Infermental

INFERMENTAL - International - Fermentum - Mental, initiated by the Hungarian filmmakers Gábor Bódy and Vera Bódy in 1980, was the first international videocassette magazine that published video artworks in part or whole, trailers, and reports (lasting 1-20 minutes) from around the world. Appearing annually with a total running time between four and six hours, each issue was compiled and edited in a different worldwide location. From the first issue (Berlin, 1982), which was publicized on a massive electronic billboard during the Berlin Film Festival and co-edited by Astrid Heibach and Gábor Bódy, who in 1980 initiated the ‘international recorded imagery project), to the last issue (Skopje and Osnabrück, 1991), a total of 660 works were gathered together. ‘Infermental' was conceived neither as festival nor gallery, but as a ‘running information memory' (Oliver Hirschbiegel) that bundled together excerpts, documents and events according to thematic and intellectual context.

Following the death of Gábor Bódy, his wife Vera Bódy was responsible for co-ordinating the project. The complete magazine archive, including 10 issues + 1 special issue (altogether about 70 hours and more than 1500 artists from 36 countries, has been on permanent loan to the collection of the ZKM Karlsruhe since 1992 - and are publicly available via a Jukebox-System.

Issues

• Infermental 1

Berlin/West, Germany, 1982 37 contributions, 8 countries, 4 hours

Editors: Gábor Bódy, Astrid Heibach Supervisor: Gusztáv Hámos

• Infermental 2

Hamburg, Germany, 1982/83 77 contributions, 15 countries, 6 hours

Editors: Oliver Hirschbiegel, Rotraut Pape Supervisor: Vera Bódy

• Infermental 3

Budapest, Hungary, 1983/84 99 contributions, 18 countries, 6 hours

Editors: Peter Forgacs, László Beke Co-editors: Malgorzata Potocka, Peter Hutton, Egon Bunne Supervisor: Rotraut Pape Production secretary: Zoltán Bonta

• Infermental 4

Lyon, France, 1985 102 contributions, 14 countries, 7 hours

Editors: FRIGO (Gérard Couty, Mike Hentz, Christian Vanderborght) Supervisor: Astrid Heibach

• Infermental 5

Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1986 39 contributions, 13 countries, 5 hours

Editors: Leonie Bodeving, Rob Perrée, Lydia Schouten, Supervisor: Egon Bunne

• Infermental 6

Vancouver, Canada, 1987 59 contributions, 25 countries, 6 hours

Editors: Vera Bódy, Hank Bull Supervisor: Gérard Couty

• Infermental 7

Buffalo, USA, 1988 58 contributions, 17 countries, 5 hours

Editors: Tony Conrad, Chris Hill, Peter Weibel Supervisor: Rotraut Pape

• Infermental 8

Tokyo, Japan, 1988 73 contributions, 15 countries, 5 hours

Editors: Keiko Sei, Alfred Birnbaum Supervisor: Mike Hentz, Hank Bull

• Infermental 9

Wien, Austria, 1989 45 contributions, 15 countries, 5 hours

Editors: Ilse Gassinger, Graf + ZYX Supervisor: Chris Hill

• Infermental 10

Osnabrück / Skopje, Germany / Yugoslavia, 1991 51 contributions, 16 countries, 6 hours

Editors: Heiko Daxl, Evgenija Dimitrieva Supervisor: Keiko Sei

• Special Issue NRW

Wuppertal, Germany, 1984/85

This edition presents a selection of works mainly from Germany's state North Rhine-Westphalia from 1984. The editors couldn’t find philosophical-visual trend directions from the submitted works. Nevertheless this issue excels in the high quality of individual works (Joan Jonas, Marcel Odenbach, Birgit Antoni). (Vera Bódy)

Catalogues

• Infermental 1980 - 1986 ; the first international magazine on videocassettes / [coord. Veruschka Bódy]. - Cologne, 1986. - 162 p. - ISBN 3-7701-2099-X
• Infermental 1-3: Edition I, Berlin, 1982; Edition II, Hamburg, 1982/83; Edition III, Budapest, 1984 / Veruschka Bódy. - 11 p.
• Infermental 4: Edition 4, 1985, Frigo - Lyon / Vera Bódy. - 10 p.
• Infermental 5: The Image of Fiction : International Videoart. - Con Rumaore, Rotterdam / Ed.: Leonie Bodeving, Rob Perée, Lydia Schouten. - 1986. - 52 p.
• Infermental 6: New World Edition. - Vancouver / ed. by Hank Bull and Veruschka Bódy. - 1987. - 18 p.
• Infermental 7: A Travelling Exhibition of World video. Buffalo, New York Edition / Ed.: Chris Hill, Tony Conrad, Peter Weibel. - 1988. - 28 p. - ISBN 0-936739-11-8
• Infermental 8: In the Afterglow of TV Land ; the Tokyo Edition / Ed.: Keiko Sei and Alfred Birnbaum. - 1988. - 41+43 p.
• Infermental 9: Herz von Europa = Heart of Europe / Ed.: Ilse Gassinger and Graf + ZYX. - Vienna, 1989. - 120 p.
• Infermental 10: da - zwischen - hier = there - between - here / Ed.: Heiko Daxl and Evgenija Dimitrieva. - Osnabrück, Skopje, 1991. - 72 p.

Publications

• "Infermental", OMNIBUS 6, 1982. (German)

• "Infermental - Innovationen der visuellen Sprache: Experimental-Video-Projekt von Gábor Bódy", Zitty 13, 1982, p 66. Interview with Gábor Bódy about Infermental 1. (German)

• Don Ranvaud, "Infermental", Framework: A Film Journal 19, 1982, p 52. Announcement of Infermental 1.

• Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, "Infermentalisch", Frankfurter Rundschau, 16 Feb 1983. (German)

• Oliver Hirschbiegel, [http://web.archive.org/web/20110125155532/http://www.werkleitz.de/~pape/d/04projects/01whatisinfermental/infermental_hirsch.html "Über Infermental", 1984. (German)

• Emmanuel Stein, "Boxhandschuhe über der Theke", Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 10 Apr 1986. About the exhibition Infermental 1980-1986 in Cologne at Kölner Kunstverein. (German)

• "Auf der elektronischen Bühne Europas - Infermental", Stadt Revue 11:5, 1986, pp 110-111. (German)

• Maurice Nio, "Infermental 5. The Image of Fiction", Mediamatic 1:2, 1986. (English)

• "Infermental - Das elektronische Network der achtziger Jahre", in Ars Electronica 1987, Linz, 1987.

• Vera Body, "Infermental IX - Edition Wien", in EMAF 1989, 1989. (German)

• Rotraut Pape, "Infermental. Wie ein unabhängiges Netzwerk entsteht", in Dagegen-Dabei-Katalog, Hamburg, June 1998. (German)

• Dieter Daniels, "4. Edition von INFERMENTAL: Frigo, Lyon, Frankreich", n.d. (German)

• Tomasz Załuski, "Infermental. Pierwszy międzynarodowy magazyn na kasetach wideo (1981-1991)", in Wideo w sztukach wizualnych, eds. Ryszard W. Kluszczyński and Tomasz Załuski, Łódź: Wydawnictwo UŁ, and Lubin: Galeria Labirynt, 2018, pp 205-246. (Polish)

See also

Hungary#Video_art

Links

• http://www.infermental.de/
• Infermental on Wikipedia
• Infermental on MediaArtNet