KLEX – Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival
KLEX is an independent, artist and volunteer-run grassroots international festival of experimental film, video art and music founded in Malaysia in 2010, by a cross-disciplinary group of artists. It aims to serve as a platform to introduce contemporary experimental and unconventional cinema and music from the region and worldwide to the Malaysian audience, as well as introducing works from South East Asia and beyond to other parts of the world, to cultivate understanding, friendship, exchange and collaboration among local and international experimental art communities. KLEX has featured experimental films, video art, music and performances from around the world in Malaysia, including from Asia, Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe, North and South America. Since 2011, KLEX has been bringing its touring film programmes to other parts of Asia, Europe and north America. With the dedication of its tiny yet enthusiastic committee, the festival has been running for 10 consecutive years before the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020.
The festival features KLEX Open Programmes with cinematic works selected from the international open call, and International Guest Programmes curated by invited international artist and curators. In KLEX 2014-2016, it featured the Berlinale Shorts Go Abroad programmes from the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival. KLEX 2018-2019 featured SHORT EXPORT programmes, a collaborative project between Goethe-Institut Lyon, Short Film Festival Clemont-Ferrand, AG KurzfilmBundesverbandDeutscherKurzfilm, German Films and KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg. International guests that attended KLEX festival events include Max Hattler, SilkeSchmickl, Dieter Wieczorek, Michael Brynntrup (Germany), Phoebe Man Ching Ying (Hong Kong), Tzuan Wu (Taiwan), Hiroaki Sato, Katsuyuki Hattori and Kotaro Tanaka (Japan), WuttinChansataboot and WiwatLertwiwatwongsa (Thailand), Choi Jonghan (South Korea), Richard Tuohy, Dianna Barrie (Australia), Tammy McGovern (USA), Scott Miller Berry, FabrizioGilardino (Canada), Low Zu Boon (Singapore) and more. Leading up to the festival, KLEX organizes a series of events locally, including video screenings and music concerts at local colleges, art galleries and alternative venues such as RAW Art Space, The Saxophone Store, Lostgens Contemporary Art Space, MAPKL@Publika, Universiti Sarawak Malaysia, Sunway University, Multimedia University, Southern University College, SEGi CollegeSubang Jaya, New Era University College, Malaysian Institute of Art, Dasein Academy of Art, Linton University College, and many more.
Besides the screening programmes, KLEX’s performance programme is essential to the festival since 2011.In the first few editions, it focused on encouraging cross-disciplinary and cross-regional experimentation between artists and musicians. Since May 2014, KLEX has expanded its work into improvised and experimental music. It launched the monthly music series, Serious Play Improv Lab (SPIL) and had since playing an important role in nurturing the development of improvised music scene in the region. In 2015, KLEX modified the official festival name to “Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival”, adding “music” in its title. Musicians that have performed in KLEX events include Ng Chor Guan, Fairuz Sulaiman, Goh Lee Kwang, Goh Yen-Lin, YiiKah Hoe, Sudarshan Chandra Kumar, Kamal Sabran, Dharma, Sheryl Ong, Yuen Chee Wai (Singapore), OtomoYoshihide, Sachiko M, SabuToyozumi, Ryoko Ono, dj sniff, Katsura Yamauchi (Japan); Liu Fangyi, Dino, Lee Shih Yang, Jyun-Ao Caeser Lin, Lin Xiao Feng (Taiwan), Frank Gratkowski, Angelika Niescier, Nicola Hein, Max Riefer (Germany), Jaap Blonk (Netherlands), Dirk Stromberg, Monteith Mccollum, Bob Ostertag, Gerry Hemingway (USA), Darren Moore (Australia) and many more.
KLEX has a great network and relationship with the international experimental art communities to forget collaboration and exchange, such as the Director’s Lounge, HBK Film Forum-Braunschweig University of Art, UnStumm Project (Germany), Image Forum Festival (Japan), Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Alfred University (USA), Festival International Signes de Nuit (France), Korean Association of Film Education (KAFE), Lowave (France), AMNUA international Experimental Film & Video Forum 2015 (China), Asian Experimental Video Festival (Hong Kong), re:assemblage collective, Festival AccèsAsie, Images Festival (Canada), Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (Thailand), ARKIPEL Festival (Indonesia), Asian Artist’s Film & Video Forum (Korea), Nano Lab (Australia), Ilmin Museum of Art (Korea), Videoart Center Tokyo (Japan), Port Actif (Belgium), Singapore International Film Festival, Kaohsiung Film Festival (Taiwan) and many more.