Since 2001 Wand 5 has presented a festival warm-up, where mainly regional artists get a look-in. The Warm-up provides you with the possibility to unhurriedly visit exhibitions and media installations before the festival actually starts. The exhibition of media installations at the Ex-IKEA building will be opened on 9 January and will be on until the end of the festival.

On Friday, 10 January the Institut Grundlagen Moderner Architektur (igma – institute for basics of modern architecture) of the Stuttgart University presents the competition raumFrames (spaceFrames) – collegiate positions towards space as film in cooperation with Wand 5 at the Filmhaus. The competition is about finding versions of spaces, which overcome the distance between graphically designed and sensually definable spaces. The medium film is supposed to act as intermediary in centering olfactory, tactile and gustatory aspects or making the timelyness of the space structurally legible. In cooperation with Wand 5 and the MFG Filmförderung, DV-Werkstatt and igma present the collegiate competition themed "Film als Raum" (Film As Space). Students, especially from the architecture, design, graphic, media and film faculties are invited to participate. Closing date: 16 December, 2002. An independent, five-headed jury will decide on awarding the prize money (€1,500). Further information is available under www.igmade.de

On 15 January, the day before the festival opens, there will be a private view prior to the exhibition annette hollywood starring Regina Zirkowski at the GEDOK Stuttgart (Hoelderlinstrasse 17). The three-part installation includes a video projection in a room, a video projection on canvas and easel as well as twelve watercolors. "annette hollywood starring Regina Zirkowski" deals with the image of the screenplay artist Regina Zirkowski, a character taken from the daily soap "Marienhof". The exhibition will be on until 1st February 2003.