25hrs, international art show.

Introduction.
In the contemporary art panorama, video art currently holds a position as important as painting, sculpture or installations.
Although the first art videos were made in the 60's, shortly after the appearance of the medium, it is over the last decade that the use of video as a popular means of expression has really extended among artists. This expansion has been facilitated mainly by the lowering in prices of recording and editing facilities, but also by improvements in technology.
The arrival of the Hi8 camera, and now the availability of digital video equipment makes it possible for an artist to have all the necessary equipment for the creation of work of a quality close to TV broadcasting standards, at home and for his/her exclusive use.
This availability, and improvements in interfaces for audiovisual creation, has not only given rise to an exponential multiplication in the amount of video works made by artist over the last few years, but, also, has allowed a previously unimaginable freedom and immediacy to artists working in the field of video creation.

It is because of this that video art has awakened such a great amount of interest among artists, and is used as a format even by those who practice or were trained in other disciplines. Audiovisual formats allow current concerns to be expressed in an immediate way, as video is part of the language our world is currently being constructed with. 25hrs is aimed at this large group of artists but also to the very wide group of people who are now familiar with electronic images: several generations that have grown up with TV, or films with special effects, music video channels, electronic music and computer networks. This public is coming closer and closer to video art in search of work that has technical and thematic elements that it can recognise as its own.

Presentation
25hrs is a selection of videos made after 1990 by international artists from all tendencies and cultural environments, to be screened non-stop over a whole day. The works have been chosen to give a general, complete vision of current video art. The order of screening will be carefully thought-out so that different rhythms work together. The selection and design of the session will also take into account the need to maintain the viewers' attention throughout the event, alternating intense moments with more contemplative ones.

The event.
25hrs will begin at 7.00pm on Friday with the screening of Dziga Vertov's 1929 film "The Man with the Movie Camera". This film is the "25th hour" of the festival for its pioneering attitude and the way it reveals the spirit of the artist looking through the camera at the contemporary world. There could be no better prologue for the rest of the works in the show.
Next, approximately 250 works, each lasting from one to twenty minutes, will be shown non-stop. The artists and their work will be chosen from a variety of backgrounds and a wide scope of videographic registers will be accepted in order to give a complete, general vision of current video art. Many of the works reflect the current tendency in art to erase the limits that separate it from fashion, graphic design, architecture, television, cinema etc. Our selection favours the most freely creative works that make immediate use of technical resources, rather than lavish productions by well-known artists, in order to connect better with the wide range of public that the event is directed at.

Specific characteristics
25hrs will exhibit a wide variety of attitudes and behaviour with respect to the way artists confront the problems of contemporary society. The conditions of the hall, together with the selection and order of the screening will allow optimum viewing of the works, allowing techniques, themes and registers to be contrasted and enjoyed as a singular artistic event. Both its format and contents clearly differentiate it from festivals and shows in art exhibition spaces.
Most galleries and art exhibition spaces were not created to show video work, although recently they may have taken it in as part of the needs of current art work. It is often impossible to adapt lighting to create optimum conditions for projection, either because of the placing of doors and windows, or because of lighting placed to illuminate other works also found in the space. The sound of video pieces, or seating which would help relaxed contemplation, are often reduced to their minimum expression in order to create less interference with other works. Because of this, seeing just a few video works normally requires a lot of trips, visits and constant attention to the art scene.
The main interest of festivals lies in showing novelties in the audiovisual market, although often at the cost of not giving such a complete vision of the different registers the medium allows, or of the wide geographical and thematic variety to be found in it. Art festivals are normally aimed at professionals and therefore have other priorities.
The advantage that 25hrs has over these exhibition formats is that the quality and characteristics of the screening and exhibition space will mean that works can be seen in optimum conditions. It will show a large number of videos in a single act, giving its audience a complete image of art today in a short time. It is especially dedicated to international art, not that easy to see in Barcelona. The viewer will receive all the information on the works and their creators before the screening so that during it his/her attention will be dedicated to the most relevant aspects of each artist's proposal.