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the capacity of video art to generate different narratives, its power of reflection on social themes and its undeniable development and evolution. A reflection of the strength that video has achieved, one of the most representative media of the era in which we live and in which the moving image is as captivating as it is significant.
Loop, in its sixteenth edition, has taken the reins of the local and international movement, a complex system in which artists, creators, galleries, curators and collectors have intervened and which has left in the retina and on the skin of the public, the analysis and reflection of this way of making art, as creative as it is powerfully forceful.
Loop has developed along three fundamental axes. The Festival, the Fair and the Talks. The first of these, a bulk of programming that has spread through different points of Barcelona until reaching L'Hospitalet and Sant Cugat. The locations have served as a stage to showcase the talent of artists linked to the city. Video art, documentaries, shorts, experimental cinema... proposals in which both established and emerging artists have participated under the motto of "Production".
"How we construct ourselves through the image, what arises from this performative relationship that we generate and how it relates to other disciplines" has been part of the narrative of this edition of Loop, explains Xavier Acarín, curator and head of Loop's communication department.
Loop took place from November 12 to 22, 2018 in Barcelona. The next edition will be held in November 2019.The proposals have addressed different perspectives on topics such as climate change, geopolitics, refugees, gender or many other transversal aspects of the world we live in. The Festival was inaugurated in the emblematic Reial Cercle Artístic with the exhibition "Produit, Produit, Produït", a work that has exhibited the works of artists related to the city such as Serafín Álvarez, Marion Balac, Paco Chanivet, Fito Conesa, Ariadna Guiteras, Mercedes Mangrané, Momu&Noes, Sol Prado, Gabriel Pericás, Mario Santamaría and Helena Vinent and curated by Carolina Ciuti, artistic director of Loop.
In spaces such as the Fundació Antoni Tàpies where, together with the Han Nefkens Foundation, Erkan Özgen's first solo exhibition could be seen; the premiere of María Ruido's work "Estado de Bienestar" –winner of the Production Prize– at the Santa Mònica art center or, in the same space, the work of Núria Font, who has been the most influential creator of videodance at a national level; the recovery of the film En la ciudad (1976) promoted by Eugeni Bonet and José Miguel Gómez together with other artists at the Museu d'Història de Catalunya; the video works by choreographer Merce Cunningham projected at the Pavelló Mies Van der Rohe and an extensive list of sites that have included the Fundació Joan Miró or the Fundació Suñol among the 70 spaces, 27 exhibitions and 15 activities that this edition of the festival has featured and in which a total of 238 artists have participated.
Some of the exhibitions included in the Festival can still be visited. Check the website: loop-barcelona.com"While the Festival shows the vitality of the art scene in Barcelona, the Fair shows the vitality of video art in a more international context," said Emilio Álvarez, co-founder and co-director of Loop together with Carlos Durán. The new edition of the Fair has taken place at the Hotel Almanac, an enclave that makes this event a totally innovative proposal. Three floors of the establishment and their respective rooms allowed the exhibition of the talent of 42 artists from 26 different countries who, represented by their galleries, showed their video creations made between 1978 and 2018 in this context.
One more year, the committee formed by Haro Cumbusyan, Renee Drake, Joseé and Marc Gensollen and Isabelle Lemaître and chaired by Jean-Conrad Lemaître has chosen the participating galleries. Among the artists, 20 have been women and 22 men, who have arrived from different parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, the United States and three Spanish artists (María Ruido, Núria Güell and Luis Patiño). Among the profile of professionals who attended the Fair, there were a hundred collectors specialized in this theme. The event has registered a total of 4,500 accreditations during the three days of the Festival.
Emilio Álvarez has shared some problems that video has due to being straddling art and cinema. In this regard, he has expressed that "it is seen in biennials, museums or galleries, but not so much in fairs due to the difficulty of how and under what conditions to exhibit the pieces." In this sense, he has argued its importance in the context of a hotel: "The hotel has the characteristic of a domestic space and is acoustically controlled, even at the lighting level. And it facilitates communication with the artist or the gallery." The experience of seeing a video work in each room, sitting on a sofa or a bed and being able to ask the artist himself or the gallery managers about aspects of the work make this presentation format one of the most interesting aspects of its staging.
"Loop is consolidated as a network of agents who collaborate, dialogue and share ideas and manage the state of artistic creation, of video in particular," said Carolina Ciuti, artistic director of Loop.The Fair, during which the Loop Talksin the same Hotel Almanac, it was inaugurated with a talk given by Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery in London, and Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, founder of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin.
The program of talks has addressed video as an increasingly complex production, which has gone from individual to collective production. The boundaries between video and cinema, the support of local institutions to promote evolution and development, as well as the role of international institutions in video creation, have been part of the points put to debate and in which 20 professionals from 16 different institutions have participated.
Loop has offered various awards and recognitions from companies and institutions that have supported the event while also providing a space to generate a platform that promotes thought and the promotion of video in its current context.
As for the most expensive piece at the Fair, it was by the artist Derek Kreckler, represented by the German gallery Jarvis Dooner. Next, the piece by the Belgian Hans Op de Beeck, valued at 34,000 euros and exhibited by the Ron Mandos gallery in Amsterdam. At the other extreme, the most economical piece was by artists Sander Breuer & Witte van Hulzen, offered by Tegenboschvanvreden, also from Amsterdam. Each video piece has an average edition of five copies.
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