Walter Silveira, Marcelo Machado, Tadeu Jungle, Tonico Melo, Fernando Meirelles. Awarded artists at the I Festival Videobrasil, 1983, MIS, São Paulo.
1st Festival's trophy, designed by Kiko Farkas
Eduardo Abramovay at the Tadeu Jungle's installation Vídeo Fone. I Festival Videobrasil, 1983, MIS, São Paulo.
Videobrasil: since 1983
On August 8th, 1983, the first edition of the Festival was inaugurated - by then called Festival de Vídeo Brasil - since then distinguished by transformation and engagement: the Festival’s early phase, spanning the first seven editions (1983 – 1989, held at the Museum of Image and Sound), took place during Brazil’s intricate re-democratization period, a time when Glauber Rocha and Cinema Novo were landmarks to the political-cultural role of video artists.
And just as Rocha, who managed to place his experimental verve on television with his Abertura program, the artists of then assumed television would be the medium to their discourse. The strategy, although utopian, worked, and collectives such as TVDO and Olhar Eletrônico, both from São Paulo and active in the Festival's early editions, built and spread new possibilities in video and television.
The story was only starting. Follow our news section and like our Facebook page to know the next steps of this passage, besides news regarding the 18th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, open to the public from 2013 November 6 to 2014 February 2.