The VideoFest has long been an integral part of the Berlin Festival. The list of works in fhe program has grown from year to year - not to mention the number of spectators and accredited experts whom it has attracted to the city.
Despite its success, the VideoFest is not responding to expansion with rigidity, but rather with the openness to experimentation so characteristic of video itself. This year, for example, the structure of the program has been altered substantially in order to focus, within the framework of a symposium as well as a number of special programs, on the video culture of a single country - France. We send a special greeting to the video experts who are joining us from there, as well as our express thanks to those French institutions who have done their utmost in support of this event.
MedienOperative has used the VideoFest to ensure that Berlin could become an important meeting place for the international video scene. But even beyond this achievement, the organizers' clever and creative approaches have succeeded in generating interest in the medium of video among an ever-increasing audience. That the Babylon cinema and the experimental theater Volksbühne now put on regular video performances - in some cases in close cooperation with MedienOperative - undoubtedly has to do with the stimulating role of the VideoFest. an integral part of the Berlin Festival. The list of works in fhe program has grown from year to year - not to mention the number of spectators and accredited experts whom it has attracted to the city.
Despite its success, the VideoFest is not responding to expansion with rigidity, but rather with the openness to experimentation so characteristic of video itself. This year, for example, the structure of the program has been altered substantially in order to focus, within the framework of a symposium as well as a number of special programs, on the video culture of a single country - France. We send a special greeting to the video experts who are joining us from there, as well as our express thanks to
those French institutions who have done their utmost in support of this event.
MedienOperative has used the VideoFest to ensure that Berlin could become an important meeting place for the international video scene. But even beyond this achievement, the organizers' clever and creative approaches have succeeded in generating interest in the medium of video among an ever-increasing audience. That the Babylon cinema and the experimental theater Volksbühne now put on regular video performances - in some cases in close cooperation with MedienOperative - undoubtedly has to do with the stimulating role of the VideoFest.
Our thanks to the organizers for their hard work - and also, to an equal degree, to our sponsors from fhe business community.
The VideoFest has been forced to move this year, and how good it is to see that MedienOperative has once again succeeded, with Podewil, in finding a location in the center of Berlin. May this new home help to further overcome the barriers that still divide us.
I wish the VideoFest much success, and its audience the productive discourse to which all have long since become accustomed.

Ulrich Roloff-Momin, Senator for Cultural Affairs