Aleksandar Radan was born in Offenbach am Main in 1988 and studied at the local Hochschule für Gestaltung. His works revolve around the digital medium and the fact that we are constantly lagging behind it, but also on how we can independently continue known, perhaps stereotypical narrative threads. The aspect of "lagging behind" can be understood metaphorically but also finds visible concrete expression in the artist's interest in the body language of humans shaped by technologies and mass media communication formats or our avatars and representations in virtual environments. In Radan's works, one often encounters the stereotypical, pre-programmed gestures of digital avatars that fluctuate between lifelikeness and the artificially clumsy. These are manipulated in game moddings and supplemented with an improvisational moment: the films are mostly played live in computer game environments, which the artist has previously deliberately changed or designed as his "stage set". By interfering with the software's databases, game modding allows rewriting of, for example, the visual surface textures or the sound of a game, which thus becomes artistically formable material.
In Radan's experimental short films, the programmed meets the improvised, the preset is confronted with the spontaneous actions of the artist - who is also the player - in the virtual environment. The confrontation with media-shaped identities, constantly changing due to personal experiences, the "pre-sets" from which these are composed, and the performative frameworks in which interpretation and recognition can take place, also finds its way into non-purely digital works.
Haptic surfaces in completely different textures, such as textiles or porcelain, serve to materialize, in part autofictional, narratives, starting from notes in school notebooks and diaries, snapshots from popular media, or everyday events. The fascination with ambiguous textures is also clearly evident here: tangible before the eyes and yet shimmering as projection surfaces for associations that make the contours of seemingly familiar (media) worlds ambiguous. Aleksandar Radan received the Hessenfilm Author's Scholarship in 2022. His works have already been shown, among others, at the Festival International du Court Métrage in Clermont-Ferrand, the International Short Film Days in Oberhausen, and the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt.
Text: Ellen Wagner
Exhibitions / Screenings (Selection)
2023
• ARTE Kurzschluss „Steckbrief Natur - Folge 1, 2 und 3“ (DE, FRA)
• „Video games as a medium for artistic expression“ Lecture at IULM University Milano (ITA)
• „Video games as a medium for artistic expression“ Lecture im Kino des Filmhauses Bielefeld
• „Mother“ for Phoebe Philo Launch (Worldwide)
2022
• KFFK / Kurzfilmfestival Köln
2021
• ARTE Kurzschluss „Steckbrief Natur - Folge 1 Der Waldkauz“ (DE, FRA)
• Digitale, Düsseldorf
2020
• Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (CHE)
• VIENNA SHORTS, Internationales Kurzfilmfestival, Wien (AT)
• Internationales Kurzfilmfestival Hamburg
• Internationale Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg
• New Chitose Airport International Animation Film Festival (JP)
• Filmfest Dresden – Internationales Kurzfilmfestival
• OSTRALE at Rijeka 2020 (HRV)
• Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center, Buffalo, NY (USA)
2019
• DOUBLE FEATURE Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
• „Imitating while looking for a way out“ saasfee*Pavillon, Frankfurt
• BIII Biennal of the Moving Image, Frankfurt
• „Back then by tomorrow“, Werthalle Köln
• KFFK / Kurzfilmfestival Köln
• Weekly: Film and Science, Poznan (PL)
• Ostrale Biennale, Dresden
• Short Waves Festival, Poznan (PL)
2018
• European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück
• interfilm Festival, Berlin
• Molodist Festival, Kiew (UKR)
• Lago Film Fest (ITA)
• Open Eyes Filmfest, Marburg
2017
• „Things I Think I Want“, Frankfurter Kunstverein
• goEast-Festival Open Frame Award, Wiesbaden
• Goethe Media Space, Toronto (CAN)
• „Videorama“ Werkleitz, Halle
• Waterpieces Art Festival, Riga (LVA)
• Kunstfestival der Universität Guanajuato (MEX)
• Culture and Arts Project NOASS, Riga (LVA)
• Kriterion Art House Cinema, Sarajevo (HRV)
• „Hessen Choreographies“ Hessischen Theatertage, Darmstadt
2016
• International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen
• Clermont-Ferrand Festival du Court Métrage (FRA)
• Tabakalera, San Sebastian (ESP)
• Lichter Filmfest international, Frankfurt am Main
• Festival premiers plans D‘Angers (FRA)
• Film Festival Cologne, Köln
• Concorto Film Festival (ITA)
• Kurzfilmfestival Köln
• Animatou Festival international, Genf (CHE)
• Lago Film Fest (ITA)
• European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück
• Festival der jungen Talente, Frankfurter Kunstverein
2015
• Kasseler Dokumentar und Video Fest
• Filmfestival Casablanca (MAR)
• Lichter Filmfest International, Frankfurt am Main
2014
• Kasseler Dokumentar und Video Fest
2012
• Lichter Filmfest international, Frankfurt am Main
• „Fenster zur Straße“ Werkleitz, Halle
• Fulldome Festival, Jena
• Fulldome UK, Leicester (GBR)
• BIII Biennale des bewegten Bildes, Frankfurt am Main
Awards / Fellowships
• 2022 Autor*innen Stipendium HessenFilm & Medien
• 2022 Förderstipendium der Heinz und Gisela Friederichs Stiftung für Absolvent*innen
• 2020 DEFA-Förderpreis Animation, Filmfest Dresden
• 2020 „Short film catalogue“ German short films, AG Kurzfilm
• 2019 1. Jurypreis Kurzfilmfestival Köln
• 2019 „Kura and Contemporary Art Exhibition“, residency, Japan
• 2018 Der Frankfurter Verein für Künstlerhilfe e.V., Stipendium
• 2018 Best experimental Film, Lago Filmfest (ITA)
• 2017 „Open Frame Award“ goEast Festival, Wiesbaden
• 2017 Emerging Artists vol.3 „Contemporary
Experimental Films and Video Art from Germany“
• 2017 „Short film catalogue“ German short films, AG Kurzfilm
• 2012 Rotary Club, Stipendium
mail [at] aleksradan.de