Time Tunnel: Takahiko Iimura at Kino Arsenal, 18. April 1973

When film and video installations were presented for the first time as part of the 56th Berlinale, the name of the new section, Forum Expanded, was not chosen at random. Harkening back to the “expanded cinema” of the 1960s and ‘70s, the section’s name referred, and still refers, to an understanding of cinema that is not limited to the classical combination of projection, screen, and seating in a dark room, but that constantly seeks out other ways and contexts of presenting and receiving moving images. This expanded view to cinema, which is not only to be understood spatially, but also socially, has a long tradition at the Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, and now that the institution (formerly Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek) is celebrating its 60th anniversary, there are innumerable examples in its history of the inventive spirit that can open up the cinema as a collective experience, also for new developments. One of these events is now being taken up by Forum Expanded:
In 1973 the Kino Arsenal—then in its Welserstraße location in Berlin-Schöneberg—showed a program of videos by the Japanese artist Takahiko Iimura. The pioneer of experimental film was in Berlin at the time as a fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. Back then it was not yet possible to project the video images on the screen at the Arsenal, so employees brought in their own televisions from home, which were then synchronized to facilitate a collective experience of the then novel medium. TIME TUNNEL: TAKAHIKO IIMURA AT KINO ARSENAL, 18 APRIL 1973 in the Forum Expanded group exhibition commemorates both this evening as well as Iimura himself, who died in July 2022.
The program will show all videos from the program at the time that are still available:

• I AM (NOT) TAKAHIKO IIMURA, I AM (NOT) AKIKO IIMURA from the SELF IDENTITY series
• A CHAIR
• TIME TUNNEL
• BLINKING

Director Takahiko Iimura. Courtesy MORI YU Gallery. Cooperation Preparatory Office for Takahiko Iimura Archiving, VCT/Videoart Center Tokyo.

Takahiko Iimura (1937–2022) was a Japanese artist and filmmaker. Based in Tokyo and New York for most of his life, Iimura’s artistic practice spanned across experimental film, video art, expanded cinema, installation, and media art. Collaborating with many of the 1960s Japanese avant-garde, Iimura was instrumental in bringing together art and film in a burgeoning postwar experimental film scene. His films are often conceptually driven in a way that asks audiences to reflect on the materiality of media and the elusivity of time. As a prolific writer and co-editor of film journal “Kikan Film,” he reported on his experiences exhibiting internationally and became a conduit between the Japanese and international art scenes.

Films (selection): 1962: Shikan ni tsuite / On Eye Rape (10 min.), Iro / Color (12 min.), Ai / Ai (Love) (10 min.). 1963: Sakasama / Upside Down (14 min.). 1964: Ura to omote / Inside & Outside (2 min.). 1966: Watashi wa kage o mita / I Saw the Shadow (13 min.), New York Scene (40 min.), New York Video Diary (47 min.). 1968: Summer Happenings, U.S.A. (23 min.). 1969: Film-makers (28 min.). 1970: Film Strips (24 min.), Buddha Again (17 min.), Isu / A Chair (10 min.), Blinking (18 min.). 1971: Shutter (25 min.), Time (5 min.), Moon Timed (15 min.), Time Tunnel (35 min.). 1972: Timed 1,2,3 (8 min.), Counting: 1 to 100 or Xs (From Models, Reel 2) (12 min.). 1973: Register Yourself: Berlin Tape (30 min.), Register Yourself: New York Tape (39 min.). 1974: Self Identity (41 min.). 1975: Observer/Observed (20 min.). 1976: Shifting (22 min.). 1978: MA (Intervals) (17 min.). 1979: I=You=He/She (30 min.). 1982: A・I・U・E・O・NN　 (10 min.). 1984: Ayers Rock (40 min.). 1987: I Love You (5 min.). 1990: Monet no suiren no niwa no ho e / To the Garden of Water Lilies (31 min.). 1995: Performance/Myself (29 min.).