A center of international reference in the field of electronic art, Associação Cultural Videobrasil was created in 1991 to give shape to the drive to nurture, promote, and map artistic production throughout the geopolitical south begun nearly ten years earlier with the International Electronic Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil. Through festivals, exhibitions, documentaries, publications, meetings, and seminars, as well as activities related to the maintenance and circulation of its important collection, Associação endeavors to bring southern production closer to the main circuits and feed a network of connections that stimulates reflection on contemporary artistic practices and interchange between artists, researchers, and the public.
The support of such fundamental partners as SESC São Paulo has enabled Associação to keep up a series of continuous programmes, chief amongst which are: International Electronic Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil
This biennial mapping of southern art saw its 16th edition in 2007, with a programme centered upon confluences between cinema, video, and art. With its guiding theme in Limit: moving images and lots of strangeness, the Festival featured videos, films, installations, and performances by Peter Greenaway (Great Britain), Marcel Odenbach (Germany), Kenneth Anger (USA), and the Brazilians Eder Santos, Detanico & Lain, Carlos Adriano, Edgard Navarro, and Arthur Omar, as well as a cycle of debates and seminars.
This annual publication devoted to deepening reflection on recent artistic production features previously unpublished essays around a selected thematic axis. Three issues have been published thus far—Performance (2005), Art Mobility Sustainability (2006), and Limit: Moving Images and Lots of Strangeness (2007), which seeks to analyze the role of experimentalism in contemporary audiovisual production.
Created in the 1980s, the aim of Videobrasil on Tour is to broaden the visibility of the highlights of the Videobrasil Festival. Videobrasil on Tour 2006-2007, sponsored by Petrobras, was seen in over one hundred cities throughout Brazil, South America, Europe and now in Australia.
This series of documentaries on southern artists includes titles dedicated to the work of Coco Fusco (Cuba/USA), Akram Zaatari (Lebanon), William Kentridge (South Africa), Maurício Dias (Brazil) & Walter Riedweg (Switzerland), and Rafael França (Brazil).
An on-line publication launched in 2004, the Dossier contains critical essays, analytical biographies, interviews, and portfolios on over thirty relevant artists from the southern circuit.
This vast database facilitates organized searches on the works, records, images, and documents the Associação has amassed over its two decades of activity.
In 2007, a library facility was opened at SESC Avenida Paulista to give the public access to the Videobrasil Collection. Fruit of our partnership with SESC São Paulo, the videothéque offers the visitor access to works by all of the Brazilian artists featured in the competitive show of the Festival from 1987 to 2007, as well as recordings of performances and other material.
Launched in October 2007, the programme systematizes the action of Associação Cultural Videobrasil in the strategic field of artistic residencies. Partnerships with renowned teaching, research, and production institutions in various countries have made this initiative possible and advanced the goals of strengthening the interchange vehicles available within the southern circuit and of creating a rotational dynamic that widens the range of international experiences open to Brazilian, Latin American, and African artists.
The Videobrasil Residency Programme counts on the support of the Prince Claus Fund (the Netherlands), which promotes actions for cultural articulation and development in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
The residency awards are granted to Brazilian and foreign artists participating in the biennial competitive show of the International Electronic Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil. The recipients are selected by members of the Associação and the partner institutions.
Prizewinners are granted periods of residency of varying lengths in institutions with diverse characteristics in Brazil and abroad. In partnership with WBK Vrije Academie (the Netherlands), Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, the French Consulate in Brazil, Aliança Francesa, Capacete Entretenimentos, and Instituto Sacatar, the first edition awarded residencies in Brazil, France, and the Netherlands.
A curator known for her role in the research and fostering of contemporary art production in the southern circuit, Solange Oliveira Farkas has been the director of Associação Cultural Videobrasil since 1991 and of the Museum of Modern Art in Bahia since 2007.
She is the head of the International Electronic Art Festival_SESC Videobrasil, the publication on contemporary art Caderno Videobrasil, the series of documentary films Videobrasil Authors Collection, and of one of the largest electronic art archives in South America. The holder of a degree in journalism, Farkas created Videobrasil in 1982, to shelter the growing local production at the time. In twenty years, with support from partners such as SESC São Paulo and the Dutch Prince Claus Fund, she transformed the event into a point of convergence and a means for the dissemination of production from South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, and an international reference centre for electronic art.
A member of the board of curators for the Nam June Paik Award and also of the board of the Network Partnerships programme of the Dutch Prince Claus Fund, which implements cultural and social actions around the world, she received the Sergio Motta Hors Concours Award in 2004 for her contribution to electronic art. Her selections of Brazilian and South American works have been seen in festivals and exhibitions in Argentina, The Netherlands, Germany, France, England, Canada, Russia, Venezuela, Portugal, Peru, Mexico, and Lebanon. In 2000, Farkas curated the Contemporary African Art Show in São Paulo, with celebrated exponents of the continent’s recent production. In 2005, her Pan-African Exhibition of Contemporary Art (locally MoPAAC) took an overview of the diverse production of Afro-descendant or Diasporan artists to the Museum of Modern Art in Salvador (Bahia). In 2006, she curated the exhibition La mirada discreta: Marcel Odenbach & Robert Cahen, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, dedicated to the two forefathers of video art.
Solange Oliveira Farkas lives and works between Salvador and São Paulo, where the 16th International Electronic Art Festival_SESC Videobrasil takes place.
