20. Juli Aachen
Wolf Vostell
German, 1932–1998
1964/1972
A six-and-a-half-minute black-and-white video by Wolf Vostell that records a staged, tense encounter—using performance and the camera to unsettle viewers and prompt reflection on political memory.
The picture is grainy and low-contrast like an old surveillance or home movie: two half‑lit figures caught mid‑gesture so that ordinary movement reads as ambiguous and charged, while a spare soundtrack heightens the immediacy.
Working at the edge of Fluxus and early video art, Vostell used recorded performance to blur reportage and spectacle, challenging how television mediates history and helping to establish video as a tool for political and experimental practice.
Medium
Video (black and white, sound)
Dimensions
6:30 min.
Classification
Department
Credit
Committee on Media and Performance Art Funds
Accession
1794.2015.3
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
