Beijing topology gets texture from multimedia mix by Berlin artists

Most people tend to define a city by something dramatic such as a landmark, but the Stadt am Rande - Transmediale Berlin zu Gast exhibition, currently on the walls at the Today Art Museum, has a more subtle way of interpreting the concrete jungle around us.

Showcasing artworks predominantly by Berlin-based artists, the exhibition tries to explore the various aspects of urban topology by using and combining new forms of media technology. But while it uses Berlin as a metaphor, the event also hopes to stimulate dialogue between Berlin and Beijing, according to the organizers.

"The two cities share a lot in common, since both are capital and cultural centers of their states," said Dr Uwe Nitschke, director of Goethe-Institute Peking, the group responsible for organizing the exhibition.

Berlin, June 21, 1996, a video piece, was shot a few years after the famous wall came down in a time for change and reinvention. The artist attempts to visualize and transform the elusive transient nature of landscape and time by focusing all her recording on a single day. The sites and times were chosen by an algorithm producing randomness and were not known until the day before filming.

There is also Conversation Piece, an interactive multimedia installation consisting of the components of 11 classical organs. Each organ key is connected to an audio file which when pressed, produces a short sentence or fragment of a sentence dealing with topics like philosophy and the history of art. Added in are personal reflections on everyday life, a attempt to capture interaction and presence, converting it into an interactive experience.

German artist Julius von Bismarck brought his artwork Torus to the exhibition, to illustrate his perception of the structure of the universe.

"The latest theory by scientists from a university in Germany is that our universe could be shaped like a donut, and not in three dimensions but four. This is what I am trying to show," he said, premiering his revolving multimedia object for the first time in Beijing.