First-of-its-kind DVD profiles eight contemporary artists from 1999-2000 MATRIX season in user-friendly format

The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive has released a new DVD profiling the MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art – a series of provocative, challenging exhibitions that are sometimes difficult to show in commercial galleries or traditional museum settings. This innovative DVD extensively documents eight exhibitions by artists in the 1999–2000 MATRIX series at the BAM/PFA. Along with actual footage of each exhibition and interviews with the artists, the DVD also includes comprehensive biographies and bibliographies on each artist. The DVD provides a rare and invaluable opportunity to hear these artists – some of whom seldom make public appearances – describe their work in their own words. With its "user-friendly" and inexpensive format, the DVD represents a new and invaluable research tool for artists, dealers, curators, and students alike.

The MATRIX DVD is the first to be produced about a
contemporary art program. The DVD provides a range of information regarding the first series of eight exhibitions curated by Phyllis Wattis MATRIX Curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson at the BAM/PFA between August 1999 and November 2000. DVD features include extensive documentation of each exhibition, interviews between the artist and the curator, and excerpts from artist's talks presented to the general public. The artists featured are Doig Aitken, Anne Chu, Peter Doig, Teresita Fernández, Ken Goldberg, Tobias Rehberger, Katy Schimert, and Shirin Neshat.

The Director of Photography for the MATRIX DVD was internationally acclaimed cinematographer Peter Streitman. His many projects include: Matthew Barney's Cremaster series, Vanessa Beecroft's performative installations, and assorted Hollywood horror films. Design and production was managed by McDougall Creative, a multi-media marketing company based in San Francisco.

The DVD format was chosen because of the distinct advantages it presents over other audio-visual media. Although CD-ROM technology has been used by a number of museums – including the Louvre, Paris, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts – to create collection guides, it has largely been abandoned due to its high production costs, relatively smaller capacity, and less user-friendly formatting. In contrast, DVD offers larger capacity, is less expensive to produce, and presents information in a way that is easily navigated by the user.

About MATRIX
Known for presenting innovative, sometimes challenging work that might be difficult to show in commercial galleries or more traditional museum spaces, the BAM/PFA's 22 year-old MATRIX program demonstrates that art is vital, dynamic, and thought-provoking. In the last two decades, MATRIX has presented more than 180 exhibitions featuring artists such as John Baldessari, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Willem De Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Nan Goldin, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Nancy Spero, and Andy Warhol. Recent exhibitions have presented work by Tacita Dean, Doug Aitken, Ricky Swallow, Wolfgang Laib, and Ernesto Neto. MATRIX not only provides the Bay Area with a schedule of cutting-edge exhibitions, but has also attracted national and international acclaim.

DVD information
Running time:
90 minutes
Artists featured:
Doig Aitken
Anne Chu
Peter Doig
Teresita Fernández
Ken Goldberg
Tobias Rehberger
Katy Schimert
Shirin Neshat
Interviews and voice-over:
Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Phyllis Wattis MATRIX Curator
Director of Photography:
Peter Streitman
Production:
McDougall Creative Inc., San Francisco
Cost:
$25 alone or $40 pack including full-color gallery brochures from each exhibition
Available:
The MATRIX DVD is available from the Museum Store; to order call (510) 642-1475