Basic Conflicts
A videoseries by Rainer Ganahl, USA, 1999 6 min
Basic Conflicts consists of 5 clips:
Basic Conflicts, Justice, 1999 1.5 min
Basic Conflicts, The nation, 1999 1.5 min
Basic Conflicts, Currency, 1999 1.5 min
Basic Conflicts, Language, 1999 1.5 min
Basic Conflicts, Religion, 1999 1.5 min

"Basic Conflicts" is a series of small videos conceived for the Venice Biennial 1999 and part of an installation that addressed language politics.
Ganahl is interested in the cultural capital of languages in a global market. Many of his works emphasize how foreign language acquisition has historically functioned within the power politics of global communication and capital flow. (Emily Apter)

Please, teach me Chinese
A video by Rainer Ganahl, USA, 30 sec. 1999
"Hello, I am Rainer. I am learning Chines. I like Chinese. Please, teach me Chinese"

Rudi Gurtin, my travel agent, a stalinist in New York in the year 2000
Rainer Ganahl, USA, 60 min. 2000

For this piece, I photographed and interviewed my travel agent who tells a conflicting but intriguing life story about him being a Stalinist. Historical facts he rejects as "American propaganda". He himself and his family have been victimized by the very system he continues to promote. Born before the war in Eastern Euorpe to a Jewish Russian family he was put into a Nazi Concentration Camp for several years, grew up under Stalin and emigrated to Israel in 1977. He moved to New York in 1981 where he still is working as a travel agent. His tiny office in Manhatten is covered with Soviet nostalgia including a series of pictures of Stalin.

Rainer Ganahl
was born in Bludenz. He lives and works in New York. He studied Media Arts at Acadmey of Applied Arts Vienna and Academy in Düsseldorf and at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York. Shows include Baumgartner Gallery/New York, Galerie Nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder/Vienna, Galeria Massimo de Carlo/Milan, Centre de Photographie/Geneva, the 48th Venice Biennale, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig/Vienna, Max Protetch/New York, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Generali Foundation/Vienna, Villa Arson/Nice, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Centre George Pompidou/ Paris, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.

more info: www.ganahl.info