Stemming from a double root, video was built upon technological inventiveness and the screens broadcasted imagery. It germinated in indifferent territory to project itself in rapid ascent to autonomy. In record breaking time it assumed and donned its own apparel, staked out a territory and created a personalized idiom with its own peculiar syntax and articulations. In other words it established itself as a new way to focalize, reveal and interpret the world. Above all, it expanded the universe of artistic representation, giving it an especially concise resource - the same badge under which we find poetry.

At times in tune with the vertiginous ideals of post-modern art, where we find the shattering of fixed conventions and the celebration of that which is not permanent, video brings with it the benefit of being a field little explored, ready for aesthetic experimentation, investigation of form and the brave search for what is original and new.

With this in mind, SESC happily unites once more with the Associaçào Cultural Videobrasil for the re-edition of this event. The International Videobrasil Festival is today, in terms of video, the most important event in South America. In all truth, no other festival offers such an extensive and selective international panorama of video productions. Furthermore, its focus on alternative forms of expression makes it a privileged forum for research and experimentation of audiovisual arts.

In this, its 11th edition, Videobrasil continues with its policy of amplifying and multiplying its proposed activities. Along with exhibitions, video-installations, performances, debate forums and the video-newspaper, Videobrasil this year presents - through installations, conferences and retrospectives - a homage to Nam June Paik, the first artist to unite, in the 60's, art and television.

For SESC, an institution dedicated to divulging culture, the event , besides its other merits, gains significance as well because of its fundamental possibility: that of establishing contact between the public and artistic creation.

Danilo Santos Miranda
Regional Director of SESC -  São Paulo.