With a history of four decades, the Brazilian institution is reframing its actions by proposing a continuous program of activities focused on the Global South and declaring the end of its biennial event.
Videobrasil headquarters. © Videobrasil Archive
Artists from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Oceania have a meeting spot in Brazil. Over the decades, the Associação Cultural Videobrasil has become a relevant platform for building international networks to connect institutions and arts professionals.
With a focus on the Global South—this geographic area situated on the margins of the axes of power—the Association works steadily to preserve, disseminate, and promote the art of these regions. Faced with this mission, Videobrasil built one of the largest video art collections in the world and has undertaken a range of actions, the most notable of which was the Biennial Videobrasil. Held since 1983, initially as an annual festival devoted to video, the periodic event has evolved over the years, becoming a landmark in the international contemporary art calendar, while maintaining its dedication to countries historically underrepresented in the hegemonic art scene.
Shortly after completing 40 years of history, Videobrasil decides to reinvent itself again. “The international biennial scene has diversified dramatically, and even events historically marked by a Eurocentric perspective have begun to incorporate themes and artists hailing from the Global South. This leads me to reflect on Videobrasil’s specific role in this shifting scenario,” says founder and director Solange Oliveira Farkas. “Today, as I have done at other turns of decades, I engage in a process of listening and reviewing.”
Awards ceremony at the 9th Videobrasil International Festival, 1992, SESC Pompéia, São Paulo.
For Farkas, one of the distinguishing features of Videobrasil has always been the ongoing relationship established with artists. Although widely known for its Biennial, the Association has for decades promoted other projects aimed at fostering long-lasting exchanges, including artistic residencies, commissions, educational and research initiatives, and exhibitions. “This dimension of promotion is an essential part of the project, as is the desire to activate the collection gathered over the years as a fertile ground for new actions.” This is the direction they propose moving forward, with the decision to end the Biennial Videobrasil and dedicate themselves to a new agenda of projects expanded in time and space—with programs to be held throughout the year in different locations in Brazil and around the world.
On September 11, the Association takes its first steps towards this new phase, with the first edition of an unprecedented project: Videobrasil Open Air. This is an act of occupying public space, projecting video art works throughout the city of São Paulo, in partnership with the Museu de Arte Contemporânea (MAC-USP). In the coming months, Videobrasil will announce the full schedule for this new chapter in its history.
ART AFRICA spoke with Solange Oliveira Farkas firsthand. Read the interview below.
Portrait Solange Farkas, 2025.
ART AFRICA: Looking back to 1983, when you launched the first edition of Videobrasil in São Paulo, what urgent cultural or political needs drove your vision—and how did you imagine the role video could play in shaping new artistic languages in Brazil at that moment?
Solange Oliveira Farkas: The Videobrasil Festival emerged in 1983, in the final years of the Brazilian military dictatorship, in response to the lack of institutional structures to support video art and experimental practices. At that time, video was considered a marginal and unstable medium, often ignored by museums and galleries. Our goal was to create a space of visibility and circulation that would enable artists to challenge dominant narratives and explore new visual languages. In many ways, the Festival began as both an act of resistance and a gesture of care—a means of safeguarding and legitimising a field that was still being shaped.
At a time when video was still seen as marginal and unstable, what gave you the conviction to build an entire platform around it—and to keep expanding it, even in the face of institutional resistance and the challenges posed by fragile technology?
The conviction came from the power we saw in video: its immediacy, accessibility, and ability to connect art and everyday life. Despite the precariousness of technology at the time, we believed in its democratic potential and the urgency of supporting artists who had little or no institutional space. Each edition strengthened our belief that video was not only a tool of resistance but also a powerful vehicle for creating new visual grammars and critical discourses. This conviction enabled us to expand the Festival, leading to the establishment of the Associação Cultural Videobrasil [Videobrasil Cultural Association], a far-reaching and ever-active institution. With it, we amassed a significant archive and established strategies to preserve, research, disseminate, and discuss the art from the Global South—through residencies, publications, and exhibitions.
