What is Pantalla CCCB

Video artworks that are not commissioned but which are generated by the artist’s own initiative are not easily accessible to the public: apart from festivals, exhibitions and some art galleries, there are no real channels of dissemination. These works intrinsically contain the pure, most primitive concept of artistic creation. Creators come to them from the traditional visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, literature…) and also from the realm of cinematographic and videographic practice.

We refer to video artworks as a broad term for all audiovisual artistic manifestations ranging from video art to net art, video painting, experimental video, digital video, etc. We legitimize them and treat them as audiovisual artworks, faithful to the principles posited by Rudolf Arnheim in the mid-20th century in Film as Art about the cinematographic (today we would say “audiovisual”) phenomenon as pure cultural form rather than mere spectacle.

This programme aims to create a space and a time where people can discover these original works. Just as we would hang a picture, we hang a screen, like a painting. It is a space created for observing audiovisual artwork, with a viewing time chosen by thepublic, by themselves, for their own enjoyment and understanding.

A month to view audiovisual works by creators who are interested in experimenting and innovating with new formal and narrative languages, artists with the express desire to move beyond formats and genres, addressing themes that range from personal to collective reflection, from the real to fiction.

“Pantalla CCCB, a month an artist” had its first outing from 2007 to 2009. Now, it is presented as an audiovisual exhibition space in our building and, at the same time, a screen on our website: a space for contemplation, a window on the work of these creators, for discovery, knowledge and enjoyment.

The CCCB chooses the creators, and they choose the content to go on show. For a month, Pantalla CCCB offers a monographic showcase of each creator or collective of artists.

Angela Martínez  [Head of Audiovisual Department]