Undertaking |
  • Associação Cultural Videobrasil
  • SESC São Paulo
General Curator |

Performance was the main theme of the Festival, once again at Sesc Pompeia, which had its run extended to three weeks, splitting the Southern Panoramas competitive exhibition into three different sections: State of the Art (aimed at the production of established artists), Contemporary Investigations (research), and New Vectors (emerging artists). The 15,000 people who attended the event have watched historical performance retrospectives dedicated to the works of Serbian artist Marina Abramovic, New-York-based media center The Kitchen, the Dutch World Wide Video Festival, and Videobrasil itself; nine live performances have been presented by Chelpa Ferro, feitoamãos/F.A.Q., Frente 3 de Fevereiro, Marco Paulo Rolla, Eder Santos, and Detanico Lain, from Brazil, Ingrid Mwangi, from Germany/Kenya, Melati Suryodarmo, from Indonesia, and Coco Fusco, from the U.S., who ran an intervention in front of the U.S. Consulate General. The Festival promoted meetings between the audience and artists such as Terezinha Soares, from Minas Gerais, a pioneer of performance in Brazil, as well as live-image evenings, debates, and a performance workshop coordinated by Marco Paulo Rolla and Marcos Hill from the Centro de Experimentação e Informação de Arte (MG). The Festival welcomed 114 guests from Brazil and abroad and granted six awards, three of them residencies including the production of audiovisual artwork.

Visual identity and graphic design | Angela Detanico e Rafael Lain 

Photographic record | Isabella Matheus

Programme

competitive show

Southern Panoramas: Contemporary Investigations | 15th Festival

The competitive show received 652 submissions from 41 countries in the geopolitical South of the world. The submissions were narrowed down to 130 pieces and divided into three sectoins: State of the Art, Contemporary Investigations, and New Vectors.

Southern Panoramas: New Vectors | 15th Festival

The competitive show received 652 submissions from 41 countries in the geopolitical South of the world. The submissions were narrowed down to 130 pieces and divided into three sections: State of the Art, Contemporary Investigations, and New Vectors.

Southern Panoramas: State of Art | 15th Festival

The competitive show received 652 submissions from 41 “Southern Scene” countries. The submissions were narrowed down to 130 works and divided into three sections: State of the Art, Contemporary Investigations and New Vectors.

film and/or video screenings

"Extremidades do Vídeo"

Derived from the doctoral thesis entitled “Extremidades do Vídeo,” by the curator Christine Mello, this initiative brings together an assortment of Brazilian works that illustrate video’s semiotic infilitrations into different fields of contemporary aesthetics and its ability to influence the most varied artistic manifestations. The programme is divided into three: ‘Desconstrução,’ which contains works born of the intention to disassemble videographic language in order to broaden its limits; ‘Contaminação,’ in which we see video engaged in dialogue with such languages as performance, theatre, music, dance, and installation; and ‘Compartilhamento,’ which deals with the medium’s presence within interactive contexts.

Coco Fusco

Three works in video attest to this New York artist’s performatic relationship with the electronic medium, from “The Couple in the Cage: a Guatinaui Odyssey,” in which she assumes the guise of a native from an imaginary American island in order to criticize the practice of treating human beings from different cultures as mere curiosities, to the documentary/performance “a/k/a Mrs. George Gilbert,” which deals with the repression of Black activists and intellectuals during the 1960s and 70s.

FF>>Dossier

Under the curatorship of Eduardo de Jesus, the programme derives from the on-line FF>>Dossier, that includes the Brazilian artists Wagner Morales, Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima, Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, and Lia Chaia; the Mexican Manolo Arriola; and the Nicaraguan Ernesto Salmerón, among others.

Ingrid Mwangi

The exhibition brings together recordings of seven performances by this German-based Kenyan artist made between 1998 and 2003. Indrig Mwangi uses her body and voice and projected forms and colors to speak of loss of liberty, violence, and pain.

Marco Paulo Rolla

The human effort to construct a sense of comfort in relation to life–and its inevitable failure–is a recurring theme in the eight performances that comprise this retrospective of the artist’s work from 1995 to 2005.

Marina Abramovic Anthology

This retrospective features key works by the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic, who made her first forays into performance in the 1970s and is now recognized as a reference in the field. These works exemplify her belief in the idea of physical and emotional.

Melati Suryodarmo

Twelve works trace the development in the oeuvre of this Indonesian artist, a disciple of Marina Abramovic and member of the Independent Performance Group. Dated between 1998 and 2004, these recordings make constant references to Indonesian culture.