11th Videobrasil Festival (1996)
Videobrasil’s early editions were already pushing against the mainstream by showcasing voices from the Global South. How did your understanding of “South-South dialogue” evolve over the decades, particularly as the international art world began to shift toward more decolonial discourses?
For its first eight years, the Festival was a Brazilian event. But I soon realised the importance of making space for international voices, especially from the Global South. This decision was not just geographical; it was about establishing connections between contexts marked by shared histories of colonialism, political struggle, and cultural reinvention. Over time, this dialogue deepened, ceasing to serve only as representation and becoming a space for exchange and shared imagination. Today, Videobrasil is a circulation and research network that enables artists and institutions from the South to dialogue on their own terms, not as exceptions, but as leading figures.
In your words, Videobrasil is a “continuous, not seasonal” platform. How have you sustained this long-term commitment, not just through the biennial, but through building an archive, an institution, and networks of exchange that operate year-round?
Videobrasil has never been just about the Festival or the Biennial. From the outset, we sought to build a living platform with initiatives year-round. We created the Videobrasil Archive—currently the largest video art collection in Latin America—and have established ongoing strategies to activate it. Making it not just a repository of the past, but a living laboratory; making memory an editing station—to quote the words of poet Waly Salomão, a longtime friend and partner of Videobrasil.
15th Videobrasil Festival (2005)
In this sense, we nurture research through open spaces for free consultation of the archive, with public access to our video library and book library at our headquarters. Through our public programs, we bring together people with diverse perspectives and repertoires to discuss art from the Global South. Historically, we have established numerous international and national partnerships—a network of artists, institutions, and arts professionals that sustains our ongoing activity, enabling us to respond dynamically to the cultural and political urgencies at every moment.
Artistic residencies are a result of these international networks. With them, it becomes possible to think about a new artistic and cultural cartography. Since 1989, our residency program has impacted more than 60 artists, promoting exchanges with important partners around the world—in the United Arab Emirates with the Sharjah Foundation; in South Korea with MMCA Residency Changdong; in the US with the Wexner Center for the Arts; in Iran with the Res Artis Koosh Residency, and many more.
It was also through these institutional partnerships that, over the decades, we held exhibitions in Brazil and the world over—we can think of the recent ‘Videobrasil. Needs no Translation’ in Moscow (2024–2025), to the ‘Pan-African Exhibition of Contemporary Art’ in 2005, held between Senegal and Bahia (Brazil). I must not fail to mention, of course, the solo shows of key artists such as Isaac Julien, Joseph Beuys and Sophie Calle. We also promoted video screenings and projects in various formats, such as our recent Videobrasil Open Air, which will open later this year.
‘Videobrasil. Needs No Translation’ at GES-2 House of Culture, Moscow. Photo: Daniel Annenkov. © GES-2 House of Culture
Videobrasil Open Air marks the first step into this new chapter, occupying urban space through public projections across São Paulo. Could you tell us more about the concept behind this project, why it felt like a crucial starting point, and what audiences can expect from its inaugural edition?
Videobrasil Open Air is a proposal for occupying the urban space. These are video art projections on facades of buildings around the city. This first edition is held in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC-USP), a Brazilian institution that, like Videobrasil, has an important relationship with the history of video art. On September 11, we will have our first screening. We’ll be projecting an artwork by Rosângela Rennó onto MAC-USP’s facade. Método básico de assovio gomero-tupi [Basic method of Gomero-Tupi whistling] is a 2016 work that provokes us to reflect on cultural exchanges and the realm of the untranslatable within them, as well as on the relationships between memory, permanence, and the ephemeral. The action, in a way, serves as a prologue to this new chapter of Videobrasil, which we have been carefully developing to put into practice starting in 2026.
