VideoFest '93
On the sidelines of the competitive sections, parallel programmes present thematic, personal, national and historical ‘accents’. VideoFest 1993 was put together under the banner of French vidéo-création, taking on the risk inherent in an experiment of this nature: for the first time, the current scene in an entire country was presented.
Another section included a wealth of Latin American videos that, in various forms, articulate the reference to social and political themes, constituting an important opposing force to the many purely formal video art tapes done in the European style. North America was also well represented this year. After the historic video retrospective Made in USA in the 1992 festival, the New York-based distributor Electronic Arts Intermix presented a complete thematic selection from their archive. At the same time, with Jem Cohen (Kabul, 1962), it was possible to once again discover a young artist who represents the link between the art and documentary genres in the tradition of a series (originally entitled Artist in Residence), to which Paul Garrin (Philadelphia, 1957), Jon Alpert (Chicago, 1948) and Jean-Louis Le Tacon were invited. The programme being presented at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía includes some of the most important works from the pieces presented at VideoFest '93, a sample as heterogeneous as it is enriching.