Innocence of the gaze? Contemporary video art in Portugal

Over the past fifteen years, the FUSO Lisboa Open Call competition has been a constant presence in the visual arts landscape in Portugal, bringing to light one of the most ephemeral mediums: video art.

This program presents some of the works that were selected and awarded in the Open Call 2025. A small exhibition, a fragmentary inventory of contemporary video art in Portugal.

The selected works, from a total of 208 applications, are no exception to a characteristic observed in the competition’s previous editions: a great diversity of backgrounds (ranging from visual arts to live performance), ages (in fact, nearly three generations), different types of academic and professional qualifications (from postgraduate work to professional production), nationalities, and places of residence.

It is rather difficult to identify specific themes, although today’s social concerns do find resonance: issues of gender and decolonialism are, understandably, present in the works presented. But what stands out the most is, above all, the expression of a worldview, a sensibility, an intelligence, and a sense of humor.

As Nelson Goodman said in Languages of Art (1968), “an artist is often right to adopt the perspective of the innocence of the eye.”

An information: according to the competition rules, the works must be recent (from the last three years), under 10 minutes in length, and submitted by Portuguese artists or those with ties to Portugal, regardless of age. One work is selected to be included in the EDP Foundation’s collection, while the public votes for the Duplacena incentive award.
JFC

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