Vernissage to Present LOOP Fair for Video-Art Lovers, 6/2

From June 2 to 4, Barcelona will once again become the place where video art lovers can discover and see the latest developments in the sector. 4.000 people are expected to attend.Lemaître, Josée and Marc Gensollen, Haro Cumbusyan and Renee Drake, and chaired by Jean-Conrad Lemaître. All in all, there will be over 15 hours of runtime and 47 artist films and videos, including 33 world, European and Spanish premieres. The variety of nationalities of the invited artists, who hail from 25 different countries, and the participation of galleries from 20 different countries make LOOP Fair the place where the latest creative and discursive developments in this format, as well as the latest debates and notions in the sector, are revealed. Alongside historic figures such as artists Malcolm Le Grice or Tania Mouraud, the fair will also be attended by renowned international artists such as Dora García, Sigalit Landau or Kader Attia as well as budding young talents such as Basim Magdy, Pilvi Takala, Michael Linares, Paulo Nazareth or Shezad Dawood, among others. Throughout the fair, a professional jury featuring Dirk Snauwaert (director at WIELS, Brussels), Kathryn Weir (Centre Georges Pompidou) and Ferran Barenblit (director at the MACBA) will grant the LOOP Fair Award and the Acquisition Award.

Alongside the Fair, from June 1 to 4 LOOP Studies will offer a context for in-depth analysis and debate on some of the most relevant notions that surround images in movement. Concerning the conceptual framework of the 2016 LOOP Festival, which reflects on the links between the fields of film and video art under the title [video]art & cinema. Faraway, So Close, LOOP Studies offers 7 conference sessions within the framework of the LOOP Talks. These talks will be held over the course of three days and will cover hybrid practices of "expanded film", "exhibition film" or "gallery film", with the participation of renowned experts on the subject such as Erika Balsom, Raymond Bellour, Filipa César, Antje Ehmann, Malcolm Le Grice and Anthony McCall, among others. Moreover, the study program is complemented by four educational workshops and closed-door meetings during the Fair in order to strengthen bonds between professionals visiting the city to attend this yearly video art festival.

LOOP Studies will also be a space in which the audience will be given a glimpse of the latest initiative by Screen Projects, the LOOP Protocol. The LOOP Protocol is a draft contract and protocol model designed in collaboration with Enric Enrich, a lawyer specialising in copyright and intellectual property, which standardises a series of simple parameters in order to offer a more secure legal framework for the acquisition of works of art in audiovisual format to all parties involved (artist, gallery owner and buyer).