ikonoTV – The MTV of the Art World!

Charles Krafft – “Balkan Bunny”; film still; Charles Krafft: Form and Function, a video documentary by ikonoTV

ikonoTV has been described as the MTV of the art world. Working out of Berlin, the private organization documents artworks, exhibitions and events presenting videos to an online audience without music or narrative sound that may interfere with the visual experience. They describe themselves as “a private initiative working to drastically revolutionize the space of display granted to culturally and historically relevant visual art works in today’s world.”

Broadcasting through two television channels throughout 22 countries of the Menasa region (Middle-East, North Africa, South Asia) and Germany their programs shown on each channel are “organized in line with ikono’s goal of democratizing the vaster public’s access to culture and wisely intermixes artworks from local artists with artworks from international ones, spanning all time periods, thereby stimulating evermore cultural exchange and diversity.”

What I like the most about ikonoTV is the ability to view a high quality documentation of art shows throughout Europe from the comfort of your laptop – when you can’t afford that weekend in Paris or Venice……..or Leipzig. It is also great to be able to view shows which may have finished their exhibition period. Now, when you go to your diary only to discover that that show you wanted to see closed last Friday while you were laying in the winter sun at Gorlizter Park, you can go online and see it from the comfort of your computer at home, or in the café, or where ever you get a decent high speed wifi connection.

I also like that from time to time ikono put out an Open Call to artists to submit their work for broadcasting consideration themed around different topics such as Environmental Art. So if you, like most of us, think that you and your art work would look good on film check out their website for further information: ikonotv