Date:       October 2 - 31, 1993.
Location:   Video In front windows, 1965 Main St., Vancouver
Artists:     Matias Grieck, Akiko Hada, Gavin Hodge, Kaori Koyasu
Curator:     Elspeth Sage
Producer:   ON EDGE

      Auslander Video (auslander = outsider in German), presented a film and
video installation of work by 4 non-German artists permanently resident in
Berlin. Recent social and political events throughout Germany have
intensified the alienation and outright hostility felt for non-German
inhabitants simply due to their presence in the once monocultural state. The
resentment is also being played out within the art world, where there is a
right-wing backlash to any gains made by multiculturalism. The intention was
to focus on the work of outsiders living in the context of a renewed German
nationalism and to showcase work that, although not overtly oppositional,
presented art practises post-unification and not necessarily from a German
viewpoint.

      It was also intended as a reality check that the kind of intolerance and
shifting away from equity gains prevalent in Germany could happen in Canada.
The absence of pluralism in German society, and certainly the Berlin art
community, that even today is largely white and male, makes that society
anathema from a Canadian viewpoint. Yet the seeds of discontentment, such as
unemployment and recession that have contributed to the renewed xenophobia in
Germany, are here also. In striving to understand the international swing to
the right, politically and intellectually, it was tempting to use a German
model.

      Among Berlin's German artists there is a remarkable absence of any need to
comment on the troubling social times. Foreign artists conversely are acutely
conscious of the issues and invariably include mention of it in their work.
This exhibition presented the work of outsiders as a legitimate presence,
questioned their arbitrary exclusion based on nationality, and highlighted
the important contributions that they make to their chosen society. Putting
together an exhibition of contemporary film and video from Berlin without
including any Germans was meant to be and was perceived as a provocative act.
The exclusion here was important.

AUSLANDER VIDEO presented film and video works by 4 artists: Matias Grieck
(Argentinean), Akiko Hada (Japanese), Gavin Hodge (British), Kaori Koyasu
(Japanese), 2 women, 2 men. The format was a month-long video installation in
the storefront windows of the Video In's new location at 1965 Main St.,
Vancouver. The exhibition opened on October 2, 1993 - the 3rd anniversary of
German unification. (Funded by The Canada Council Exhibition Assistance
Program and the Public Gaming Branch of B.C. Co-sponsored by the Video In.)