The 10th edition of Screen and Loop turns Barcelona into the capital of video art

Barcelona (ACN).-  From May 17^th to June 2^nd, Barcelona holds its annual video art festival. This event attracts numerous professionals from the world of art, including representatives of leading museums, artists and galleries worldwide, as well as an audience eager to discover the latest trends in video art. For 17 days, video art invades over 150 spaces in Barcelona during the 10^th edition of the Screen Festival and the Loop Fair. The first offers close contact with audiovisual creative practices, including the brightest ideas and latest developments, all in very different places such as museums, bookshops, cinemas and bars. The second, Loop, showcases the latest ideas in International video art and will present a total of 23 world premieres. Moreover, this year’s new addition is the first ever Screen Forum Pro, an International Symposium focused on defeats and concerns in the sector under the slogan: “What about production?”

The 10^th edition of Screen Festival presents over 1,000 video art pieces by 500 artists from 40 countries in 137 spaces thought the city. These include recognised cultural buildings such as the MACBA, the MNAC, the Arts Santa Mònica, the Picasso Museum, Antoni Tàpies Foundation or the CCCB.  

Off video art

Besides the Official section programme, there is also the “CityScreen” (off). Most of the presentations take place inside the “off”. A hundred unconventional spaces are showcased such as bars, bookstores, restaurants, shops or even hairdressers which joined the Festival to create a huge exhibition in the street all over the city.

Benchmark event

The organisers claim to have made the festival “the top video art event” with “the most extensive programme and most spaces in the whole of Europe” which has become a “benchmark on the international artistic calendar”.

MACBA’s director, Bartomeu Marí, assures that in ten years the festival has changed the point of view of contemporary culture in the city. Jean Conrad Lamaitre, president of the Loop Fair committee says the best part of the Festival is turning Barcelona into a huge video screen which all the locals can play with.

What about production?

Bearing in mind the current precarious economic and cultural context, the 2012 edition asks: What is the current state of video art production? Who is producing what and how? This series of questions reveals the need to explore the present and above all the future of artists’ video and film production. As a result, this year’s leitmotif is the question. What about production?

The first Screen forum Pro will try to answer this question. It is a professional forum held from May 30^th to June 2^nd that aims to open up a space for professionals to explore their interests and concerns in the field of video art production today. This  conference will bring together over 25 leading agents in the field of art and audiovisual production (among them Luis Miñarro, Pedro Costa, Simon Field or Peter Greenaway) in order to identify the challenges ahead and sketch out possible future paths by discussing participants’ own experience.

Loop projects in a hotel room

The Loop Fair will be held once again in the Catalonia Ramblas Hotel in Barcelona. Loop will showcase the latest ideas in international video art as chosen by a select set of local, national and international galleries invited by an international committee made up of collectors Isabelle Lemaître and Marc and Josée Gensollen and gallery director Christopher Grimes, chaired by Jean Conrad Lemaître. A total of 23 world premieres will be presented (more than doubling last year’s 10 premieres).

This year more than ever, Loop Fair will be an unmissable event for anyone and everyone eager to find out about, see and purchase the latest video productions. On Thursday May 31^st, Loop Fair will open just for professionals, but on Friday 1st and Saturday June 2^nd  it will be open to the public as well.

Getting used to living with art

And for those new in the sector there is “MiniScreen” with a programme thought for kids and families. This is a part of Loop Fair and will include workshops and projections. There are also offers for university students.

Latin American galleries

There will be even more surprises. Critic and curator Paula Alzugaray has brought together a selection of Latin American galleries and artists to explore the continent’s artistic and cultural characteristics, with a strong showing by São Paulo galleries.

Cinema, more present than ever

And for the first time, Filmoteca of Catalonia will take part at the Screen Festival. It will showcase two sessions, one about “the other cinema” Swiss; and the other about the intersection between cinema and arts, led by Luis Miñarro and the former director of  the Venetia Show and new director of the Roman Festival, Marco Müller, among others.

Work with Primavera Sound Festival

The expansion of the Fair can also be seen in the alliance with the Primavera Sound Festival which will lead to the “Liquid Screen” project, a video installation next to the Forum Park of Barcelona which uses boat sails as screens to show the work “Continuum” of Manon Le Roy.