2015 Competition Finalists selected by Irit Batsry for Temps D'Images Portugal
Without the loop, there would be neither film nor video art. Its cyclic logic of repetition, which originally turned inertia into movement, accompanied the most diverse forms of original expression during the last two centuries. From the optical pre-cinematic devices (Phenakistoscope, Zootrope, Kinetoscope) to the work of Duchamp, artists of the pop art movement and then Dan Graham, Martin Arnold and Harun Farocki among others, the loop shows an enviable vitality as an essential element of the audiovisual language and is still being reinvented. Regardless of the period, the possibilities of the loop depend only on the creativity of those who manipulate the image in relation to the space, time and the environment of projection and/or intervention. For this inaugural edition of Loops.Lisboa we received over a hundred works that together present a rich visual, conceptual, performative, narrative and cinematic diversity. It is with extreme difficulty that three finalists were chosen among the many excellent submissions:  Travel Shot by Francisca Manuel and Elizabete Francisca, O Retrato de Ulisses by João Cristóvão Leitão, Cascade by João Pedro Fonseca. In collaboration with the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, an exhibition including these three contemporary examples representative of artists’ ongoing probe of this essential unit of moving image language was presented by LOOPS.LISBOA, as part of Festival Temps D’Images 2015 betweenOctober 15th 2015 and January 24th, 2016. O Retrato de Ulisses by João Cristóvão Leitão was selected to receive the Loops.Lisboa 2015 Award by a jury composed of Emilia Tavares (Curator, MNAC), Conrado Uribe (Artistic Director, Loop Barcelona) and Alisson Avila (Co-Founder and curator, Cine Esquema Novo, Porto Alegre). A conference by Delfim Sardo about the concept of the loop completed the activities of Loops.Lisboa 2015. It is with extreme pleasure that Loops.Lisboa accepts the invitation of Walk&Talk to present the exhibition in Ponta Delgada.