Book - Eutopia 2007
Curated by the Zemos98 collective, 'Repeat Please: Cultura VJ', an exhibition included in the rich program of the Eutopia 2007 festival held in Cordoba, Spain, reflects a possible synthesis in the proliferation of realtime audio-video experiments, following the local and international scenes, focusing not only on dance music, but also on more experimental performances and projects (following the developments of a scene that doesn't adapt itself very well to being a simple enrichment for clubs and events). In this catalog, one page after the other, we find pictures of the most recent works by Nam June Paik, a seminal multimedia artist, or of Coldcut/Exstatic in 'Timber' (1997), an inspirational project, both 'political' and ecological. There's also a nice amount of informations on Spanish crews, interleaved with works by other 'historic' videojockeys such as Ryoichi Kurokawa, Lia, Eclectic Method, C-TRL Labs, before a final 'Mapa Vj Mundo', which isn't very comprehensive or particularly representative of themes and trends. Overall, though, this work is interesting and reaffirms the vitality of the small national groups which have been long active in these artistic fields.
Aurelio Cianciotta