Alan Schacher
a.schacher@unsw.edu.au
11º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva 12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul
André Greenwell
ruth.saunders@syd.aftrs.edu.au
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul
Anita Bacic
anita@popsiclemedia.com
14º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do SulRetrospectiva Videobrasil de Novas Mídias 1998-2003 - Programa 1
Anna Davis
anna@autonomous.org anna_star@hotmail.com
13º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva de VÌdeoContamination - Contamination Itinerância 2001/2002 - Mostra Competitiva de Vídeo do 13º Videobrasil
Bettina Frankham
rettina@ozemail.com.au
14º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Sul
Bridget E. Walker
bridg3t_walk3r@hotmail.com
16º Videobrasil - Panoramas do Sul: Novos VetoresAcervo Videobrasil no SESC - Acervo Videobrasil
Cameron Ironside
buce@hotmail.com cs_ironside@hotmail.com
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul
David Beesley
beeworld@alphalink.com.au
16º Videobrasil - Panoramas do Sul: Investigações Contemporâneas Acervo Videobrasil no SESC - Acervo Videobrasil itinerância Videobrasil 2008-2009 - Programa 1 - Prêmios do Júri Premiados e Menções Honrosas do 16º Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica SESC_Videobrasil - Investigações Contemporâneas
Debra Petrovitch
petrovitch_d@hotmail.com
13º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva de Novas Mídias Itinerância 2001/2002 - Mostra Competitiva de Novas Mídias do 13º Videobrasil Premiados e Menções Honrosas do 13º Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica Videobrasil - Premiados e Menções Honrosas do 13º Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica Videobrasil Retrospectiva Videobrasil de Novas MÌdias 1998-2003 - Programa 2
Geoffrey Weary
G.weary@sca.usyd.edu.au
11º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva13º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva de Vídeo15º Videobrasil - Panoramas do Sul: Estado da Arte Itinerância 2001/2002 - Mostra Competitiva de Vídeo do 13º Videobrasil
Ian Haig
i.haig@rmit.edu.au rmit@edu.au
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul13º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva de Vídeo Contamination - Contamination
John Gillies
john.gillies@unsw.edu.au
10º Videobrasil - Retrospectiva Videobrasil 15º Videobrasil - Panoramas do Sul: Estado da Arte16º Videobrasil - Panoramas do Sul: Estado da Arte 9º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul. Acervo Videobrasil no SESC - Acervo Videobrasil Carte Blanche - Carte Blanche Contemporary Southern Hemisphere Videoart - Contemporary Southern Hemisphere Videoart. Premiados do 9º Festival Internacional Videobrasil - Vencedores 9º Festival Programa Festival Internacional Videobrasil - Itinerância Premiados Videobrasil 92/94Retrospectiva Videobrasil 1983-1992 - Retrospectiva 1983-1992
Josephine Starrs
starrs@autonomous.org
13º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva de Novas Mídias Itinerância 2001/2002 - Mostra Competitiva de Novas Mídias do 13º Videobrasil Retrospectiva Videobrasil de Novas Mídias 1998-2003 - Programa 2
Justine Cooper
jcooper@vislab.usyd.edu.au
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul Visıs Digitais - Visıs Digitais
Kate Richards
kate.richards@uts.edu.au
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul Retrospectiva Videobrasil de Novas Mídias 1998-2003 - Programa 3
Leon Cmielewski
leon@autonomous.org
13º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva de Novas Mídias Itinerância 2001/2002 - Mostra Competitiva de Novas Mídias do 13º Videobrasil Retrospectiva Videobrasil de Novas MÌdias 1998-2003 - Programa 2
Linda Wallace
linda@machinehunger.com.au
13º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva de Vídeo Premiados e Menções Honrosas do 13º Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica Videobrasil - Premiados e Menções Honrosas do 13º Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica Videobrasil
Megan Heyward
m.heyward@uts.edu.au
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul Retrospectiva Videobrasil de Novas Mídias 1998-2003 - Programa 3
Mel O'Callaghan
rubyayre@optusnet.com.au
15º Videobrasil - Panoramas do Sul: Novos Vetores
Merilyn Fairskye
fairskye@internode.on.net fairskye@ozemail.com.au
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul13º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva de Vídeo Contamination - Contamination Contemporary Southern Hemisphere Videoart - Contemporary Southern Hemisphere Videoart Itinerância 2001/2002 - Mostra Competitiva de Vídeo do 13º Videobrasil Visıs Digitais - Visıs Digitais
Norie Neumark
n.neumark@uts.edu.au
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul Premiados e Menções Honrosas do 12º Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica Videobrasil - Premiados e Menções Honrosas do 12º Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica Videobrasil Retrospectiva Videobrasil de Novas Mídias 1998-2003 - Programa 3
Sally Pryor
spryor@ozmail.com.au
12º Videobrasil - Mostra Competitiva do Hemisfério Sul Retrospectiva Videobrasil de Novas Mídias 1998-2003 - Programa 3
Shaun Gladwell
shaungladwell@mac.com t.doropoulos@shermangalleries.com.au
16º Videobrasil - "Panoramas of the Imagination", curadoria de David Cranswick16º Videobrasil - Panoramas do Sul: Estado da ArteAcervo Videobrasil no SESC - Acervo Videobrasil
Sumugan Sivanesan
info@sivanesan.com sumugan@sivanesan.com
15º Videobrasil - Panoramas do Sul: Investigações Contemporâneas
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