The Kitchen Performance Anthology, curatorship by Stephen Vitiello

This anthology brings together performances promoted by the New York media center and electronic theatre during the effervescent period stretching from the mid-1960s to the early 80s, reconstructing a historic panorama of the performances in the USA of that period.

Videobrasil Anthology of Performances

The exhibition unite eighteen performances either commissioned or exhibited by the Festival between 1992 and 2003. Varied in their intent and nature, what these performances have in common is their relationship with video–that fundament that records and comments.

WWVF Anthology Performance, curatorship by Tom van Vliet

The compilation presents recorded performances and works of a performatic character from various editions of the World Wide Video Festival, which is considered one of the most important electronic art events in the world, based in Netherlands

performance

"Bare Life Study #1", Coco Fusco

Coco Fusco presented her Bare Life Study #1 performance for the first time. The piece is set on a sidewalk brimming with Brazilian applicants for a United States passport in front of the US consulate in São Paulo. The artist directs 40 performers in a satire of US militarization.

"Carro Bomba - Guia Antipânico e Invenções Rotativas", Grupo feitoamãos / FAQ

A widespread sense of imminent attack is explored by feitoamãos/FAQ in this performance made from smoke, projections, noise and agglomeration. The group is an outgrowth of the feitoamãos collective, which has created collaborative art projects since 1999.

"Engrenagem", Eder Santos

This concert-performance is a re-reading of Eder Santos’ most important pieces over the past twenty years, featuring live appearances by guest musicians Paulo Santos and Stephen Vitiello and by performer Ana Gastelois.

"Exergie - Butter Dance", Melati Suryodarmo

A member of the Independent Performance Group, founded by Serbian artist Marina Abramovic, the Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo needs total concentration as she walks wearing high heels over butter chunks. The belief in the physical body as a mirror for the inner universe moves the performer.

"Futebol" (Football), Frente 3 de Fevereiro

The racist episode involving soccer players Grafite, from Brazil, and Leandro Desábato, from Argentina, in April 2005, is the starting point for the performance of the collective, which does urban intervention work.

"My Possession", Ingrid Mwangi

Ingrid Mwangi has traveled the realms of weirdness ever since she left her native country Kenya, at fifteen years of age, to go live with her mother in Germany. In her perfomances, Mwangi uses body and voice to express the singular personality that was molded by her life experience.

"Sound Waves for Selected Landscapes", Detanico Lain

Lines and pixels that create digital representations of the world are the basis upon which Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain build their shapes and forms. In this performance, the duo makes live music and shows figurative images that are close to the concrete experience of reality.

"Urgência Social", Marco Paulo Rolla

In Marco Paulo Rolla’s performances, programmed chance emerges clashing against a day-to-day of luxury and comfort–and often transfigures the cleanliness of the white cube. Urgência Social awaits its visitors with the possibility of bringing the unexpected into the routine.

Chelpa Ferro

After an important appearance at the Venice Biennale (2005), artists Barrão, Luiz Zerbini and Sergio Mekler are back in Videobrasil to present this new performance, in which they make music using both conventional and invented musical instruments.

VJ Nights

All throughout the Festival, three heterogeneous groups of creators will team up to produce off-the-cuff music and live-image happenings through the group manipulation of various image banks. All of the videomakers selected for the Southern Panoramas competitive show have been invited to participate.

public programs

Circuit of Debates: "Media Centres as forums for the production, exhibition, and preservation of artistic work and proposals”

The debate on Media Centers, mediated by Christine Mello, aimed to discuss the working models of institutions and organizations that function as centers for audiovisual artwork production, study and exchange in Latin America.

Circuit of Debates: “Where does performatic experience belong in the art circuit?”

Mediated by Christine Mello, the panel "What is the Place of the Performance Experience in the Art Circuit?" raised a few questions regarding the insertion and legitimation of this type of practice within the arts system, including institutions and the market.

Circuit of Debates:"Art and politics: the relationship between artists and social practices”

The debate "Art and Politics: The Relationship between Artists and Social Practices,” mediated by André Brasil, discusses the relationship between the art practices of Brazilian collectives and their interaction with social movements. What motivates associations of this sort? Does art waiver aesthetics so that politics can become aestheticized?

Circuit of Debates:"Re-presenting performances: in what way does history repeat itself”

Mediated by André Brasil, the panel on "Performance Restagings" discussed the fleeting character of language and how this condition can be historically addressed. How does one revive an art piece characterized by being ephemeral?

Circuit of Debates:"Situations of ‘risk’ in the protected field of art”

The debate "Risk Situations in the Protected Field of Art,” mediated by Eduardo de Jesus, set out to inquire what type of artistic proposition is able to create situations of danger in the protected spaces of museums and art galleries, as well as public spaces.

