En la revista CENTERFOLD Canadá año 1979

 Aparezco con mi vídeo performance "Yo soy la patria"

En la revista CENTERFOLD

Canadá año 1979

"Fantasia Video Plastica"

10,000 viewers at Festival in Caracas

a report by Tom Sherman

Margarita D'Amico

Caracas Venezuela 1979

10,000

flock to see video and perfonnance!

February

2nd through the 9th,

1979.

Margarita D'Amico , working

with many

of her fellow Venezuelan

artists,

put together a very strong and

positively

jmpressive display of video

and

performance art in Caracas this

winter.

Working within the timeframe and energy of the massive cultural Festival de

Caracas, this relatively small band of video and perfonnance artists were able

to celebrate with very high visability their

current

involvement with small format

television.

Tape and live performance.

The live

performance found the audience, initially. The tape held them

steady.

D'Amico's Muestra de Video

found a

live mass audience, estimated

at 10,000

vie:wing-listening partici244

pants by

the time the full week-long

show had

run its course. D'Amico has

since

received invitations to organize

similar

events in other Venezuelan

cities

later this year. ill Valencia,

San Cristobal and Ciudad Guayana.

Margarita D'Amico

Margarita

D'Amico has been making videotapes and writing about the

medium

throughout the seventies. She

is a

professor at the l)niversidad Central de Venezuela, as well as being a

staff

journalist for the Diario El

Nacional,

one of the most influential

daily

newspapers of Caracas. Her great

abilities

to organize and promote video

activity in

Venezuela deserve attention

and

appreciation. Months before the

seven days

of Muestra de Video,

D' Amico

launched a media campaign

very

clearly defining video and per-

"Yo Soy La Patria "

Video performan ce by Carlos Zerpa

formance

art in the popular press.

Articles

appear ed in many newspapers

and

magazines. Thus the incredible

attenda nce

figures. The exhibition

featured

appr oximately twenty hours

of

videotapes (for closed -circuit viewing) produced by forty artists. All

were

Venezuelans , excepting Pola

Weiss

(Mexico) and Antonio Muntadas

and Aldo

Vigliarolo (United States).

Each

afternoon and evening of the exhibition , there was "accion en vivo con

video"

(video performance). Live performance employing video. In this

case, these

performances were not

televised.

These artists were involved

in

examining and displaying the potentials of simultaneous closed-circuit

video

'imaging' of their live performance actions. Combining their livevideo presence

with their in-person

performance.

There were seven differCenterfo ld, June/July 1979

World

photos by Irene Sosa

!tefd "Videos de Cuba" by Margarita D' Amico.

(right) "El Hombre Del Maiz", Diego Risquez

(middle)

"Actores", a video performance by Hugo Marquez

(below)

Sonia Sanoje's video performance

ent

performances. Each performance

was

conceived and actualised specifically for this exhibition. Muestra de

Video was

held in one large hall of

the main

library of the University of

Central Venezuela (~enter city Caracas). UCV has a modest video studio

(3/4 inch

colour) serving a communications department of the university.

UCV

provided the equipment (what

they didn't

have, they borrowed) and

the

technicians necessary to manage

such an

exhibition.

Fantasia

Video Plastica

The theme

of Muestra de Video,

"Fantasia

Video Plastica", was conceived of by the artistic directors of

the show,

Servio Tulio Marin and Luis

Villamizar.

As an activity, video is

looked upon

by these Venezuelan

artists in

much the same way as music

is looked

upon by most open-minded

people. All

forms of music are seen as

music.

Everythingbeingvideo is video,

this

exhibition recognises the many

'images' of

video, conceptual video,

live

video-performance video. Video

as music,

dance, as a plastic art. Video

as poetry,

theatre, photographychoreography.

10,000

Viewers

As far as

the audience is concerned, the people of Caracas watch a lot

of

television. Only black and whit!!

television.

There is no colour transmission. There are only four channels.

photo Irene

Sosa

Two are

owned by the government

and two are

privately owned. Other

than the

news, almost all the pictures

are film.

Programming is imported

from

America and Europe (some from

Mexico and

other S.A. countries).

Virtually

all the shows are dubbed. A

couple of

dramatic translators get all

the work.

The same voices play

everybody.

Bad voice tracks make for

horrible

television. Meanwhile, home

vi~eo

recorders (Beta and VHS formats) are stocked in the stereo stores

for the

people who can afford them.

The

Venezuelans with money have

colour

images with their new closedcircuit systems. The people on t

"Cada Salida .Necesita De Un Conjuro"

Luis Manzo/Waldemar Delima.

photo Irene Sosa

Sweet are

fascinated with the 'new'

colour

television. They love to watch

Elvis

movies and disco TV shows on

tape from

Los Angeles.

Video for

the 'Rich' and 'Poor'

North

Americans often complain

that there

is no real choice in respect

to

programming even in their comparatively 'rich' television environment.

Clearly,

the South American television

viewer

faces a media 'poverty' incomprehensible by North American or

Western

World standards. It could be

expected

that closed-circuit video,

the present

alternative to standard

broadcast

television, would have a very

limited

potential audience where electronic media literacy remains 'low',

i.e. in the

Third World. The impressive attendance figures for this videoperformance art

festival in Caracas

present a

hopeful view for artists in

so-called

'underdeveloped' countries

around the

world. In the Third World,

where

broadcast television is still in

its

infancy, perhaps video has a much

better

chance of finding its

246

World

ACCION EN VIVO CON VfDEO

(Video Performances)

-Sonia Sonoja: La maxima figura de

la danza i,ontempor6nea en Venezuela.

