[transmediale] former transmediale director Micky Kwella +

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Dear friends,

we just received some very sad news. Micky Kwella who was the 
director of transmediale for so many years, died of a heart attack 
last Friday, 7 February 2003, here in Berlin.

Micky was in the hospital for a bypass operation on his leg and 
seemed to be in a good spirit. He called us just before the festival 
to wish us good luck and to apologise that he would not be able to 
come due to his condition. He was back at home last Wednesday but had 
to go back into hospital on Thursday because the bypass was blocked. 
After the operation and while in intensive care on Friday, a 
physio-therapist came to do some exercises with him, during which he 
broke down and could not be revived again - apparently, he had three 
heart strokes, one after the other.

We are shocked and sad about Micky's death who was the driving force 
behind transmediale for many many years. As part of the 
Medienoperative he started showing video art in the Berlinale long 
before the Videofilmfest, later VideoFest, later transmediale, became 
a festival of its own in 1988. He directed the festival until 2000 
and then went on to do independent curatorial projects as well as 
teach at the art school in Berlin Weissensee.

The date and place of the funeral will be decided today, for those 
interested we can pass the information along.


Andreas Broeckmann
Susanne Jaschko