HEIDRUN HOLZFEIND Born 1972 in Lienz, Austria. Has lived and worked in New York, USA, since 1996   Heidrun Holzfeind, "Alien3" (installation view), 2004. Presented in collaboration with W139 at SKOR, Amsterdam. © Heidrun Holzfeind   Heidrun Holzfeind studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria (MFA in 1996), and at Cooper Union in New York. Her videos address the possibilities of self-representation and issues of social concern, such as globalization, migration, homelessness, environment, and health. Her works reflect strongly on our culture's values and desires, the definitions of success and failure, and what is left of the globalized "American Dream." Her subjects have been, amongst others, the inhabitants of a failed modernist housing project in Italy, a Mexican immigrant in the Bronx, Romanian immigrants in Austria, and a 63 year-old homeless writer in New York. In challenging the definitions of the genre video art and documentary film while deliberately playing with the language and strategies of television, music video, and home video, the works address the possibilities and limits of the video medium itself. Exploring the frictions between reality and fiction, interpretation and projection, the works ultimately reflect on different strategies of representation and a mediated depiction of reality. In her curatorial projects, such as the Alien video library and the website http://alien.thing.net, Holzfeind aims to provoke awareness and discussion of migration and the effects of globalization. Screenings and exhibitions include: tracer (TENT, Rotterdam, The Netherlands); AIM (Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA); Alien5 (Flacc, Genk, Belgium); Alien3 (W139, Amsterdam, The Netherlands); 4D (Havana Biennial, Cuba); slow (e)motion (Kölner Kunstverein, Germany); Interseason (BAK, Utrecht, The Netherlands); Das Reale Beruehren (Videofestival, Kunstverein München, Germany); Diagonale (Filmfestival, Graz, Austria); Kartographien (Filmcasino, Vienna, Austria); Image Forum (Filmfestival, Tokyo, Japan); Play global! (Transmediale, Berlin, Germany); Prototipi (Fondazione Olivetti, Rome, Italy); Reflex (Art&Idea, Mexico City, Mexico); European Video Art (Videoart Center, Tokyo, Japan); Alien2 (Swiss Institute, New York, USA); VideoEx (Videofestival, Zurich, Switzerland); Video Drive In (Videochroniques, Marseilles, France); and Alien (Austrian Cultural Forum, Rome, Italy). Residencies: New York, USA (1996/97); Rome, Italy (2001); and Mexico City, Mexico (2005).   Contribution: Participates in Station 1: The Equestrian Hall, Aarhus, with "Alien4," 2004. Movie theater (6 x 6 x 3 m.) with 235 min. long screening program featuring a selection of ten works by: Songül Boyraz & Peter Höll; Loulou Cherinet; Gustav Deutsch & Mostafa Tabbou; Esra Ersen; Martin Krenn & Oliver Ressler; Jenny Perlin; Lisl Ponger; Tanja Nellemann Poulsen; Walid Ra'ad/Atlas Group; as well as Holzfeind's own "The Romanians," 2002. Video, 14 min. Courtesy of the artist. The Alien project is a growing collection of video and film works dealing with the issue of migration and borders. The selected works range from art videos to experimental and documentary films. They reflect on aspects and effects of globalization, the flow of goods, capital and labor, and question political and cultural notions of borders, nationality and our definitions of "alien" and "the other" (see http://alien.thing.net).