and video affordable. The digital medium allows the artist to expressive his divers artistic talents in the development of one single moving picture, which was and is this way not possible in the analogue video. It is interesting, but also typical, that Agricola de Cologne came to his “moving picture” when he started in 2000 developing and creating Internet based art, interactive and streaming art pieces, which incorporated a lot of digital video material. By doing, the artist recognized his strong affinity to moving pictures and he saw after many years the chances to continue now a certain type of work and artistic content which was executed in static and analogue media before, by transforming his ideas into moving pictures, also interactive works can be counted to this spectrum.
In 2003, he realized his first one minute movie, and slowly he extended the duration of his works to 15 minutes, which how ever represents a kind of magic mark for the artist, since the way how he is creating his movies, by doing and experimenting instead of using a script, becomes too complicated if the duration of a film exceeds 15 minutes, he simply looses the overview over the complex composition of image and sound the longer the work takes. The artist, however, recognized that the duration of a work does actually not really matter since the way of how he creates complex artistic content on different levels of perception is able to incorporate as much time as it is wanted.

Selection of videos to be presented

Inability of Being Nude – 2:00, 2004
Truth – Paradise Found – 3:00, 2004
Rivals & Friends – 2:30, 2005
Distortion Projected – 4:50, 2005
House of Tomorrow – 3:00, 2005
Message from Behind a Wall – 10:00, 2005
Morire Cuba – 4:00, 2006
The Rehearsal – 6:00, 2006
Home so near, home so far – 11:30, 2006
Orfeo Negro – 4:20, 2006
Paint the Time – 9:00, 2007
Urban.early sunday morning_raw – 4:30 – 2007
Bareback – serial DIScharge – 6:00, 2007
RED: One Day on Mars – 8:00, 2007
En [code] ed – 5:30, 2008
80 minutes

1.
Inability of Being Nude – 2:00, 2004

The moving picture takes the classical theme of the “nude” in a contemporary interpretation as a psychological condition. The viewer is confronted with different levels of movements of baring/exposing. He becomes very quickly aware, that he did not enter a peep-show, but is disturbing intimacy, the process of emptiness. Emptiness in the sense of meditating. The nude is a metaphor. The Inability of Being Nude becomes the inability of exposing one’s entire internal to other people, including those who are most intimate and this could be the viewer himself. This inability is in the same way protecting as separating.
Details:
Technical notes :
Year of production: 2004 Format : Video, Internet Video format : PAL 4:3, Shooting format : miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV, Internet Duration: 2:00 Sound: yes Colour: yes Language: no dialogue Dialogue list: no
Credits:
Director: Producer: Editor: Script/concept: Sound: Music composed by: Cinematography: Programming: Agricola de Cologne

2
Truth – Paradise Found – 3:00, 2004
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=16
The video tells the story of the human desire to be as close to truth as possible. But who ever will succeed while living a life dominated by the fast running time and endless searching? If there is any paradise, then monks or people really resting within themselves find a paradise close to truth close to GOD. But it is only truth people are believing in. Is there absolute truth? The video consists of three sections, a spiritual and a physical section and the acting level, the artist who is filming the scene, an intruder who become witness of a ritual of truth. This basic video was filmed in 2003 at the Rila Monastery, the spiritual centre of Bulgaria.
Details: Year of production: 2004 Duration: 3:00 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV, Betacam SP (PAL) Sound: yes Colour: yes Language: no dialogue Dialogue list: no
Credits: Director, Producer, Editor, Script/Concept, Sound, Composer, Cinematography, Programming Agricola de Cologne

3
Rivals & Friends – 2:30, 2005
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=15
Synopsis Experimental film about the conflict of being friends and rivals.
Technical notes :
Year of production: December 2005 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : DVD Exhibition format: DVD Duration: 2:20 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: no dialogue Dialogue list: no
Credits:
Director: Agricola de Cologne Producer: Agricola de Cologne Editor: Agricola de Cologne Script/concept: Agricola de Cologne Sound: Agricola de Cologne Cinematography: Agricola de Cologne Programming: Agricola de Cologne

4
Distortion Projected – 4:50, 2005
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=13
In 1998, Agricola de Cologne became a victim of a terror attack. The video is the attempt to make the traumatic experiences perceivable via metaphoric images on an emotional level . The artist’s voice performing one of his musical compositions uses sound instead of words in order to symbolize the speechlessness and inability of the people surrounding him to react properly.
Technical notes :
Year of production: 2005 final version Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV Duration: 4:50 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: no dialogue Dialogue list: no
Credits:
Director: Producer: Editor: Script/concept: Sound: Music composed by: Cinematography: Programming: Agricola de Cologne

5
House of Tomorrow – 3:00, 2005
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=11
The house of tomorrow is the house of one’s identity, it does not need to be a concrete house or building, but represents a secure and protected place where people can stand for what they are and represent, a human being. And this human may have many identities in different fields, the sexual identity represents only one among many others.
Details:
Year of production: 2005 Duration: 3:10 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : miniDV (PAL) Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV (PAL) Sound: yes Colour: yes
Credits: Director, producer, editor, script/concept, cinematography, programming: Agricola de Cologne Sound/music: Agricola de Cologne Title: House of Tomorrow
Awards 2006 Magmart Video Art Award Naples (Italy) 2006 Bele.Arte.Lamia Video Art Award Lamia (Greece)

6
Message from Behind a Wall – 10:00, 2005
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=12
The segregation wall in Palestine is a fact. In November 2004, an artistic action against the wall ended, taking place at six different places in Palestine where walls were under construction, initiated by Palestine artists by inviting artists from different countries to paint an artistic message on the concrete. When Agricola de Cologne was in Bethlehem in February 2005, he visited several places where the Israeli were erecting the wall. The part of the wall he was filming, is situated in opposite of the AIDA refugee camp (UN), and was at that time a temporary playground for children. And these children made their own contribution to the huge wall paintings. “Message from behind a Wall”, featuring Faten Nasdas, one of the initiators of the wall paintings, is transporting different messages, but the main message represents the action of children’s innocence. The moving picture is a unique document of the day of 17 February 2005. Meanwhile, the construction of the wall in Bethlehem is nearly completed.
Thanks to Faten Nasdas, International Center Bethlehem, children of Bethlehem
Details:Year of production: 2005 Production country: Germany/Palestine Format : digital video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shootin /exhibition format : miniDV Duration: 10:00 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: English Dialogue list: available Subtitles: English
Credits: Director: Producer: Editor:Script/concept: Sound: Cinematography:
Agricola de Cologne

7
The Rehearsal – 6:00, 2006
The video shows the orchestra rehearsal of a composition by Hector Villa-Lobos performed by an orchestra of young women at San Francis Convent in Havanna/Cuba. The rehearsal becomes a metaphor for the course of human life, which is based on making continuously decisions influenced by a conductor. The church of San Francisco Convent does not only represent the symbol for the space hosting the “big conductor” where the moral principles are rooted and may manifest themselves, but also a place for the countless rehearsals in human life, the cathedral of life which is protecting those who believe in it.
Technical notes :
Year of production: August 2006 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV, Duration: 5:00 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: no Dialogue list: no subtitles: no
Credits:
Director: Producer: Editor: Script/concept: Sound: Cinematography: Programming:
Agricola de Cologne Music : orchestra rehearsal performed live

8
Home so near, home so far – 11:30, 2006
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=8
Filmed during the visit at the home of Marcela Rosen, artist, and Ricardo Castro, the Mapuche Indian living in Santiago/Chile, who is reciting a poem in Mapuche language an playing a typical Mapuche musical instrument, the Thruthruka. The artist, his Mapuche name is Piuke Werken, belongs to those artists who are deeply engaged in preserving the cultural heritage of the Mapuche people in Southern Chile by using the language of contemporary art for transporting his message.
Technical notes :
Year of production: January 2006 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 URL: http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/volume12/mapu/index.html Shooting format : miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV, Betacam SP (PAL) Duration: 11:30 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: Spanish, Mapuche Dialogue list: no, English subtitles
Credits:
Director: Producer: Editor: Script/concept: Sound: Cinematography: Programming: Agricola de Cologne
Filmed on location in Santiago de Chile

9
Orfeo Negro – 4:20, 2006
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=9
Filmed on the performance festival Interferencias in Junin-Buenos Aires/Argentina and Retiro railway station Buenos Aires in 2005, the video takes a performance by the Argentine artist Vera Baxter as the basis for a contemporary interpretation of the “classical” ORFEO NEGRO”, which is converting the film document not only to a metaphor for the artistic process of an action, but also to a new artwork.
Technical notes :
Year of production: January 2006
Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV Duration: 4:20 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: Spanish Dialogue list: no Subtitles: English
Credits:
Director: Producer: Editor: Script/concept: Sound: Cinematography: Programming:
Agricola de Cologne Music : Daniel Verdisle, using motives from Manha de Carnaval by Luis Bonfá
Filmed on location in Junin-Buenos Aires/Argentina 2005

