International Video Art Fair LOOP Barcelona
Barcelona 2006
Written by: Raul Martinez
Start date: 20-05-2006
End date: 25-05-2006
Location: Barcelona, SPAIN
Web URL: http://
The fourth edition of
LOOP Barcelona consolidated itself as a cultural event and international meeting point for fans, professionals and collectors of video.
LOOP takes place this time in the month of May -last editions took place in November-, what adds to the ample summery climate that at this point is enjoyed in the city, aspiring to surpass the 6,000 visitors of its last edition.
Around 40 international galleries display videos of worldwide artists in a new location: the rooms of the centric
Hotel Pulitzer.
Next to works of consecrated artists
LOOP offers the opportunity to discover new positions, like the French
Tania Mauraud (
Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris), along with the Spanish artist
Pilar Albarracín (
Filomena Soares, Lisbon) or the North American
Allan Sekula (
Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica). This last one continues his exploration on the new geography of the marine commerce, with a documentary work on a market of fish in Tokyo.
Some pieces to emphasize are, for instances, the proposals of the young Israeli artist presented by
Galleria Pack,
Ofri Cnaami and also the 3D drawings by the Spanish
Arturo Fuentes in the space of Galeria Lluciá Homs who actually received the Prize of this year's edition.
As
Carlos Durán (one of the directors of the fair) indicates,
LOOP is a great platform for the diffusion of videos, specially for those galleries that presents its worldwide premiere presentation of the latest videos from their artists. In this regards, we need to mention that half of the galleries present in this edition brought unpublished works to the fair.
Thus, the Catalan galleries
Joan Prats and
Dels Angels, display here the last works of
Alejandro Vidal and
Jaime Pitarch, respectively, whereas
M+R Fricke displays the work
“Remember me”, of
David Krippendorf, gorgeous collage made with fragments of horror films.
German galleries
DNA and
Art Agents released
“The Milkmaid” of
Mariana Vassileva and
“Sleepers” of
Johanna Domke -her hypnotic last work- in which the young German artist moves the camera through the British Stansted Airport, observing the travellers who, present in this
“Nonplace” of other people's to the outer time, sleep waiting for their low cost flights.
Like in previous years, the Barcelonan museums and galleries support with their program the event. Thus,
CaixaForum and
Casa Asia present individual cycles of projections and conferences with
Nam June Paik as a central subject. In the foundation, on the other hand, you could also see a great exhibition of
Douglas Gordon, whereas in the
Ateneu, are the works of the British artist
Sarah Morris.
Not far from there the
CCCB presented a varied program, including a Cuban cycle of Videoart, a selection of the best works displayed in the last festivals of Athens and Santiago of Chile, as well as
“Jukebox with videos of international artists like
Clemens von Wedemeyer,
Ulrich Polster or
Regina Galindo.
Few Barcelonan galleries add exhibitions with videoart as protagonist, -among them stands out the delirious work by
Federico Solmi “King Kong the end of the world” in
Galeria ADN. Finally, spaces as the
Cinema Casablanca and
FNAC complete the enormous supply, with the projection of the last work of
Matthew Barney,
“Drawing Restraint" and videos of the
Community of Madrid collection respectively with works by
Kaoru Katayama,
Txuspo Poyo, and a long etcetera.
Before the proliferation of fairs and biennials anywhere in the world,
LOOP presents an original alternative for the fans of videoart. As collector
Jean-Conrad Lemaitre points out:
"Video requires special conditions of visualization and spectator needs certain privacy to view it. Similar to a house living room, where we normally watch videos and films, the rooms of a hotel are quite comfortable spaces, and more adapted than a traditional fairs for the projection of videos”.
For the galleries,
LOOP also constitutes an important meeting point for related contacts.
"Organization's primary target must be in favour for the contacts with collectors and commissioners", indicates
Carlos Durán.
In fact, this year, an important effort has been made through a wide Collector's Program and key conferences and debates in the subject, including talks by
Christina van Asche -
Centre Pompidou-,
Tony & Heather Modesta -North American collectors- and
Mark Nash, among others. Hopefully this effort was appropriately translated in sales.