The 231 videos submitted to the First Latin American and Caribbean Video Art Contest and Exhibition presented disturbing messages as well as uplifting ones. According to the contest rules, the filmmakers had to face the challenge of encapsulating their artistic vision of Latin America’s complex social and economic situation in works of less than five minutes.

“The overwhelming enthusiasm created by the contest was incredible,” said Félix Ángel, curator of the Cultural Center. “We received a large number of excellent works from several countries with a prosperous past, or a greater emphasis on education or a longer cinematographic tradition.” The contest was organized by the IDB Cultural Center, together with the Information Technology for Development Division.

The entries ranged across the entire spectrum, from established, prize-winning artists and professionals through absolute beginners and entrants eager to experiment with new technology. Conventional visual and audio techniques vied with the most innovative and original. One of the aims of the contest was to broaden the discussion on the region’s social and economic situation and values to include practitioners of the audiovisual media. Another aim was to form a reference point for the development of video art as a means of expression.

Many of the videos considered by the jury adopted accusatory or reflective approaches to the region’s unsolved problems—including poverty, alienation and stereotypes like the unclean woman. In their conceptual and technical variety, they were a demonstration that, despite the region’s chronic shortages and limitations, artistic talent abounds.

The jury selected 53 videos to be shown continuously at the IDB Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., from December 5, 2002, to January 17, 2003. From April 3 to May 3, 2003, the exhibition will be shown in the Italo-Latin American Institute in Rome (the IDB’s 2003 annual meeting will be held in Milan from March 23 to 26). The exhibition will subsequently travel to 15 institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Two prizes and four honorable mentions were awarded. An international jury named by the Cultural Center chose Ária, by Panamanian architect Brooke Alfaro, for the first prize. His video portrays a woman singing fragments of an opera in the ruins of a once-grand house, surrounded by impoverished children. The Information Technology for Development Division awarded the second prize to Sonnets, by Brazilians Eduardo Baggio and Carlos Roche. Their video juxtaposed a sonnet by poet Avelino de Araujo with images from Brazilian and Latin American history.

“Although artists are conscious of the problems and challenges faced by the region, they rarely have the opportunity to express their opinions in the socioeconomic arena, which is restricted to specialists,” said Ángel. Despite their strong flavor of accusation and discontent, Ángel said that the messages that these videos address to their leaders are also imbued with an air of hope and even humor.