Tonight the transmediale Awards 2007 were announced at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. The international jury awarded a first prize and two second prizes: The Belgian artist Herman Asselberghs received the first prize (4.000 Euro), the second prize was split (2.000 Euro each) between Antoine Schmitt from France (installation 'still living') and Tim Shore from the UK (video 'Cabinet').

Stephen Kovats will be the new artistic director of transmediale, Berlin’s annual festival for art and digital culture. His appointment was announced at a press conference on Friday in the Akademie der Künste, where transmediale.07 takes place at present. Hortensia Völckers from the German Federal Cultural Foundation, and Moritz van Dülmen, managing director of transmediale’s administrative carrier, introduced Kovats to the general public.

The transmediale.07 programme includes a series of external events which are the result of cooperation between various partner institutions and which are being presented outside the main festival venue of the Akademie der Kuenste on Hanseatenweg.

Within the scope of the twentieth edition of the festival for art and digital culture, which started as ‘VideoFilmFest’ in 1988, transmediale.07 offers a retrospective of the festival’s development as well as several historical sections and perspectives of art in dialogue with media.

The film and video section consists of a series of programmes, relating thematically to the motto of the festival. For the first time, the complete film and video programme will also be presented at babylon berlin:mitte, from Thursday, February 1 to Monday, February 5.

The salon programme of transmediale.07 presents artistic projects and discussions that relate to current questions in art and digital culture. German and international 'works in progress' and initiatives present themselves to the audience and invite an exchange of ideas.

The transmediale.07 programme includes a series of events are being presented outside the main festival venue of the Akademie der Künste on Hanseatenweg. The new building of the Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz is an important second venue, where the festival week already begins a day before the official opening, with an hommage to Nam June Paik who died exactly one year ago.

The transmediale.07 conference, 'unfinish!', deals with the phenomenon of finiteness in art, science, architecture, computer science and politics.

During the opening ceremony of transmediale.07, French artist Pierre Bastien presents his unique 'Orchestre mécanique', an orchestra made of Meccano parts, electro-motors and acoustic instruments from all over the world.

The festival's motto relates to artistic works with digital media, in which 'unfinishing' is either the inherent drama of being eternally open-ended, or highlights the possibility of continuous transformation and advancement.