I remember
We (the INFERMENTAL´s editors) are not art-historian, so to have some credibility, we have to use some precautionary measures when we talk about our experience… We have to be « modesty sincere », using, for example, some personal anecdotes, some « I remember ».
Doing INFERMENTAL for me was absolutly genial… My best friends are from the INFERMENTAL network. I completed (a lot) my tolereance-learning when I deed my INFERMENTAL number…
INFERMENTAL was not a sinecure, it was not so respectable to be media-artist (or to be friendly with…) at this time… Be an « INFERMENTAL-Editor » was not so easy.
First we needed the connection, the magic « key », a manner of « initiator ». For us, « le Frigo », Mike A. Hentz was the « guy ». And a crew, a team, a location with a « alternative-fame » and technical possibility (kinda bureaucraty and some solution for editing the number: money and machines).
INFERMENTAL was for me a straight « direct democraty » with chic and « panache » ! Our personal supervizor (Astrid Heibach) was a garanty of our freedom : « Please, interest me !» was the slogan! We were complety free with our choices and the « general-looking » but with some strong intuitive positive drive with the other numbers, a manner of « Cadavre Exquis ». It was not only about media, more about information and exchange, « crossover » and « transgender ». The Wall was here, beetween us, something to break with reason…
INFERMENTAL was not a « ego-competition », not only but a verification of the « modernity-atmosphere » year by year... A sort of « imaginery Museum of the present time », an utopia of the 80’… But with step back, and it was not premeditaded, INFERMENTAL is the only « complete and exotic video archive » from the 80’, the hinge beetween analogic and digital in the mass-media !
What could be better than the list of the 10 numbers to show the diversity and the broadmindedness of INFERMENTAL!
Gerard Couty TXT Hamburg show INFERMENTAL, Kampnagel 1995
