Optica 06: the Gijon International Festival of Video Art, is one of the first festivals of its kind in Spain and at the same time is among the cultural events in Asturias which attracts the most media attention.
The Festival offers a forum for exchange and promotion that encourages an encounter with visual experimentation at an international level. To experiment means to go in search of the unknown. Video art breaks established precepts, conferring prominence on the essence of film: light, sound and movement, in some cases resulting in pure abstraction. That’s why it’s one of the most natural and genuine forms of audio-visual culture, to the degree that it demands a subjective perception of space-time, through the technology of the electronic image.
We seek to provoke reactions in the spectator’s personal worldview, to stir up his private apprehensions. We aim to explore reality, but via a deconstruction of its constituting elements. We want to discover how we create our memories; how not only fantasy but pre-stablished patterns come to form part of the articulation of space and architecture; how we domesticate life by resorting to codes.
To set out on the path leading to video art means exploring the byways of observation. An observation which through the years has been transmuted, revealing to us its complicity with history and its discursive potential transformed into cultural image.
Gijón, Asturias principal city, is located on the shores of the Cantabrian Sea, in northern Spain. Gijón is dynamic, a pioneer in many things, among which is the organization of festivals and other events and initiatives which are widely renowned. In recent years the city has become a customary stopover on the international and national concert circuit and on a yearly basis is host to such well-known cultural events as the Gijón Film Festival, the Semana Negra (dedicated to detective and mystery fiction and film) and the Ibero-American Book Fair.
This cultural activity, however doesn’t stop with the end of summer. Between October and December Gijón’s inhabitants can enjoy jazz, gospel, movies, comics, dance and other cultural activities that take place throughout the city. Gijón’s commitment to the arts is evident as well in the city’s streets, in its monuments, museums and events that year after year enrich the city’s cultural patrimony. Gijón’s charm is revealed in its beaches, its seaside promenade, it’ historic downtown, its marina, its estimable architectural diversity and its wide spectrum of leisure activities. The city also offers a modern tourist infrastructure and first class hotels.
The city’s steady modernization and its fine natural surroundings have made Gijón, with its solid service sector and broad cultural and leisure offering, a city that attracts a growing number of visitors. Gijón is making an effort at the start of the new century to conserve its rich historical legacy and to present it as further example of its appeal as a tourist destination.
More than 150 artists and 20 galleries from all over the world will be participating at this year’s Optica. One of the basic criteria that defines the Festival’s philosophy is the championing of so-called “intergenerational inclusion” which is a policy that facilitates the promotion of new artists. The participation of galleries reinforces and enriches the Festival’s agenda. Moreover, it provides an opportunity for independent artists to become part of the gallery circuit. The non-competitive documentary section offers an introduction to international projects for the promotion of audiovisual culture like Zemos98 and Theoneminutes.
Encounters with Artists is a section which presents an opportunity for the exchange of experiences in which the borderlines between artists and their surroundings are breached. Installations and Performances begins with the notion of activating different city spaces, based on the idea of involvement with our immediate surroundings, in a manner commensurate with everything that implies.