Videos by 40 international artists on display in Barcelona hotel

Video art by some 40 artists from 26 different countries is now on display in a Barcelona hotel as part of the LOOP Fair 2018. The final part of the 16th edition of the LOOP video art festival, which began last week, the fair takes place until November 22.

"While the festival shows the vitality of Barcelona's art scene, the fair exhibits video art in a more international context," said LOOP 2018 co-director, Emilio Álvarez. The works covering such themes as historical memory and geopolitics are on show at the Almanac hotel.

The videos on display were chosen from 42 galleries from around the world by a committee of international collectors headed by Jean-Conrad Lemaitre. The works were chosen to encourage reflection on such issues as the human condition, feminism, and identity.

Fair shows video's "creative capacity"

LOOP Fair director, Laura Sunyer, highlighted the capacity of video art to generate different means of production and diverse narratives, in both content and aesthetic. "This diversity shows the creative capacity of video and the fair represents this well," she said.

Three floors of the Almanac hotel have been taken up by the works, which were recorded on mobiles, along with a 3D installation. "The fair is not only contemporary in terms of its content, but also from the point of view of technology," said artistic director, Carolina Ciuti.

The fair was already open to sector professionals, but opened on Tuesday evening to the general public. On Wednesday and Thursday it can be visited from 4pm to 8.30pm. The organizers estimate that over the three days the fair will attract some 4,000 visitors.

Hotel an ideal venue for "unique" medium

According to Álvarez, the LOOP Fair is "a great meeting point" and "unique," as video can be difficult to display in galleries. However, hotel bedrooms have characteristics that lend themselves to showing video, such as allowing for better control of the sound.

The LOOP festival began in 2003 with the aim of studying, promoting and exploring video, as one of the mediums that most represents modern life. As well as the LOOP Fair, the festival also has LOOP Talks, from November 20 to 22, where people from the sector share ideas.

LOOP Fair is above all an international event, both for the public who visit from around the world as well as for the artists and galleries participating. Of the galleries taking part, only six are from Spain, with 36 from other European countries, and 8 from Asia.

The average duration of each video is 16 minutes and almost half of them were produced by women. Yet, the works on display are not cheap, as their prices go from 1,800 euros to 50,000 euros, with an average price of 13,200 euros.