The 20th and final edition of the FONLAD Festival – Festival for Online Digital Art, a pioneering initiative in the digital art scene in Portugal, was presented today at the Penedo da Saudade Cultural Centre in Coimbra. Over two decades, it has promoted video art and performance in a territory that borders the virtual, the experimental and the political.
Organised by the Videolab Association since 2005, Fonlad stands out for its curatorship committed to peripheral practices, which create a space for aesthetic resistance outside the major institutional circuits. Today’s session marked the symbolic beginning of the closing edition, with a program that will take place throughout July at the Penedo da Saudade Cultural Centre.
Under the title “Ecologies of the Gaze and Peripheral Resistance”, this edition brings together national and international artists and curators around a series of proposals that intersect video, sound, body and word. The program begins with an intensive training in Video Art and Performance, from July 1 to 5, led by José Vieira and Sérgio Gomes, aimed at students, emerging artists and interested audiences, who combine creative practice with aesthetic reflection.
From July 1 to 31, from Tuesday to Sunday, between 2 pm and 8 pm, the public will be able to visit the International Video Art Exhibition, which brings together “best of” compilations from five partner festivals, Proyector (Spain), Miden (Greece), Magmart (Italy), InShadow (Portugal) and Fonlad itself (Portugal), symbolically ending a decade of international curatorial collaborations with these structures. From July 8, it will also be possible to see the results of the artistic residencies developed earlier in the month by Mario Gutiérrez Cru & L.A.R.Quicios, Pedro Sena Nunes and Coletivo Videolab, whose video installations will be on display at the same time.
The programme also includes live performances and concerts, such as the film concert by the duo Pešpäkøvå, scheduled for 11 July, the talk-performance “Os Iniciados”, with José Vieira, on the 18th, a special session on 25 July, which includes the performance “Poetri in the Bothle”, by the group Criolagens Estéticas, and the launch of the book LUA. The festival closes on 31 July with “The Last Dance”, a performance by the dancer Maria do Mar, and the presentation of the commemorative book Fonlad: 20 Years, a work that revisits key moments in the history of the festival and the thinking that gave rise to it.
The 20th edition of Fonlad is not just a farewell, but an affirmation of the vitality of digital art and the transformative power of independent artistic creation. Over twenty years, the festival has built a unique trajectory of experimentation, pedagogy and internationalisation, while remaining true to its identity of proximity and risk. This latest edition invites the public to share this legacy, in presence and celebration.
All activities are free. Participation in the training requires prior registration, available at https://forms.gle/Pq5v1Wnok6gYJZj9A.
Always confirm with the concert hall or promoter the conditions of access, confirmation of the date or time, ticket place of sale, price, and availability.
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