Refusing any sort of comparison with traditional artistic media, video art stands out for its ephemeral and processual nature. Different from painting and sculpture, video indeed unfolds through time, requiring specific display conditions and moulding the relationship with its audience.

In an era characterised by hectic changes and an equally frenetic consumption of contents, video art challenges spectators’ attention while it invites them to be aware of time. Generally lacking a traditional narrative structure, it often employs moving images to make up symbolic imaginaries that sometimes refer to specific social, historical and economic circumstances.

Titled The Shape of Time (as a reference to the essay by American historian George Kubler), this selection brings together a group of artists that, by way of images, words and sound portray specific contexts, all the while highlighting the potential of video as a tool for creating histories.

Thinking of the Latin etymology of the word “video” (I see), the works that make up this proposal ultimately claim the validity of video art as a vehicle through which to capture, represent and imagine reality. To read the world through video also means to learn to observe, deploying an analytic and sensitive attitude that has never been as essential as today.

Greta Alfaro, He Had Got Certain Vibes, 2019
Mar Arza, Nora, 2012
Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács, Establishing Eden, 2016
Daniel Canogar, Sinestesia, 2019
Marco Godoy, Reclamar el eco, 2012
Eugenia Lim, On Demand, 2019
Alex Marco, The Box y Reset, 2021
Shahar Marcus, Seeds, 2012
Hans Op de Beeck, Parade, 2012
Johanna Reich, Water on Asphalt, 2012

Acknowledgments to: all the artists, the Fundación Ernesto Ventós, the Colección Banco Sabadell, Olga Adelantado, Galería Cànem and Rosa Santos.