Click here to see the exhibition online

The 1st VAFA (Video Art For All) -organized by Art For All Society (AFA) and Fundação Oriente -was exhibited at the Temporary Exhibitions Gallery of Casa Garden from Fundação Oriente last year.

It was the First International Open Call Festival for Video Art in Macau receiving 180 submissions from 120 artists with origins in 21 countries from the 4 corners of the world including Austria, Australia, Canada, Chile, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Iran, India, Macau, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Scotland, Singapore and USA.

The works submitted provided much debate between the members of the jury validating the very diverse and unique creative force behind today’s video art.

There were no fixed criteria concerning work theme or form as long as it could be understood as contemporary art and it was a difficult decision to agree on 10 artists for VAFA exhibition. 60 other works were shown during the festival on the screening sessions.

The first prize went to the German artist Stefan Riebel for his conceptual animations. He was invited to attend the exhibition opening and award ceremony and received the price of USD 1,000. The artist also provided a small talk about his work.

Tomoyuki Yago from Japan and Anders Weberg from Sweden were on the last three to win the competition. The artists chosen for the exhibition also included the pioneer of French Video ArtRobert Cahen, Ane Lan that already represented Norway at the Venice Biennale and Macau’s emerging talent Peng Yun.

Due to the overwhelming response of VAFA 2010 in Macau, AFA is pleased to announce the 1st VAFA exhibition at the new AFA gallery in Beijing located on the well-known 798 district.

With the enormous cultural environment of Beijing, AFA aims to build a more affluent platform for international video art hoping to attract, not only more China artists but also artists from all over the world to join VAFA in 2011.

The Beijing exhibition will be completed with the launch of the regulations of this year’s festival and the prominent Macau based artist José Drummond, which is VAFA curator, will give an introductory conference about the festival and will share his views about the new trends in video art.