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Leonardo, Vol. 1I. p. 46. Pergamon Press 1978. Printed in Great Britain 1977 SYMPOSIUM ON VIDEO AND COMMUNICATION, BARCELONA, SPA1N Jorge Glusberg* A symposium on Video and Communication took place on 10 April 1977. as part of the 7th International Video Festival held at Joan Miro Foundation, Barcelona, Spain. Within the walls of the exquisite Foundation building designed by the Catalan architect Sert, 59 participants discussed for over one week the subjects of Communication and Art, Communication and Architecture. and Communication and Video. Among those who discussed Communication and Video were Gillo Dorfles (art critic) and Lola Bonora (video curator of the Gallery of Modern Art. Ferrnra) (Italy); Marten Lindblom (artist, representative of the group L'Etoile du Nord) (Sweden); Herve Fischer (artist and professor of the sociology of art), Pierre Restany (art critic) and Fred Forest (artist) (France); Katsuhiro Yamaguchi (artist) (Japan); Leopoldo Maler (artist)and Jorge Glusberg (art writer) (Argentina); Margdrita D'Amico (art writer) (Venezuela); Daniel Girdk Miracle (art critic), Alejandro Cirici Pellicer (art critic), Francis Vicens (Director of the Joan Miro Foundation)and Joan Costa (specialist in communications and Director of the C.I.C. in Barcelona) (Spain). The author of this report opened the sessions. thanking Francis Vicens, Director of the Foundation. for the support he had given the Symposium. He then pointed to the democratic spirit of the meeting: the participants were not required to present their background. Fischer, the first speaker. presented his ideas about the relationship between art and society. He was of the view that artists today need to take advantage of new technology, such as video. He added that video,meets a social function that is more philosophical than artistic. and he stressed that the development of video applications in New York, Tokyo and Barcelona was at about the same level. Glusberg pointed out that the video artists in Latin America, in particular those in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, devote themselves mainly to interpreting social and political issues. Alfred0 Portillos documents mystical-religious events in northern Argentina, Lea Lublin treats political problems and Nicolis Uriburu presents aspects of environmental problems. Referring to Martin Buber. Maler supported the view that. although artists evidently respond to their environment, they mainly deal with situations in which they do not actively take part. This isespecially true in the case of video art. Lindblom reported that the L'Etoile du Nord theatrical group was occupied chiefly in the theater production, and *Art writer. (CAYC) Elpidio Gonzalez 4070. Buenos Aires. Argentina. (Received 6 June 1977). it was interested in the application of video, because of its importance as a communication medium. Dorfles pointed out that the use of video as an art form is still relatively rare and is limited to a few countries, including Italy. In this connection, Bonora described the video section of the Gallery of Modern Art of the Diamond Palace in Ferrara, Italy, which deals with documentaries, conversations with artists and video art. Dorfles thought that there are but a few artists working with video and that the public is little aware of this domain of art. He said that it is not true that Western Europe is a cultural Third World, as stated by Fischer. He asserted that 'we are the First Cultural World!'. D'Amico said that in Venezuela video is used as a communication means in rural and urban communities in order to help make the inhabitants more aware of the character of their problems. She pointed out the connection between this kind of video production and that carried out in Italy and Britain. Pellicier pointed out the role that video art might play in halting the destruction of natural resources. He stated that it seemed to him that the important thing was to preserve what exists rather than to produce new art works. Restany said that he did not consider attacks on advanced technology as a useful approach to making a better world, rather he believed. as did Fischer, that the artists' new role is to make technology more humane. Katsuhiro Yamaguchi said that in Japan annual poetry open encounters had been held regularly during the past two centuries. They are being revived. Participants work in groups...

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