LOOP Barcelona includes LOOP Festival, LOOP Fair (which shows 50 videos by artists from all five continents with various launches of previously unpublished works) and LOOP Studies (which offers a space in which to learn and meet new people through a series of conferences, round table discussions and workshops). This festival seeks to bring the public closer to video practices.

This year, a total of 273 artists are taking part; over 400 videos and previously unpublished works by artists will be shown, with 19 curators involved in organising the festival. There will be 58 exhibitions and 28 scheduled activities, which will take place in 78 different locations of Barcelona, and 47 galleries from 20 different countries will take part.

The theme of the festival is based on two central pillars: ‘Beyond the black box’, with proposals and curators’ programmes that question the traditional views of the ‘black box’, and ‘Return to the black box’, in which a series of projects aims to strengthen the exhibition and communication qualities of the cinematographic space by highlighting aesthetic experiences and contemplative immersion brought about by the ‘black box’.

LOOP Schedule

You can view the full schedule here, but the Foundation has highlighted some of the festival’s events (exhibitions, activities, competitions, etc.):

-‘States of Grace’, Laurent Fievet LOOP in the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), from 26/05 to 10/06

-‘Firework text (Pasolini)’, Cerith Wyn Evans, curated by the Collezione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in the Frederic Marès Museum, from 22/5 to 04/06.

-‘Beyond The Tropics’, with artists such as Núria Güell, Avelino Sala, Isabel Rocamora, Jorge García, and others, curated by Imma Prieto in the History Museum of Catalonia, from 26/05 to 04/06.

-‘Martin Arnold’, curated by Arnau Horta in the Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB), from 26/05 to 10/06.

-‘Arabian nights’, a trilogy directed by Miguel Gomes in the Filmoteca de Cataluña, from 27 to 29 May.

-‘The Audio-visual Unconscious’, a three-session programme with Martin Arnold and Peter Tscherkassky, curated by Arnau Horta in the CCCB, from7 to 9 June.

-‘Incluso el silencio es causa de tormenta’, Luís Macías, Adriana Vila Guevara and Alfredo Costa Monteiro. A performance by the Crater Collective in the Sala Hiroshima, on 28 May at 20:00.