LOOP Barcelona 2021

Since 2003, LOOP Barcelona has been an acclaimed platform for the dissemination, discussion and creation of audiovisual artworks. Under its three main formats, that of a festival, an art fair and a programme of knowledge exchange and debates, it is carrying out a continued exploration of the latest productions that emerge from the contemporary art practices related to video, film and the overarching concept of the moving image.  
Most of the artistic productions that the festival supports are aimed at capturing the complex layers that animate the notion of public space and the various constructs that define people’s sense of belonging, as well as the intimate ways in which they relate to the world. In short, the intent of LOOP Barcelona is to help artists achieve those experiential aspects that are the hardest to be observed in material terms, all the underlying and forgotten aspects that are integral to the use, meaning and construction of place.

Activities

In its 2021 edition, LOOP Barcelona continued to include a section dedicated to the A-Place project, to explore, advance and establish creative placemaking practices, as well as to exchange knowledge on this topic. 

The programme of the A-Place section is designed along two mutually complementary basic lines of action: 

1. Production line, it includes the videos selected in an open call and commissioned to artists. Three videos have been produced: I can only dance to one song by Arash Fayez and Beans, rinsed twice by Inês Neto & Bella Riza, selected in the open call; and La Carpa, commissioned to David Betué and Roser Corella.
2. Debate line, through a series of non-public debates that allowed local and international professionals to exchange knowledge and discuss subjects about the creation of a sense of place and the role of artists and artistic media, in particular, video art. Two events took place: A-PLACE: Embodying space through memory and A-PLACE: Place-making through body moves.

Objectives

- to increase exchanges among the European artistic community around the role of video art, festivals and artists in placemaking.
- to discuss the impact that art-based practices might have at the physical, cultural, historical or social level.
- to explore, advance and establish creative placemaking practices, as well as to the exchange of knowledge about this topic
- to offer artists the opportunity to reflect and enrol in practices that strengthen their social role.
- to help artists achieve those underlying and forgotten experiential aspects that form an integral part of the use, meaning and construction of place.