Circuit of Debates:"The database as the possibility for the accumulative construction of works and ideas”

The debate about the Databank, mediated by Eduardo de Jesus, attempted to grasp the tool as a possibility for constructing ideas, artworks and their resignifications, understanding the database as a field to be explored, even by artists.

FAAP- Videobrasil Circuit of Debates

Associação Cultural Videobrasil programmed a series of lectures at FAAP, delivered by artists and scholars invited by the Festival, including the Bangladesh-based photographer and activist Shahidul Alam, curator Jorge La Ferla and artist Wagner Morales.

Lecture: "Transmediale", Thomas Munz

Thomas Munz, curator of festival Transmediale (Berlin, Germany), discussed the event and screened a selection of videos.

Meeting with Artist : Frente 3 de Fevereiro

Members of the Frente 3 de Fevereiro collective, who opened the 15th Festival with their Futebol performance, convened at the Artist Meeting to discuss the piece, an illustration of the heritage of slavery revealed by everyday behavior in Brazilian society.

Meeting with Artist: Chelpa Ferro

Chelpa Ferro, whose performance was featured at the Sesc Pompeia theatre, presented his work to the audience. The Rio-based group – comprising Barrão, Luiz Zerbini, Chico Neves and Sérgio Mekler – discussed the convergence of fine arts and music.

Meeting with Artist: Coco Fusco

The artist Coco Fusco discussed her work with the audience, highlighting the performance created for the 15th Videobrasil.

Meeting with Artist: Detanico Lain

Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain discussed the performance they presented at the Festival, demonstrating their technical procedures, the ideas that permeate the piece, and relating it to other works in progress.

Meeting with Artist: Eder Santos, Paulo Santos, Stephen Vitiello and Ana Gastelois

The authors of performance Engrenagem spoke with the audience the day after their presentation. They described the piece’s collective creation and reviewed its presentation within the Festival.

Meeting with Artist: F.A.Q./ feitoamãos

The members of groups F.A.Q. and feitoamãos, plus Wilson Sukorski, who presented the performance Carro Bomba – Guia Antipânico e Intervenções Rotativas at the opening of the second week of the 15th Videobrasil, participated in this Artist Meeting. In this panel, mediated by André Brasil, the artists discussed the construction process leading up to the piece, which is based on the convergence of images, sound and on-the-spot improvisation, and structured based on a “tension chart” that determined the atmosphere of the presentation. A much-discussed issue was the spectacularization of death, and the fascination for horror that the media often exalts. The audience inquired about the aim of the performance – whether it was a simple continuation of this process, like a celebration or even an apology of terror, or a critique of terrorist attacks. The ambiguity of being in between the spectacle and the event, between real and simulacrum, fueled this questioning. According to the artists, the piece is an attempt to stir up reflection about the permanent risk we live in, the constant tension, and the habit of small day-to-day scares that cause indignation to fade away.

Meeting with Artist: Ingrid Mwangi

The artist Ingrid Mwangi discussed her work with the audience. The debate focused on the performance she created for the 15th Videobrasil.

Meeting with Artist: Marco Paulo Rolla

The artist Marco Paulo Rolla and the other participants in the performance Urgência Social spoke with the audience the day after their presentation. They discussed eventual sensations, concepts, and meanings covered by the performance.

Meeting with Artist: Teresinha Soares

The artist Teresinha Soares, regarded as one of the forerunners of performance in Brazil, gave a statement about her career and answered questions from the audience.

workshop

Performance, with Marco Paulo Rolla and Marcos Hill

A workshop on performance from two of the country’s most renowned researchers on the field, Marcos Hill and Marco Paulo Rolla. The idea was to study bibliographical references and historical examples, as well as develop actions proposed by the participants.

documentation

TV RG of 15 VB

TV RG was designed to share with the audience the thoughts and discussions that set the tone for the 15th Festival. In the end, the information generated throughout those three weeks was condensed into a summary of the entire program.

Videobrasil On-Line

A sophisticated database structuring the knowledge of the southern circuit the Associação Cultural Videobrasil has amassed over the last twenty-three years, Videobrasil On-line is allotted its own space at the Festival in the form of laboratories at which the researchers and editors responsible for its content will help videomakers experiment with it, teaching them how to input new data and update older entries and discussing indexing modes and key-concepts. More than simply facilitating extraordinary proximity between the user and the instrument, the objective of this activity is to share Videobrasil On-line with the community it was designed to serve, thus sharing the responsibility for the updating and precision of its content amongst artists, curators, and researchers. The idea behind the laboratories is to establish a model of participation that can become as a norm for all those interested in strengthening the southern circuit.