“Just as collage has ousted oil painting, so the cathode ray tube will replace the canvas”, proclaimed Nam June Paik. In this phrase, one feels the optimism of a man. Witnessing a revolution in the system of capturing moving images, due to the launching, in the mid-sixties, of the first portable camcorder, Paik would contribute to the genesis of a medium: video.
If the history of the fine arts opposes his assertion, given that painting survived video, it demonstrates how certain was his intuition, countless artists adopted the new medium, converting it into an artistic discipline.
This project emerges given the current importance of this discipline in Contemporary Art, consisting of the display of videos of contemporary Portuguese artists. Its purpose is to show the work that has been developed in the area of video Art in Portugal to the public in general and in particular that of Macao. This show is the result of a selection of 17 pieces, produced by some of Portuguese artistic scene’s most relevant artists, with different backgrounds, paths and postures, whom adopted video as their chosen means of expression. The works will be shown in 3 exterior screens of SJM.