Guggenheim extravaganza - Youtube Play

Last week was such a crazy ride. This post might seem quite chaotic, but even now 5 days further the dust in my brain really havent settled yet - and I am not convinced it will before I get back to Berlin and sit down with my girl and my gang for a beer or two.

What all this fuzz is about is YouTube Play - the first Biennial of creative video arranged by YouTube & the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in cooperation with HP & Intel.

Henrik Sjoerslev`s and my video Bear Untitled appeared on the shortlist about a month ago and last thursday it was revealed as one of the final 25 at a big event at the Guggenheim museum in NY. And what a trip. All 25 of us were flewn in from around the world, picked up at the airport and installed in grandeur at the St Giles Hotel in Manhattan to take part of the event. And everyone stretched to the limit to make us feel welcome.

There is a story from the hotel that summs up the entire experience:
I was standing in the lobby and everything around me was a chaos. Everyone were on the phone, asking me questions replying to the phone to figure out when I had to be where. And I had to go up to my room to fetch a bag. As I got into the elevator this little old lady got in next to me: gray hair and half my hight. And as we started going up she looked at me and with a driven english accent she said: "Excuse me... But are you a rockstar?"

That was basically how it felt. A ton of interviews, good people telling me where to go and what to do, drivers driving me around. I had the pleasure of meeting Stefan Sagmeister and Marilyn Minter, OK GO and a ton of other awesome really cool cats (You know who you are!)

Basically I have so much gratitude towards all the people behind this. I simply cannot thank everybody idividually, but you all know who you are: Youtube, Guggenhein, HP, Intell, the other directors and the David All Group - basically everybody I met on the trip exelled in being so nice to me. (Exept the Curator at the Guggenheim that tackled me for drinking a cola too close to a priceless Picasso, but then again she was only doing her job)

Ill do a post when I get back to Berlin that treats the show a bit more in detail. But for now I just wanted to get the initial gratitude off my chest...

Here is a bit of press from the evening. I havent been able to find it all, but if you stumble across something Id love to get word on it - Apparently Im a press hore:

First of all the emission from youtube that was broadcasted live on the evening worldwide. I havent seen it yet, but I am in there somewhere waving like the queen. CLICK!

The amazing exterieur of the Guggenheim on the evening + an explanation what it is all about:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6987266n

Review from the New York Times: Click here
(Not friendly towards the exhibition, but very positive towards my piece)

I had the pleasure of meeting Van from killahbeez.com. We had a chat about creativity and creation and upon returning he wrote THIS article where he even highlights the Animation Tag Attack.

And a great little spot from N-joy Highlighting Henrik Sjoerslevs amazing sounddesign on the clip: http://www.ndr.de/n-joy/audio47921_podcast-podcast2950.html

Une reportage de la Soiree de Arte: