The VIPER Film and Video Festival held in Lucerne, Switzerland, now in its 18th year, is one of Europe’s premier showcases for experimental media. Last October the Bay Area was amazingly well-represented with works by several local artists including Bruce Conner, David Sherman, Vicki Funari, John Turk, Lynn Hershman, and award winner Barbara Klutinis. In the spirit of creating dialogue between artists working on different continents, tonight’s show brings some of the best European and Japanese work from VIPER ’96 festival here to the Bay. Ranging from Takashi Ito’s technically stunning Zone (Japan) to Barbara Meter’s elegiac Departure on Arrival (Netherlands), the program also includes Marten Winters’ elliptical portrait of rural Friesland Weg Van Het Vlees (Netherlands), Hannu Puttonan’s quirky internet narrative Thought, Language and Communication (Finland). Esther Schlicht and Petra Trefzger’s look at a defunct East German film factory Orwa (Germany), and Matthew Robinson’s humorous Bus Stop (UK). (Programmed by Irina Leimbacher)