Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

Axel Stockburger

White Transformer

Vidéo | hdv | couleur | 7:16 | Autriche | 2011

The video White Transformer engages with the cosplay phenomenon in China and portrays the act of transformation from ?ordinary? human into fictional character. It was shot with the help of the Century Noah cosplay group in Chongqing, China who build and perform characters from a variety of narrative universes such as Gundam, Starcraft and World of Warcraft. The French theorist Gabriel Tarde once stated that in order to understand what the social is, one has to focus on the notion of imitation. The global cosplay culture is a perfect example for this approach, since the fans interact with each other on the basis of global signs that emerge from products of the cultural industry, when they appropriate characters from large video and game franchises. This leads to the issue of intellectual property, which comes into play because all of these characters are registered trademarks owned by large international entertainment companies. What does it mean for the fans and audiences to adapt and transform these symbols. Furthermore, cosplay opens up many questions in conjunction with identification, since cosplayers deliberately choose to identify with and perform as fictional beings from a realm beyond real life limitations such as race, class or gender.

Axel Stockburger is an artist and theorist who lives and works in Vienna. He studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna with Peter Weibel and holds a PhD from the Univeristy of the Arts, London. His films and installations are shown internationally. Among other projects he has initiated the independent art television channel TIV in Vienna in 1998 and collaborated on international projects with the London based media art group D-Fuse (2000-2004). At present he works as a senior artist at the Academy of Fine Arts / Department for Visual Arts and Digital Media in Vienna. Between 2010 and 2012 he was part of the artistic research project ?Troubling Research?, which engaged with the problems and possibilities of art in the context of knowledge production. In recent years his works were presented in the following exhibitions (selected): ?Games People Play?, CCANW, Exeter (2012), "Troubling Research: Performing Knowledge in the Arts", xhibit, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (2011),"Nothing in the World but Youth", Turner Contemporary, Kent (2011), ?Jingshenfenxi?, organhaus art space, Chongqing (2011),"Videorama", Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2011) "Talk Talk - Das Interview als künstlerische Praxis", Galerie 5020, Salzburg (2010)"Worldeater", Winiarczyk Gallery, Vienna (2009).