+ FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE AND THREE WEEK PROGRAMME

+ PANORAMAS OF THE SOUTH COMPETITIVE EXHIBITION FEATURES THREE sections

+ 130 GUESTS WILL ENGAGE IN VJ NIGHTS, DISCUSSIONS, AND MEETINGS

Three weeks long, featuring a new format of competitive exhibition, and the most extensive programme ever dedicated to performance in Brazil, the 15 th Videobrasil international electronic art festival begins on September 6 in Sesc Pompéia , promoted by SESC Sao Paulo and Associação Cultural Videobrasil. Focusing on southern scene art production, the Festival will feature 130 recent art pieces from Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Australia, in addition to nine live performances, ten retrospective video exhibitions, six conferences, three VJ nights, five premieres, nine artist meetings, and a performance workshop. During three weeks, the Festival will take over a custom-designed structure by architects André Vainer and Guilherme Paolilello, including a 190-seat theater, a Play Gallery (complex of exhibition premises equipped with big screens and plasma screens), a mediatheque (where the public will have access to previous programmes, as well as Festival collection programmes), a bar, and a bookstore (Livraria da Vila). The 15 th Videobrasil will feature 196 guests from over 20 different countries, including artists, curators, journalists, and theoreticians.

Panoramas of the South

For the first time, the Videobrasil competitive exhibition will be split into three sections lasting one week each. State of the Art (September 6 - 11) brings out work by established artists; Contemporary Investigations (September 13 - 18) features video research; and New Vectors (September 20 - 25) will present work by young artists. This division reflects the diversification of southern scene electronic art, whose "intention is to produce signification, even though in a non-linear fashion," claims Solange Farkas, the creator and curator of Videobrasil. Karim Aïnouz, Kiko Goifman, Marcellvs L., Cao Guimarães, Mania Akbari, and newcomer Daniel Lisboa, who was censored out of a festival in Bahia, feature among the authors in the Panoramas of the South section.

Prizes

The Festival will award three prizes in cash, and three residencies : the Gasworks-Videobrasil Artistic Interchange Award (Prêmio Gasworks-Videobrasil de Intercâmbio Artístico) in a London studio ( State of the Art ); the Le Fresnoy Audiovisual Creation Award - France , at the French media center ( Contemporary Investigations ) ; and the FAAP Digital Arts Award, at the Sao Paulo-based institution ( New Vectors ). All of the awards will include the production of an audiovisual piece. The jury will feature Marcos Moraes, Plastic Arts course coordinator at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP); Kenyan writer Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor; Mexican artist Ximena Cuevas; and Argentinian-Israeli essayist Sergio Edelsztein, who curated the Israel national representation in the last Venice Biennale. The Festival's trophy is a sculpture made of acrylic and light by plastic artist Luiz Zerbini.

Performances

A genre with heavy political overtones that made a strong comeback in the contemporary scene, performance is the curatorial theme of the 15 th Videobrasil , featuring live examples of significant trends - from urban interventions, the trademark of the Frente 3 de Fevereiro collective (09/06), and of American artist Coco Fusco , to plastic art-based performances, such as the work of the Chelpa Ferro collective (09/20), of Marco Paulo Rolla (22/09), and of the Detanico Lain duo (09/17). Indonesian Melati Suryodarmo (09/8), a pupil of Marina Abramovic, will present her self control-oriented act; Kenyan Ingrid Mwangi uses voice and body in "My Possession" (15/09). The road from video to performance is shown by the feitoamãos/F.A.Q. collective (09/13), and by Eder Santos and his guests (09/24).

Exhibitions

Ten video programmes, along the three weeks of the Festival, make up the largest retrospective exhibition of perfomances ever shown in Brazil. The exhibition attests to the power of the work of artist Marina Abramovic, who is a reference point for the genre; of the output of New York diffusion center The Kitchen , which housed performances by Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson, and the Fluxus group, among others; and of Videobrasil itself, which will present 18 performances that it has commissioned or shown since the eighties, including pieces by Waly Salomão, featured in the Videobrasil Performance Anthology, also to be released in DVD.

Reflection Zone

Throughout the entire programme, certain activities will be aimed at provoking reflection. Artists and researchers will discuss interchange mechanisms and other issues in the Cycle of Conferences ; the VJ Nights will feature artists from various countries in live image sessions; artist Marco Paulo Rolla and Professor Marcos Hill, from CEIA (Centro de Experimentação e Informação de Arte - Art Information and Experimentation Center), will run a performance workshop; and artistic laboratories will add to the content of the recently-launched Videobrasil Online database. This axis also includes the launch of " Caderno Videobrasil " ( Videobrasil Notebook ), a publication whose intent is to reflect about contemporary art.