Forty years on, what are the most surprising ways in which Videobrasil has transformed—not only in terms of scale, but in its curatorial, technological, or political ethos?
The most significant transformation was in our ability to evolve without losing sight of our original mission. Technically, we’ve moved from VHS tapes and analogue archives to digital preservation; from exhibitions that deemed video as mere experimentation to a perspective that also understands it as an archive, performance, and a means of political imagination. Politically, Videobrasil has established itself as a space that insists on the visibility of voices from the Global South, resisting the homogenising forces in the art system. This coherence is what allows us to transform without diluting our identity. It’s amazing to look back on over 40 years of history. It’s a long-lasting project, because Videobrasil has this ability—it has always had—to review itself and its history. To take risks and look ahead to find new ways to contribute to the arts scene.
Credit: Videobrasil Archive
In the current landscape where global biennials are increasingly inclusive of artists from the Global South, what do you see as the unique role that Videobrasil continues to play today? How do you envision its future in this context?
Although many biennials today feature artists from the Global South, Videobrasil remains unique in its consistent, long-term commitment to these narratives. We don’t follow a trend; we help shape the framework in which these voices become heard. For the future, I see Videobrasil as a bridge: connecting artists and institutions, creating archives of shared memory, and fostering lasting collaborations that resist both simplification and appropriation.
You’ve emphasised the importance of Videobrasil as a platform that must keep reinventing itself. Looking ahead, what new forms—whether digital, curatorial, or collaborative—are you envisioning for the future?
Reinvention is at the heart of Videobrasil. Looking to the future, we recognise that it is time to transition the Videobrasil Biennial cycle from a periodic event to an expanded, permanent program. For the coming years, we are working on three main fronts:
- Digital: redesigning VB Channel as a streaming space and with new programs; and expanding our digital platform as a globally accessible research tool.
- Curatorial: maintaining our temporary exhibitions, many of them in partnership with international museums, combining our collection with never-before-seen productions.
- Collaborative: resuming and expanding the artist residency program, with two new axes for 2026–27: one dedicated to artists, strengthening the South-South network, and another to researchers, encouraging critical practices and innovative methodologies.
Ehsan Kooshk, of Kooshk Residency, and the artist Chulayarnnon Siriphol at Videobrasil’s library. Credit: Tiago Lima Videobrasil Archive
Given the growing importance of archives, technological shifts, and global crises, how do you imagine Videobrasil continuing to serve as both a memory project and a space for experimentation in the next decade?
The collection serves as our foundation, but it has never remained static. It is a living organism constantly generating new projects—curatorial, educational, and research—which connect past and present. The challenge of the next decade is to deepen this role: preserving memory while opening up possibilities for experimentation.
On the one hand, we are investing in preservation and accessibility. The Video Library, with over 1,500 titles, will be expanded to include testimonials from artists and curatorial records. These resources will be available not only to researchers visiting our headquarters in São Paulo, but also to those working remotely. Still, they will also become increasingly accessible online through our platforms, which are currently undergoing a complete redesign. This way, we will ensure that the archive remains a living tool for global research and engagement.
On the other hand, we remain committed to experimentation. Each year, we will continue to produce temporary exhibitions, often in collaboration with international museums and cultural centres, combining pieces from the collection with new works. These shows enable us to test new curatorial methodologies and create visibility for artists from the Global South in contexts where their voices are still not being heard sufficiently.
Perhaps the most crucial point is the expansion of our institutional and creative networks. Over the past four decades, we have forged alliances in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia—and this remains our horizon. The new 2026–2027 residency program reinforces this commitment by opening two new axes: one focused on African artists and the other on researchers. These programs will circulate artists, scholars, and projects across diverse geographies, fostering collaborations that resist homogenisation and nurture solidarity in the South.
In short, Videobrasil’s future is one of continuity with transformation: safeguarding memory, remaining open to the emergencies of present times, expanding institutional networks, and ensuring that the South continues to speak with its own voices, on its own networks.
