Transitio_mx. Festival Internacional de Artes Electrónicas y Video

by Amanda Lemus, Adriana Casas, and Lilia Pérez, Eds.
Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Coyocan, Mexico, 2005
292 pp., illus. col. Paper, $NA
ISBN: 970-35-0992-4.

Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium

stefaan.vanryssen@hogent.be

The Mexican National Council for Culture and the Arts and the National Center for the Arts organised the "first international festival of electronic arts and video" in Mexico in December 2005. Under the general theme of ‘Images in transition: poetics and technology’, some 120 artists presented their works. Iván Abreu acted as artistic director and invited Marina Grzinic and Arcangel Costantini as guest curators. Parallel to the exhibitions of international electronic or information artworks and video, a special show of Mexican video was organised and a symposium was held.

This catalogue documents the exhibitions, showing stills or images of the works presented. The accompanying notes either comment on the state of the art(s) in Mexico or the personal views of the curators. A very brief summary of the panel discussions at the symposium is also included. Finally, and most important for anyone interested in the lively video and electronic arts scene in Mexico, is the extensive biographical appendix. The essays express mainly personal views of rather limited scope and don’t suffice to give an overall picture of the Mexican production. Some of them are interesting enough for the reader who is already acquainted with the work of the artist.