Behind the Scenes

For six months now, the production of the 15 th Videobrasil has involved a 200-people team, including producers, researchers, designers, journalists, architects, artists, curators, web designers, logistics logistics specialists, translators, stage designers, lighting professionals, photographers, and cameramen. An exhaustive work of research, selection, curatorship, and programming has involved a team of electronic art and new media specialists, prior to production, including an architectural project that relates to the curatorship and to the art pieces, which has been in charge of architects André Vainer and Guilherme Paolielo for three consecutive editions now; artists Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, who have collaborated with the Festival since 2001, were responsible for the creation of a specific visual signature; a project for specialized monitoring was developed in partnership with Senac São Paulo, which has prepared 32 Communications students to help visitors along, and to give assistance to the event's production and documentation teams; construction of a Website; production of a DVD "making of", and vast photographic documentation; publishing of a 240-page catalog, and of a Notebook designed for reflection on the event's curatorial theme.

Promoters

The 15 th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival is a project by Associação Cultural Videobrasil , produced by SESC São Paulo. In addition to this biennial event, ACV (www.videobrasil.org.br), Brazil's major electronic art reference center, also produces exhibitions, as well as national and international video and electronic art curatorships, such as the recent Pan African Contemporary Art Exhibition, at MAM Bahia; the FF Dossier project, which profiles emerging artists on the Internet; and the annual documentary film series VCA, featuring southern scene artists. ACV holds a collection of nearly four thousand titles, does research and educational activities, and is currently putting out Videobrasil Online, an extensive southern scene electronic art database. ACV is backed by the Prince Claus Fund, a Dutch fund that finances and supports cultural and development projects in several countries.

Solange Oliveira Farkas ranks among the southern scene's most active electronic art promoters. D irector and curator of the Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, which she created in 1983, Farkas is also President of Associação Cultural Videobrasil, which not only promotes the Festival, but also produces electronic art documentary films, publications, projects, and curatorships, all of which are shown in the major festivals of the genre throughout the world. Farkas is a member of the Nam June Paik Award jury board, of the Dutch institution Prince Claus Fund activity council, and of the curator boards of Paço das Artes and of Centro Cultural São Paulo . In 2004, she received the Sérgio Motta Cultural Award, in São Paulo, for her contribution to Brazilian electronic art. In 2005, Farkas has curated the Pan African Contemporary Art Exhibition in Salvador (BA), launched the Videobrasil Online database, and directed the 15 th Videobrasil, as well as the fifth documentary film in the VCA series, dedicated to artist Coco Fusco.

SESC São Paulo has been supporting Associação Cultural Videobrasil's projects since 1992, enabling the realizatino of the Videobrasil Authors Collection series and the Videobrasil Online database. "For twenty three years now, Videobrasil has been a pioneer in recognizing new media and their potential for reading out and interpreting the various aspects of contemporary society," claims Danilo Santos de Miranda, regional director of SESC São Paulo. "These issues are important for SESC São Paulo, since not only do they incite debate, but they also contribute to the ongoing construction of knowledge. The 15 th Videobrasil is about the connection between art and technology, which is increasingly present in people's day-to-day life. It gives rise to new perceptions, activates new sensibilities, and stimulates a better understanding of contemporary art."

Service

The 15 th Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival will happen from September 06 to 25, 2005, at SESC  Pompéia (Rua Clélia,  93, phone: + 55 11  3871-7700, São  Paulo). SESC Pompéia is open from Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 am to 10 pm. The Festival activities will take place from Tuesday through Sunday, at the following times: 10 am to 9 pm (exhibitions, meetings, conferences, video screenings, bookstore, and bar); from 9 pm on wards (performances); and at 10 pm (VJ Nights).

The entire Festival programme is free of charge, but tickets for the performances and VJ Nights must be previously obtained at the Sesc Network ticket stores. Ticket will be available until all seats are taken (Auditório: 191 seats; Choperia: 800 seats; Theater: 330 seats; Play Gallery: 120 persons)

Press Service:

FCF Comunicação

Luciana Gomide - phones: (11) 3032.3057 and (11) 9181.4024 or fcfcom@uol.com.br