[spectre] video art from Am é rica Latina (web link was missing)

[Jose-Carlos Mariategui]

Dear all:

Sorry, in the last email I forgot the most important thing, the web site
link, here it is:

http://www.videografiasinvisibles.org/

All the best,

Jose-carlos


V I D E O G R A F I A S   I N ( V I S I B L E S )
[ (In)visible Videographies  ]
A selection of recent video art from América Latina (2000 ­ 2005)
http://www.videografiasinvisibles.org/

Centro Atlántico de Arte Contemporáneo
Sala San Antonio de Abad
Plaza San Antonio de Abad, 1 Vegueta, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

16th of february - 16th of april, 2006

Curators: Jorge Villacorta + José-Carlos Mariátegui


In the brief history of electronic art in Latin America there are two
recognizable stages. The first took place in the 1980s, or possibly the late
Seventies, when artists, either isolated or in small groups, began to
experiment with available electronic media, usually imitating what had
already been done in Europe or the United States. The second stage, which
began around 1990, involved the appearance of new artists immersed in
electronic creation. This stage coincides in time with one or more local
cultural initiatives ­public, private or a combination of the two­ with the
aim of giving an institutional framework for creativity in electronic media
and its promotion. In Argentina and Brazil these two stages appeared before
they did elsewhere in Latin America; in Argentina the first stage took place
in the second half of the Sixties, and in Brazil, in the early Seventies.

Since Latin America is such a vast territory, whose development has been
marked by the necessary transference of technology, it is easy to understand
how electronic art becomes inserted in an ultimately cultural phenomenon of
transference, even if its basis and its immediate devices are to be found in
technology. 

As we can also see in the rest of the world, electronic media in Latin
America are used nowadays in artistic creation in a context of fast changes,
novelty developments, impact and surprise. Due to these changes artists
travel to new places and become conscious of the uniqueness of their present
position, awakening new insights, which in turn give important feedback to
their work. 

Even if electronic art in Latin America as a whole still lacks stability,
video art has become one of the contemporary aesthetic practices in recent
Latin American visual arts. It is often included in international art
exhibits and shows, as it is considered to have all the marks of regional
representation, as well as acknowledged international legitimacy.

However, little is known about recent video art production in Latin America
as a whole, outside of some well-known names. It is hard to believe that at
the beginning of the 21st Century, in spite of ubiquitous communication and
information technology, we still have no access to any information about the
creative processes which take place in certain areas. For us Latin Americans
it is even more difficult to have access to information about our own
region.

It therefore becomes a necessity to build a network of creative connexions
focused on the knowledge about video art in the region, searching at the
same time for the particularities which ensure that in each country in Latin
America there is a continuous flow of creative projects in new media.

(In)visible Videographies proposes rendering visible some of these possible
connexions revolving around ideas, concepts and recent proposals linked to
video art works by Latin American creators unknown to the general public, in
an attempt to contribute to the redefinition of our global concept of media
art.

The curatorial activity in this exhibit is focused on the selection of
recent innovative projects, in an attempt to generate a receptive space for
new cultural contents where visitors can actively immerse themselves.

The projects chosen here have been produced by artists from those places
which have little representation in the development of video art, but where,
as our recent researches have confirmed, there is as much talent as that of
the more visible areas of Latin America.

(In)visible Videographies is divided into five thematic selections:

 
1.- MUSIC FOR THE EYES (16th of November, 19:30 h)
The artists take a look at mass culture, with an avid aye for identifying
the contours of a media culture which can be easily and directly
comprehended. From animation to the dramatization of urban violence, this
selection covers testimonial instances of how a commercial format (the video
clip) has left its mark on visual creation, using video as a medium. What is
foreign to them is effectively assimilated and reinterpreted from a witty
local standpoint.
 
Álvaro Zavala (Peru) ³¡Qué lindos son tus ojos!², 2001, 4¹ 30¹¹
Allora & Calzadilla (Cuba / USA) ³Returning a Sound², 2005, 5¹ 30¹¹
Orlando Galloso (Cuba) ³El telón², 2002, 3¹ 10¹¹
Katia Lund (Brazil) ³A minha alma², 2000, 6¹
Victoria Sayago (Argentina) ³Algo pasa en Potosí², 2005, 8¹
Brooke Alfaro (Panama) ³Aria², 2003, 3¹ 27¹¹
Ángel Alonso (Cuba) ³El hogar y sus fantasías², 2003, 7¹ 15¹¹
Ximena Cuevas (Mexico) ³Cinepolis², 2002, 22¹
Claudio Santos and Alexandra Soares / Voltz Design (Brazil) ³MOV_03², 2002,
2¹ 30¹¹
Lucas Bambozzi (Brazil) Fifteen clips from the series ³Postales², 2000-2003
(inserted in the program)
 

2.- EXERCISES TO FIGHT OBLIVION (23rd of November, 19:30 h)
This selection explores the way memories of the recent past generate forms
of audiovisual stories multiplying the senses in the construction of
traditional historicity. The experience of television consumerism becomes
one of the references that filter a cumulus of narrations, where nothing is
rejected a priori: the personal or family history can become enmeshed in
regional history ­be it geographic or social­ and both can reveal the
political dimension.
 
