ARTISTS

Video, 9:30 min.

Matthias Fritsch’s video Technoviking became famous via YouTube. Made in 2000 it soon spread all over the Web and many derivatives and re-enactments have been made since. Technoviking became viral: it kept on replicating as an internet meme. The gigantic number of views, comments, answers and re-enactments did transform this lo-fi internet video in a true moment of web-culture.
The original video was shot during the Fuckparade, a spin-off of the Love Parade, and shows a man dancing on the street and taking over both the cam and the crowd. He looks like a Scandinavian Viking, hyper-masculine with bared chest. Ecstatically dancing, the crowd seems to follow the bearded Teuton. Several new versions are transforming the Technoviking in Polka dance, machinima or transfer the scene in family gardens. In We, Technoviking, Fritsch has been editing together the original version and its derivates.
Mikkael Kinanen