BAC! 09 – The Barcelona Contemporary Art Festival

The Barcelona Contemporary Art Festival BAC! 09 opens Pandora’s box. At least, this year’s date with international creation is subtitled “Pandora’s Boxes“. An ironic title, as we won’t find all humanity’s ills there, rather an assertion of feminine art, but without any of the clichés normally associated with it.

BAC! 09 - Barcelona Contemporary Art Festival

Neither social criticism nor discourses on gender discrimination; the sixty-or-so female artists whose works are on display in BAC!’s main exhibition at the CCCB, free of charge, prefer humour, irony and a fresher perspective.

This is what we find in Ariadna Arnés’s photos, in Hanamaro Chaki’s illustrations and Bárbara Sánchez Barroso’s embroidery. You can be sure to find installations and videoart there too, such as those by Marta Jiménez Salcedo and Ms Woolman.

One of the highlights of this tenth BAC! is the section entitled “BAC! CAM“. This will feature one of the fullest retrospectives on women’s videoart.

To be more specific, the programme called “Indomitable Women” reviews female videoart over the last forty years, from the field’s pioneers like Maya Deren, celebrity names like Yoko Ono and Joan Jonas, up to more recent creators like Dora García, among others.

X Festival Internacional Barcelona Art Contemporani – BAC Pandora’s Boxes  – website Festival
From01/12/2009 to 03/01/2010
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB): C/Montalegre, 5

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

Xcèntric comes to the CCCB in Barcelona

Xcèntric - Cinema Festival at CCCB

The 9th season of the Xcèntric cinema programme at the CCCB will be kicking off on 3 December with a range of films whose very length prevents them from fitting into conventional programmes. In addition, this season of Xcèntric will embark on an international itinerary taking it to Australia, the United States and Japan.

This new season starts out with the intention of exploring films which, by their very format, especially their length, cannot fit in with cinema or television programmes.

The best example of this is provided by Andy Warhol’s long films. On 6 December you will be able to see Empire, an eight-hour long film in which the pop-art artist depicts New York’s Empire State Building. You can also take part in the multi-screening of Outer and Inner Space, a film conceived for showing on two screens.

At the other extreme, we can find a whole series of works not even a minute long. Xcèntric will be offering a retrospective on films by the Fluxus movement, including pieces by Nam June Paik, Paul Sharits, George Maciunas and Yoko Ono.

The first session of this new season, on 3 December, Film Ist will see the premiere. A Girl and a Gun, a film in process by Gustav Deutsch, made from a montage of other films.

Website Xcèntric Festival.