-Hugo Marquez y el grupo "Tiempo

Comun". - ''Cada Sa/fda Necesita de un Conjuro ":

acci6n en vivo de Luis Manzo

y Walclemar Delima.

-"Gesto y Hue/la": Novedosa experiencia de

integracion de la danza,

plastica y mus1ea Luis Villa,nizar y

Servio Tulio Marin,

-NYo Soy La Patria": Ritual magico

de Carlos Zetpa. - "El Hombre Del Maiz'': acci6n en

vivo de Die!:Jo R[squez.

"Mural- v;tra/ de Videoxerox Dedicado a la Memoria .de

Renny Ottolina":

La obra, producida por Margarita

D'Amico destraca el trabajo del Teatro

"N" de Paris.

VJDEOS PARTICIPANTES

1) Caracas Siempre, Grupo Saltamontes, Radio Caracas TV. 22'

2) Reflexiones, Antonio Jose Le6n.

20'.

3) $omos Mujeres, Pola Weiss (Mexico). 8'.

4) Todavia Estamos, Pola Weiss

(Mexico), 8'

5) Arte, Carburo y Sobriedad, Jose

Luis Briceno y Maria Casaqo. 25'

6) Sonia Sanoja, Danny Guarenas,

presentado por la Direcci6n de

Bibliotecas y Direcci6n de Cultura

ge la UCV. 50'

7) Actores, Hugo Marquez. 28'

8) Poema Para Ser Leido Bajo et

Agua, Diego Risquez. 27'

9) A Proposito de la Luz Tropical,

Homenaje a Armando Rever6nDiego Risquez. 20'

10) A Proposito def Hombre de/

Maiz, Diego Risquez. 15'

11) Dos Pueblos de Arem, (selecci6n).

Grupo Cinevideo-UCV. Cuatro

horas.

12) Videos de Cuba (selecci6n),

Margarita D' Amico. Dos horas.

13) Videos de San Jose, Margarita

D' Amico, Manuel Manzano, Marra

Josefa Perez. Dos horas.

14) Videoxerox Teatro "N" Paris,

Margarita D'Amico. 45'

15) Color de la Vida, Luis Goncalves.

10'

16) Mario Neira, Alejandro Kirk. 25'

17) Sensorial, John Moore, 3'

18) Expresiones, Diego Barboza. 10'

19) Videoliticos, Divisi6n Audiovisual

Biblioteca Central UCV, Cinevideo UCV y Grupo Gaspar

Marcano. 45'

20) Shhh • ..• Luis Vi!lamizar. 20'

21) Gesto y Huella, LuisVillmizar~

Servio Tulio Marin. 30'

22) Cada Salida Necesitade 1.m Con•

juro, Luis Manzo, Waldemar

Delima. 30'

23) Festival Folk/orico de Guayana.

Corporaci6n Venezolana de

Guayana. 23'

24) Musica y Belleza, Corporaci6n

Venezolana de Guayana. 1 O'

25) II Viso, Aldo Vigliarolo (Estados

Unidos). 9' .

26) II Passato, Aldo Vigliarolo (Es•

tados Unidos). 11'

27) On Subjectivity, Antonio Muntadas (Estados Unidos). 30'

28.) Alt1't Latinoamerfcano I Alfr~do

Portillos. CA YC de Buenos

Aires. 20'

29) Earth

Oven, vrctor Grippo.

CA Ye de Buenos Airres. 8'

30) Phitotron, Luis·Benedit y Jorge

Glusberg. CAYC <Je Buenos

Aires. 30'

31) Taller de Animacion, Marra

Cristina Capriles y Alberro Monteagudo. 27'

32) 1978, Gustavo Schwartz. Grupo

Viba de Buenos Aires. 30'

33) Dance Studio, Mario Cabrera. 5'

34) La L/egada de/ Columbus. Cantv, 8'

35) 78 Cultural. ·Cantv. 30'

36) Una Nueva Op

36) Una Nueva Opcion. Cantv y Elta

Rodriguez. 7'

37) Los Capullos de/ Jardin, Cantv y

Elba

Avendano. 30'

38)

Anti-Smoking Publicity, Tito

Rojas, Universidad de Nuev1t

York. 30'

39) The Venezuelan Cuatro and His

Music, Tito Rojas, Uoiversidad de

Nueva York, 11'

40) Germinacion de la Huella, Geo

Ripley. Presentado por el lnsti·

tuto Univer$itario de Technolo•

g1a de, Coro. 8'

41) Pijao, Geo Ripley. IUTC Coro. 8'

42) Creando Imagen con el Hilo de

la Memorla, Geo Ripley. IUTC

Coro. 7'30''

43) Medltaciones Breves, Geo Ripley.

IUTC Coro, 8'

44) Yo Soy la Patria, Carlos Zerpa.

25'

45) Senora Patria, sea ud. Blenvenida,

Carlos Zerpa. 25'

46) Bichos Bichos Bichos, Carlos

Zerpa. Una hora.

47) De Como Panchito Mandefua

Ceno con el Nino Jesus, Blanca

Guzman, Sixto Perez Sosa. 24'

Centerfold, June/July 1979