FREEWAVES: Latin America
Screening and Panel Discussion

Latin American FREEWAVES brings us the newest in video art from Latin America. One of the most substantial Latin American video surveys ever assembled, the nine programs, commissioned especially for the 2002 LA Freewaves Festival, represent the syncretism and dynamic exchanges of artists and activists hailing from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Perú and Venezuela.

From experimental exercises in physiognomy to pop culture clashes, from perceptual studies to historiographic reflections, these nine programs develop the manifold fascinations and interests of Latin American media artists.

Panel will discuss the state of video art in Latin America as it redefines itself, adjusting to a changing political and economic backdrop. Moderated by Jesse Lerner. Potential speakers include José Roca, Michèlle Faguet, Daniel J. Martinez and Cristian Silva.

PANEL
@ MOCA at California Plaza
Nov. 10, 1 -3pm

SCREENINGS
@ MOCA at California Plaza
Programs 1-5: Nov. 9, 11am -5pm,
Programs 6-9: Nov. 10, 11am -5pm,

@ Iturralde Gallery
Nov. 1-30, 2002
By request and daily schedule

The individual programs were curated by Ernesto Calvo Alvarez, Tamara Díaz Bringas, José Roca, Michèlle Faguet, Jorge La Ferla, Priamo Lozada, Arlindo Machado, Christine Mello, Yucef Merhi, José-Carlos Mariategui, Claudia Prado, and Cristian Silva. Produced by Juan Devis, Chair of LA Freewaves Board; Coordinated by Rita Gonzalez.

1. Body Circumstances:
The Body Between the Public and Private Spaces
Selected by Arlindo Machado and Christine Mello, 39 minutes
These videos expose Brazilian artists' explorations of place and identity, especially the charged movement of bodies through domestic and urban spaces.

Works by: Eder Santos, Lucas Bambozzi, Bruno de Carvalho, Rachel Rosalen, Lucila Meirelles, Inés Cardoso, Neide Jallageas and Rafael França.

2. State in Crisis:
Contemporary Argentinean Video Art
Selected by Jorge La Ferla, 60 minutes
This assemblage of Argentinean work presents the paradoxical situation of access to and freedom of expression through independent media.

Works by: Diego Lascano, Claudio Caldini, Alejandro Saenz, Arturo Marinho, Florencia Acevedo, Guadalupe Pérez García and Lorena Salomé.

3. Behind Television:
The New Image of Peruvian Art Video
Programmed by José-Carlos Mari·tegui for ATA Projects (High Andean Technology), 69 minutes
The curator explains: "(these) young artists do not often wish to represent folkloric or typical elements of or contents, but rather try to construct new forms of creation, analyzing their local context."

Works by: Roger Atasi, Rafel Besaccia, Alvaro Zavala, Carlos Letts, Roger Atasi, Fermín Tanguis, Felipe Morey, Diego Velásquez, Carlos Troncoso, Iván Lozano, José Luis Carbajal, Diego Lama and Arias & Aragón.

4. The Dinosaur Was Still There
Selected by Ernesto Calvo Alvarez and Tamara Díaz Bringas, 59 minutes
Dealing with absence, invisibility and extinction, the video artists in this Central American program provide an underrepresented example of this region's recent rich independent media output.

Works by Brooke Alfaro, Darío Escobar, Regina Galindo, Jonathan Harker, José Alberto Hernandez, Lucía Madriz, Priscilla Monge, Hugo Ochoa, Aljandro Ramirez, Joaquín Rodriguez, Alvaro Sanchez, Patricia Villalobos and Rodolfo Walsh.

5. Guonderguoman [Wonder Woman]
Selected by Claudia Prado, 32 minutes
Guonderguoman assembles work by Mexican video artists - all women - arrayed with various invisible and visible powers.

Works by: Silvia Gruner, Amaranta Sánchez, Alejandra Echeverría, Paulina del Paso, Carolina Esparragoza, Cecilia Navarro, Grace Quintanilla, Ximena Cuevas and Claudia Fernández.

6. Load (And Unload)
Selected by Cristían Silva, 48 minutes
The "loading and unloading" refers to these Chilean artists' interface with other moments in media, from the globally recognizable to the personal.

Works by Juan Cespedes, Felix Lazo, Cristobal Lehyt, Mario Navarro, Macarena Rivas, Francisco Valdes and Joe Villablanca.

7. Visual Noise/Visual Memory:
Recent Videos from Colombia
Selected by Michèlle Faguet, 39 minutes
Artists in Visual Noise/Visual Memory use re-contextualized footage, animation, autobiography, mock genres and music video to place themselves in the conflicted present tense while dealing with an-ever present past.

Works by: Rolando Vargas, Andres Burbano, Adriana Arenas, José Alejandro Restrepo, Elkin Calderón, Simon Hernandez, Wilson Díaz, Margarita Jimeno and Monika Bravo.

8. Vidéo Femmes
Selected by Yucef Merhi, 38 minutes
Vidéo Femmes is a selection of video art by 3 generations of women from Venezuela. It is in part a tribute to the recently deceased video artist Alexandra Meijer-Werner.

Works by: Nela Ochoa, Nan Gonzáles, Conny Viera, Diana López, Odalys Valdivieso and the late Meijer-Warners.

9. Face Value:
Contemporary Video Works from Colombia
Selected by José Roca, 52 minutes
Face Value takes as its initial reference point the refusals and (indirect) disclosures of Andy Warhol's Blow Job (1964). All the video work deals with faciality as a signifier of identity.

Works by Fernando Arias, Sandra Bermudez, François Bucher, Santiago Echeverry, Juan Fernando Herrán, Oscar Muñoz, Lucas Ospina, and Carlos Salazar.