| Chapter Introduction: | Introduction |
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art form. I believe that these three aspects are essential to constructing an examination of the museum's relation to video art.
Video Art: (Pre-MoMA 1959–1968)
Prior to MoMA's museumisation of video, video art had generally been sited outside the art institution, in a temporary position where its interactive quality and presence had been even more ephemeral and fleeting. Although “This new medium seemed to have a message of its own, proclaiming that it was everywhere”, a cohesive attempt by mainstream institutions such as the Tate Gallery in London or the Pompidou in Paris to exhibit video art had not existed prior to MoMA's imbrication of it in 1968.25 Prior to this, the policies of MoMA, as a powerful and influential institutionalised paradigm, had often been opposed by artists who, as political activists, had criticised it as being out of date and out of touch with the cultural value of a progressive society. For these artists, MoMA's position as an institution which had firmly set the agenda in relation to what artworks it would or would not exhibit, and for what would be acceptable in art and culture as a whole, would be contested.
From around 1963, prior to video art's incorporation by MoMA, the increase in activity in the United States and in Europe relating to the public exhibitionism of video art had begun. The majority of these activities, until 1968, would take place outside the art institution. Prominent amongst these would be the activities of Paik and Vostell, who had both associated themselves with the Fluxus group. Early video exhibitionism would first take place in avant-garde art and cinema festivals, along with various “happenings” and/or performative events. In Germany, at the Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal, Paik exhibited Electronic TV, a piece containing thirteen monitors with distorted broadcast images. Similarly, Vostell presented his TV De-Coll/age at the Smolin Gallery in New York and at the Galerie Parnass in 1963.26
In New York, the annual Avant-Garde Festival featured works by Paik and Moorman, as well as other artists associated with Fluxus, including the composers Cage, Lennon, and Ono. From around 1965, video art would