Stefaan Decostere

Stefaan Decostere studied film direction at the National Film School RITS in Brussels. Finishing in 1978, he directed his first documentary on Marcel Duchamp. From 1979 until 1998, he worked as director and producer for the Arts Department of the Flemish Belgian Television (the former BRTN). He was amongst a handful of truly innovative directors working in television, creating new forms for increasingly complex ideas. Decostere approached the television medium as a serious platform for his specific ideas about media analysis, structural experimentation and video-graphic creation. In his documentaries he became increasingly critical of the medium he employed, a form of essay in which he responded to codes that uphold mainstream television programming. His television documentaries include productions for Belgian Television BRTN, co-productions for the Banff Center for the Arts, CBS, Channel Four, INA, NOS, TVE and VPRO.

Central to Decostere's journey of discovery towards a radical, new visual language was his creative use of editing. Because of this, even today, his documentaries remain more than a report about their subject. Unlike 'normal' television productions, for the viewer, Decostere's programmes offer a challenge. Because they approach themes and subjects from several perspectives, or offer an opportunity for reflection and introspection, they force the viewer to take an active stance.

Since 1990, some of Decostere's work for television leads to media installations: Tulips for Holland, (World Wide Video Festival, The Hague, 1994); Imperial TV, (ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, 1992); @Holyking, (Triple X, Amsterdam, 1995), and Warum 2.0 (STUK Leuven 2008, and V2_, Rotterdam, 2009).

In 1998, Stefaan Decostere founded Cargo vzw together with Margit Tamás.

In 1997, he published Angels in Hell for the V2_ publication TechnoMorphica. As part of the IFFR 2009, his work Warum 2.0 was exhibited at V2_.

http://www.cargoweb.org/