10
Morire Cuba – 4:00, 2006
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=34
Street scene in Havanna/Cuba. A real Cuban would die only on Cuba. Based on a traditional Cuban song.
Details:
Technical notes :
Year of production: 2006 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : miniDV, DVD Exhibition format: DVD Duration: 4:00 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: no dialogue Dialogue list: no
Credits:
Director: Producer: Script/concept: Sound: Cinematography: Programming:
Agricola de Cologne
Music : Originally recorded on the square in front of The Museum of Colonial Art Havanna/Cuba

11
Paint the Time – 9:00, 2007
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=4
The films shows heaven on earth, Arcadia filmed on a Sunday morning at the Villa Borghese Park in Rome. The film is an allegory of life, also a symbol for the human wish for harmony, the everlasting life in balance , the impossible dream. y moving through this dream, the human and animal protagonists paint their own time, led by the divine.
Technical notes :
Year of production: 2007 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : DVD, miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV Duration: 9:40 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: no dialogue Dialogue list: no
Credits:
Director: Producer: Editor: Script/concept: Cinematography:
Agricola de Cologne
Sound/original music: Daniel Verdisle title: Paint the Time

12
Urban.early sunday morning_raw – 4:30 – 2007
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=36
Digital video created in Flash inspired by the Central Station of Milan (Italy).
Metropolis: sunday morning, between open end and twilight, between hope and resignation, between following a dream and returning that night to the home town or village outside. Coming from the disco, full of the impressions of that juicy girl or that horny boy, doubtful of whether preserving innocence or following the instinct for an outstanding erotic adventure. It is the moment of not yet knowing, vacillating between yes or no. It is a same ritual each week-end, even if decisions are made once. It is a game between identifying and identity. The work describes the urban landscape as a scenario of a play, where the protagonists are embedded in without any chance to escape.
Voice and sound performance by Agricola de Cologne.
Technical details
Version II In 2007, the video was reconstructed, reproduced and reprogrammed and released as a linear digital video as version II, which is not completely identical with version I, but represents a new version.
Year of production: v.2 2007 Duration: 4:30 Format : Video , Pal Aspect ratio: 4:3 Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV (PAL) Sound: yes Colour: yes Sound/music: Agricola de Cologne Title: Urban.early sunday morning_raw
Credits: Director, producer, editor, script/concept, cinematography, programming: Agricola de Cologne
Copyright © 2007 By Agricola de Cologne. All rights reserved.

13
Bareback – serial DIScharge – 6:00, 2007
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=6
The experimental film tells the story of a homeless person, who lost its identity in all the traumatic experiences it was undergoing. Again, Agricola de Cologne uses the form of the allegorical representation for pointing to essential questions of human existence. All people are homeless in on or the other way, most however, suffer from it without being aware of it. The film is a mirror of our time which has lost its roots.
Technical notes :
Year of production: 2007 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : DVD, miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniD Duration: 6:00 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: no dialogue Dialogue list: no
Credits:
Director: Producer: Editor: Script/concept: Sound/music: Cinematography: Programming:
Agricola de Cologne
Award Videoart Award Bele Arte Lamia 2007 – high commendation
FONLAD Video Award 2007 ONLAD – Digital Art Festival Coimbra/Pt

14
RED: One Day on Mars – 8:00, 2007
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=3
A human being is obliged to spend at least one day in his lifetime on Mars. Mars the red desert planet, Mars the god of war. Mars can be anywhere, any place which is identified with the inhuman, violence, hate, rage, revenge and despair. The original film material was recorded 2006 in Palestine & Israel.
Technical notes :
Year of production: 2007 Format : Video Video format : PAL 4:3 Shooting format : DVD, miniDV Exhibition format: DVD , miniDV Duration: 8:00 Sound: yes Colour: yes
Language: English Dialogue list: yes
Credits: Director, Producer, Editor, Script, Sound, Music Agricola de Cologne

15
En [code] ed – 5:30, 2008
http://movingpictures.agricola-de-cologne.de/blog?page_id=39
Synopsis
digital video created in Flash by media artist Agricola de Cologne, inspired by a visit of Thessaloniki. The work describes the principle of “code” or “coding” in form of an allegory, a metaphoric story as a ritual of meeting, dominating and resigning. The code is identified as a state of the static, dogmatic and conservative, which asks for obedience, but gives no chance to escape.
Voice and sound performance by Agricola de Cologne.
The movie is edited, directed and produced by Agricola de Cologne.
Technical details
Year of production: 2008 Duration: 5:50 Format : DVD, miniDV Exhibition format: DVD, miniDV Sound: yes Colour: yes
Credits: Director, producer, editor, script/concept, cinematography, programming, sound/music Agricola de Cologne