LOOP Barcelona 2016 - Video Festival & Art Fair

LOOP Video Festival
26.05.2016 - 04.06.2016

LOOP Video Art Fair
02.06.2016 - 04.06.2016

The 14th Edition of LOOP Barcelona will take place from May 26 to June 4, 2016. The core professional event, LOOP Fair, will become once again a meeting point for artists, galleries, collectors, curators, producers, programmers and professionals working with video and film in the contemporary art and the film industry contexts. The Festival will display a selection of international artist films and videos in more than 100 different venues in the city. And workshops, panel discussions, professional meetings, and artist video presentations will contribute to the educational mission of LOOP.

‘(video) art & cinema. Faraway, So Close!’

Nowadays, there are many artists who experiment between the thin line that separates cinema and the moving image, contributing in this way to question the boundaries of each practice. At the beginning, this tendency seemed to reflect an interest of visual artists only, but it is instead a ‘contamination’ that appeals to filmmakers alike, who are seeking to expand their practice and venture in the creation of pieces for the gallery / exhibition space. That is why many artists and filmmakers prefer to refer to their works as artist films, “expanded cinema”, or “cinema of exhibition”.

Museums are responding to these changes by increasingly incorporating moving image based productions in their collections, while new art institutions exclusively devoted to the research, exhibition and conservation of artist films and videos are emerging. The exhibition space gives a filmmaker the chance to experiment with times and formats beyond the limits traditionally imposed by the movie theatre: short or unlimited duration; multiscreen projections; or unusual exploration of certain technical means; etc. Thus, the inclusion of cinema in the museum / gallery space, represents a twofold possibility: one of openness of the practice, and one of criticism of the historical narratives and it’s means of representation.

As a platform attentive to the most urgent debates within the moving image industry, LOOP Barcelona 2016 wants to explore the hybrid zone between cinema and artist films and videos. Besides their obvious formal relationship, the existing differences between the two spheres can easily be detected by looking at their modes of presentation and circulation, which clearly diverge and thus affect the profile of their audiences: projection rooms vs. screens, window displays or ‘black-box-like’ exhibition spaces. To say it with Marshall McLuhan, if the conditions of cinema would respond to those of an “hot medium” (high-definition, high degree of details and information, less participation), the characteristics of artist films and videos would instead reflect those of a “cool” one (low-definition, less information, active involvement of an audience capable to interpret the media content). Perhaps it is the sum of these elements which likewise determines the profound differences regarding the aesthetic and the narrative of so close yet different practices that, needless to say, have also generated complete different markets.

The ultimate objective is to try and expand the audience for these cultural productions.

LOOP Festival 26/05-04/06

LOOP Fair 02/06-04/06