about.

Despite having developed over a period of time of about thirty years, electronic arts, like video art, have entered the traditional art genre impetuously, questioning the very conception of art.

Collectors and gallery owners alike have approached this new art with hesitation. Doubts about the artistic character of the work created with the use of video continued to exist, and the question whether the monitor with its casing and its carriage, and the images and equipment operated by electronic impulses could be considered art, went hand in hand with another question, namely whether those electronic images that upset the criteria of classical aesthetics, did not retain, despite everything, the autonomy of works of art. On the subordination of video art to the technical equipment available, however, will always continue to speculate.

The “Marl Prize” for video art has followed this young artistic genre closely since 1984 and is awarded for the individual use of video as a means of artistic expression. The prize was created as a national competition, and for the past two years has been extended to the new Länder of the former GDR on the initiative of the city of Marl, in particular the “Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten”, with the cooperation of the “Adolf-Grimme-Institut” in Marl and the television program “Aspekte” (ZDF). In past years as well as in the present, the works submitted to the competition have mainly been of an experimental nature, while works of the narrative cinematographic genre have been almost completely absent.