From 26 June until 28 October 2007, the Iziko South African National Gallery will be showing 'the sneeze 80 x 80', a video installation that was instigated alongside the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. A global grouping of 80 international artists presents videos that together produce one complete work, a celebration of image diversity and unknown connections.

Conceived and produced by the artists Peter Lloyd Lewis (UK) and Natasha Makowski (USA), 'the sneeze 80 x 80' includes artists representing 29 countries and 5 continents. Applying a new equation to art synthesis and artist collaboration this project pays homage to Thomas Edison's innovative kinograph film of a sneeze, a random and connective act. Acknowledging both the importance of the event in moving image history and considering the idea of its experimental reference the project explores the relationship between video art and feature film. It highlights the connections being made between artists and their work through the questioning of hierarchies, the exploration of narrative and the creative use of time structure.

Working within a predetermined format, all that the artists were asked to consider was that they embrace the collaborative ethos of the project fully and that the footage submitted be exactly 80 seconds in length. Consequently, artists presented new and existing footage that when placed into the equation - 80 artists x 80 seconds - stimulates new readings and possible interpretations of their work. The programme is framed by the title and credits; acknowledgement of the artists appears only at the end of the complete work, in alphabetical order. The random programme allows for only one showing of each piece of footage in each presentation and an infinite interpretation of the various juxtapositions.

'sneeze 80 x 80' allows ideas to clash and provokes re-readings of the individual and collective work's content; through the placing of the work, expectations are perpetually confounded. The result is a truly global work, a document of a time.

Peter Lloyd Lewis will be speaking about 'the sneeze 80 x 80' on Tuesday 26 June at 13:00, at the Iziko South African National Gallery, Government Avenue, Cape Town. This will be of particular interest to video artists, but everyone is welcome to attend. Admission to the talk is free.

The Gallery is open daily from 10:00-17:00 except Mondays

Enquiries: Pam Warne, tel: 021 467-4660, e-mail: pwarne@iziko.org.za

Image captions:

• 'the sneeze 80 x 80', excerpt by David Burrows - 'King becomes cock' 2004
• 'the sneeze 80 x 80', excerpt by Yorgos Sapountzis - 'Knock Knock, Monument' 2004

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