Latin American Video Art in the VIVO Media Arts Archives

INTRODUCTION

EVENT SCHEDULE

VIDEO SCREENING

MEDIA LIBRARY & DISPLAY
Latin American Collections

WOMEN, ART & THE PERIPHERY
1987 Event Documentation

Gendered Violence: Responses and Remediations

Gendered Violence: Responses and Remediations examines issues of gendered violence, asking how these have been represented historically, in what contexts, through what social networks, government policies, and judicial systems, and to what effect? Multigenerational and intersectional, the research engages with VIVO’s archives, spanning multiple fonds and initiatives by women, LGBT2Q+, feminist and BIPOC media makers and activists; devel,oping understandings of the social ecology of collectives and collaborations, solidarities, and complex affiliations across generations and through settler and Indigenous community-based movements/initiatives. The historical scope of this study is from the early 1970s when Vancouver’s first feminist media centre, Women In Focus, was formed, to the early 1990s following the establishment of the First Nations Video Apprenticeship Program, and the In Visible Colours: An International Women of Colour and Third World Women Film/Video Festival and Symposium that brought the local conditions of gendered-violence and representation into an international platform.  

Encounters in Video Art in Latin America Publication

To celebrate the recent publication of Encounters in Video Art in Latin America (Getty Publications, 2023) edited by Elena Shtromberg and Glenn Phillips and to contextualize the relevance of VIVOs Latin American collections within the histories of video art and independent media production in the region, Shtromberg will join our discussion about collections, archives, and Latin American video distribution networks across the Americas. 

Encounters in Video Art includes a chapter written by Aceves Sepúlveda on Latin American feminist video art supported by VIVO and A/CA based on her research on Women, Art & the Periphery documentation. It also includes an interview with Mexican video artist Ximena Cuevas who is part of VIVOs collections.

Homage to Sonia Andrade

Curated and introduced by Elena Shtromberg, Untitled 1974-1978, a program of  selected video works by Brazilian Sonia Andrade (also featured in the book) precedes Aceves Sepúlveda’s screening to honor Andrade’s recent passing (courtesy of Andrade’s state). These short vignettes are some of the earliest videos produced in Brazil. Created during the height of censorship in Brazil during the military dictatorship, the video experiments comprising Untitled posit the body as the site of tensions, probing its limit as subject and object of electronic display. Andrade organizes her body in a direct critique of the dictatorship, situating it in precarious situations recalling scenes of torture and violence.

About VIVO’s Crista Dahl Media Library and Archive

The Crista Dahl Media Library and Archives grew out of the Video Inn Library, an international video exchange library in its earliest incarnation which has grown through our many activities. The collection includes videos (multiple formats), film (16mm, Super 8), audio tapes, books, periodicals, directories, technology manuals, photographs, legacy technology, media artists & activists files, and the operational records and program documentation of the Satellite Video Exchange Society (legal name) since our 1973 incorporation. While the primary focus is on Canadian artists, international artists and organizations are well represented. Our Special Collections include the personal archives of artists and media organizations and collectives with long histories with our centre. You will find contemporary and historical materials produced by and about media artists, artist-run centres, media organizations, ad-hoc cultural and activist groups, cultural organizations, community television, government agencies, and other artistic disciplines. Take a virtual tour of the archive.

VIVO Media Arts Centre was incorporated as Satellite Video Exchange Society in 1973,  VIVO is a steward of critical history and an agent for emergent experimental media arts practices. Our programs foster formal and critical approaches to media arts, and reflect the diversity of contemporary technologies and communities that coalesce around new forms of knowledge and creativity. VIVO builds an engaged audience through workshops, production support, distribution, artist residencies, performances and exhibitions as well as curatorial and archival research. Through these activities and our extensive archival resources, VIVO plays a unique role in facilitating and fostering artistic practices in the region.  www.vivomediaarts.com

Archive/Counter-Archive (A/CA) is a project dedicated to activating and remediating audiovisual archives created by Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Métis, Inuit), Black communities and People of Colour, women, LGBT2Q+ and immigrant communities. Political, resistant, and community-based, counter-archives disrupt conventional narratives and enrich our histories. counterarchive.ca

The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is the largest professional association in the world for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America. With over 13,000 members, over 60% of whom reside outside the United States, LASA is the one association that brings together experts on Latin America from all disciplines and diverse occupational endeavors, across the globe. LASA’s mission is to foster intellectual discussion, research, and teaching on Latin America, the Caribbean, and its people throughout the Americas, promote the interests of its diverse membership, and encourage civic engagement through network building and public debate.

See more information on the Visual Culture Section and Film Studies.

Queen’s Vulnerable Media Lab (VML) is a state-of-the-art historic media transfer, remediation, and restoration research lab. With the ability to scan a wide variety of photo-chemical motion-picture gauges and audio formats at extremely high resolutions along with a wide variety of magnetic media format support with hardware-based signal processing and scaling. The lab also has digital restoration capabilities software and processes to refine the sound and picture into modern file delivery formats, such as Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs).

SFU’s cMAS is a research-creation studio directed by Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda located in SIAT at Simon Fraser University Surrey Campus that occupies the unceded territories of the Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Kwantlen, Katzie, the Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm), and the Qayqayt First Nations. In cMAS, students and research collaborators explore how old and new technologies shape the historical narratives and practices of media arts through a feminist lens that considers how categories of difference, traditional disciplinary boundaries, and the legacies of colonialism continue to produce exclusions.