Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Differences That Provoke Innovation

Marked by its enriching socio-cultural diversity and united through innovation, the art from what is known as the southern circuit has transformed in recent years into a phenomenon at once captivating, heterogeneous and singular in its power and intensity. In this 15th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, Associação Cultural Videobrasil, in conjunction with SESC São Paulo, presents a representative sample of this production, which it has been our privilege to accompany, encourage and divulge since its emergence. Our partnership with SESC São Paulo, which has been a fundamental stimulus for our work since it was formed in 1992, shows the institution's attunement and commitment to the changes technology has provoked in art. Thanks to this continued support we have been able to acquire deep familiarity with the art of the southern circuit, which, for the first time, has enabled us to consolidate a rough outline already announced at the Festival's previous edition and fulfil our desire to split the competitive show into three distinct categories that reflect the heterogeneity that made the need for such a change so evident.

Without the pretension of assembling a complete history of the production of the southern circuit, the programme Southern Panoramas offers a look at the maturity of electronic art (in State of the Art),makes a mapping of audiovisual experiments (in Contemporary Investigations) and introduces the thought and action of a new generation exposed from a young age to the possibilities for communication and creation that come with technology (in New Vectors). These categories, which unite artists from a growing number of countries, are different meanings of an emerging body of work that spent years consigned to the margins, but which today nourishes the core of artistic creation with new ideas and paradigms.

By selecting works from such distinct origins and forms, the 15th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival is true to its vocation as a centre for convergence and exchange, doing its part to strengthen the production and promotion of the work of artists from the southern circuit. As part of this strategy, the forthcoming edition of the Festival dedicates yet more space to reflection: in addition to an extended cycle of debates, there will also be performance workshops and the launch of the first issue of “Caderno Videobrasil”, a publi- cation turned over to the theme of performance,which, like electronic art, is an experience in which the limits between artistic genres blur and invade each other. The editorial priority of the publication is to spread and promote specialized theoretical research and recent artistic production in its annual, thematic issues.

The experiments stimulated by the Festival will also find continuity in the recently launched Videobrasil On-Line, another Associação Cultural Videobrasil partnership with SESC São Paulo and the Dutch-based Prince Claus Fund. During this edition of the Festival, the database, which is the result of an exhausting three-year undertaking on behalf of a dedicated team of IT and video specialists, researchers and visual artists, will be the subject of an experiment in which we aim to share with the artists the responsibility for inputting the content. Videobrasil On-Line offers the community free access to information on artists, works, curators and events.We hope that it leads to new relations, becomes an instrument for consultation and, above all, of collaborations and ideas that strengthen the production of - and thought about - art and technology in the southern circuit.

It is also important to highlight the expansion of our partnerships with educational institutions and media centres, which, at this edition of the Festival, in addition to the cash prizes awarded for one work from each exhibition on the Southern Panoramas programme, has also enabled us to grant residency prizes to three Brazilian artists at institutions both in Brazil and abroad: Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains (France), who we would like to thank for this pioneering agreement, Gasworks (United Kingdom) and FAAP (Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado), in São Paulo. For its part, Senac São Paulo will be coordinating the monitoring of the exhibition and will be involving its teachers and students in the activities at the Reflection Zone.

The first results of our interchange with Le Fresnoy Studio, begun in 2003, can be viewed at the opening of the programme Southern Panoramas,with a showing of “Filme de Guerra” by Wagner Morales, produced during his stay in France. The works produced during the terms of residency awarded at the 15th Videobrasil Festival will open their respective categories at the next edition of the Festival. We are in the process of negotiating agreements with other international institutions,which will further broaden the Festival's scope and proposals. Through these agreements we hope to consolidate interchange partnerships that can strengthen even `more the essential exchange between creation centres in the South, as well as the North.

This special edition of the Videobrasil Festival was made possible thanks to the total support of SESC São Paulo and the organizations with which we now have the privilege of embarking upon new partnerships, not to mention the cooperative spirit of various artists and entities the world over. However, it is important to highlight and, above all, to thank a special group of people with whom I have shared the realization of this event over recent years for all their intellectual and emotional support: Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, André Brasil, Christine Mello, Eduardo de Jesus and my competent, brave and tireless production team, coordinated with such fortitude and dedication by my dear friends Ana Pato and Cris Abi.

To conclude, I would also like to thank, and dedicate this work to, my dear husband Pedro and to our daughters Maria,Tetê and Nina for the understanding and patience with which they have dealt with my absence during the frequent commitments and inevitable scouting trips around the world. Solange Oliveira Farkas Curator and Director Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival

(15th Videobrasil catalogue). ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL VIDEOBRASIL. "15th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival - 'Performance.'": 6th to 25th September 2005, pp. 20 and 21, São Paulo, Brazil, 2005.

Looking to the Past, Catching a Glimpse of the Future

Partners since 1992, SESC São Paulo and Associação Cultural Videobrasil come together once again to promote the 15th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, a wide-reaching and mature project that has sharpened the aesthetic, artistic and cultural perception of curators, artists and the general public. This tendency is recognized, above all, in two of the Festival's defining aspects: an artistic/poetic mode of thought firmly associated with technological invention.

Created as a panorama of contemporary electronic/digital art, Videobrasil has shown special dedication to artistic production from the southern circuit. In this edition of the Festival, 130 works selected from 652 submissions from 41 countries will be presented to the public. These works comprise the competitive exhibition Southern Panoramas, which is sub-divided into three distinct categories: State of the Art, Contemporary Investigations and New Vectors.

In dedicating space exclusively to performance, assumed here as a curatorial axis, the Festival returns to one of the very seeds of electronic art, with presentations by Chelpa Ferro, Coco Fusco, Ingrid Mwangi, Marco Paulo Rolla, feitoamãos/F.A.Q., Melati Suryodarmo, Frente 3 de Fevereiro, Detanico Lain and Eder Santos, Stephen Vitiello and Ana Gastelois. In parallel, the video programme includes anthologies on the theme, such as Antologia Videobrasil de Performances, The Kitchen Performance Anthology, the WWVF Performance Anthology and the retrospective of Marina Abramovic's work.

The Festival will also include round table debates and VJ performances. Another highlight will be the awarding of prizes through partnerships cemented with Le Fresnoy Studio,Gasworks and Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado.

For twenty-three years now, Videobrasil has been promoting analysis and reflection on the impact of new artistic mediums, emphasizing such aspects as diffusion, interchange, analysis, research, experimentation and the construction of a collection.

Spearheading this initiative and understood as a reference in the field is Solange Oliveira Farkas, whose aesthetic sense, innovative spirit and keen eye have long since established her as a pioneer in valuing new mediums and the potential they represent for readings and interpretations of the multiple facets of contemporary society.

These are also principles dear to SESC São Paulo, whether by inciting debate or contributing to continuous knowledge building.

SESC believes that culture is a central element to the creation and development of a more just global society. This is what lies behind the institution's drive to promote informal education based on permanent contact with the most varied artistic and cultural manifestations, regardless of language or genre. It privileges innovation and research and the ability to establish new readings, while constantly seeking new objects.

This is the context in which the 15th Videobrasil Festival belongs; it's an initiative characterized by the connection between art and technology, which seeps deeper each day into people's daily lives. Therein lies the relevance of the Festival in encouraging new perceptions, activating new sensibilities and stimulating a better understanding of electronic art.

(15th Videobrasil catalogue). ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL VIDEOBRASIL. "15th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival - 'Performance.'": 6th to 25th September 2005, pp. 12-13, São Paulo, Brazil, 2005.