Javier Cambre (Puerto Rico)³Paseante², 2005, 7¹ 35¹¹
Ernesto Salmerón (Nicaragua)³Documento 1/29², 2003, 3¹ 47¹¹
³Documento 2/29², 2003, 51¹¹
³Documento 3/29², 2003, 1¹ 40¹¹
Enrique Castro (Panama)³memorias del hijo del viejo², 2003, 20¹
Diego David Cifuentes (Ecuador)³Cuentos del desfortunio², 2003, 4¹ 46¹¹
Edgar León (Costa Rica)³Memorias del porqué², 2001, 4¹ 47¹¹
Federico Falco (Argentina)³Estudio para horizonte², 2003, 6¹ 35¹¹
Carlos Runcie Tanaka (Peru)³DOS², 2003, 12¹
 

3.- IMPURE CINEMA (30th of November, 19:30 h)
The discovery of cinematography from a videographic perspective has resulted
in a series of combinations which bring possibilities for innovating and
transgressing the traditional movie format. This range of new possibilities
of creation in the context of the visual arts in Latin America seems to have
contributed to the recuperation of the experimental potential of narrating,
lushly and impeccably, in images and sounds. Its wider sense of
conceptualization gives direction to each and every process of edition and
composition, be it analog or digital.
 
Carolina Saquel (Chile)³Pentimenti², 2004, 8¹ 30¹¹
Diego Lama (Peru)³Chimera², 2004, 10¹ 5¹¹
Iván Marino (Argentina)³In Death¹s Dream Kingdom², 2002, 17¹
Milagros Mumenthaler (Argentina) ³Cape Cod², 2003, 3¹
Andrés Denegri (Argentina)³Uyuni², 2005, 8¹
Martín Sastre (Uruguay)³Montevideo ­ the dark side of the Pop², 2004, 14¹
Héctor Pacheco (Mexico) ³Doce muertes violentas de artistas contemporáneos²,
2003, 5¹
 
 
4.- (MEDIA) HABITAT (7th of December, 19:30 h)
The journey along the territory of reality in Latin America is made with a
critical slant. The focus is on the way reality is transformed in the mass
communication media: the artists work on the images in order to generate
spaces which can be open for discussion. In the same way, poetics born from
the experimental use of the digital medium bring about visual dimensions
which consciousness experiences as belonging to a separate reality.
 
María José Cuevas (Mexico)³Mal de amores², 2005, 3¹ 35¹¹
Los artistas de la Gente (Honduras) ³Nos vale verga², 2003, 7¹
Marcellvs L. (Brazil)  ³A Man, a Road, a River ­ 0778², 2004, 9¹ 27¹¹
Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain (Brazil) ³Flatland², 2003, 7¹ 36¹¹
Glenda León (Cuba)³Cada respiro², 2003, 2¹
Fernando Arias / Diego Arias (Colombia) ³Orisa², 2001, 22¹
Omar Flores (Peru)³Viva la muerte², 2003, 8¹ 30¹¹
Edgar Endress (Chile)³La memoria ­ Undocumented², 2004, 8¹ 30¹¹
Eder Santos (Brazil)³Accidentes geográficos², 2000, 18¹ 30¹¹
Gabriela Golder (Argentina) ³Vacas², 2002, 4¹ 26¹¹
 

5.- PERFORMED IMAGERY (14th of December, 19:30 h)
With a clear sense of the necessity to redefine video performance, a new
generation of Latin American artists takes over situations and subjects
deeply rooted in national imagery. The ethical status of the artist in the
social context becomes in turn an object of ironic or playful reflection.
 
Narda Alvarado (Bolivia)³Fire-men², 2004, 6¹
Sandra Monterroso (Guatemala) ³Tus tortillas mi amor², 2004, 23¹
Donna Conlon (Panama / USA) ³Singular, solitario², 2002, 5¹ 46¹¹
Cezar Migliorin (Brazil)³Acción y dispersión², 2003, 5¹ 30¹¹
Carlos Quintana (Venezuela)³El tigurón Franquejten², 2003, 9¹ 38¹¹
Milena Pafundi (Argentina) ³Un tiempo², 2003, 26¹
Narda Alvarado (Bolivia)³Olive Green², 2003, 4¹ 30¹¹

 
---------
This project has been produced by Museo Patio Herreriano de Arte
Contemporáneo Español (Valladolid ­ Spain), Alta Tecnología Andina - ATA
(Lima - Peru), the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno and the Agencia Española
de Cooperación Internacional - AECI.

Sponsor: Ministry of Culture, Spain