Videotheek Marco

For many communities, video rental shops hold a dear significance: a place where anyone and everyone could rent a film. As they become a dying species, Rotterdam artist Gyz La Rivière shares the stories of the remaining few in The Netherlands and the Benelux.

With Videotheek Marco, Rotterdam artist Gyz La Rivière creates a monument to a Rotterdam lost to memory, through its near-forgotten video shops. Focusing on the Videotheek Marco, a small venue once found in the underground shopping centre at Beurs station.

La Rivière, an ever curious investigator of the city’s media history, digs up the tiniest and most transient places for movie rental, not to mention all the specialised shops serving Rotterdam’s various communities. Beyond that, La Rivière also looks into other uses for VHS, ranging from instructional tapes to karaoke videos, as well as the development of alternative television based on the possibilities of consumer-level technology. For La Rivière, video was the culture of the people, for the people, which he here celebrates in bright colour and funky sounds.

– Olaf Möller

Trailer

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