on 9/21/02 8:56 PM, KBrew66933@aol.com at KBrew66933@aol.com wrote:

A few of our comments, that are offered as constructive ideas for future festivals:
We feel it was very unfortunate that due to the political factions involved in the festival (or prior to our arrival there) that there wasn't more of an exposure to those of us from outside Mexico to the media arts community there -- the different spaces that showcase media work, more Mexican artists,curators, critics, etc. We would have expected to have been exposed to more of the field and scene there in Mexico City, and that was a lost opportunity. For instance, the Centro Para las Artes was very impressive, and fortunately we had the opportunity to visit the digital facilities, thanks to one of the festival particpants from Brazil who happened to know the director there. It was ironic to not have made that more of an official awareness for those attending, and to have utilized it more as a resource and place to showcase the work coming out of there, and to have contact, however brief, with some students. We feel that in these days there is no such thing as local digital work, it is fast becoming world-ranging, and VidArte could have been a more important factor in our perception of this.

Also, organizationally, it was a bit unusual to arrive at the festival and then be invited to be a juror without much clarity or guidelines. (For instance, when we arrived, Kathy was listed in the contact sheet as a juror, but hadn't been apprised of this fact, and Roberto was asked on the spot. ) We were both happy to do it, and found it an interesting process. However, a bit more clarification would have been helpful, and also an acknowledgement of a fee for the work. And in this regard, there should be equity between the different jurors, speakers, panelists, curators, etc. (And by the way, we still haven't had the $500 that you offered us at the end of the festival wired to our accounts. Arturo Aguada indicated that he would do that, and has the necessary information from us.)

In terms of the exhibition, we would highly suggest a listing of the programs running in each exhibition room, with the Title, name of maker, brief blurb, and running time,, etc.. It was very hard to know what one was looking at, and if you were interested in a particular work, it was hard to know where it was in the sequence of programs playing and how much time would transpire
before reaching it...

Anyway, these are some preliminary thoughts. Hope they are helpful. regards,

Kathy Brew+ Roberto Guerra
(Conferencistas invitados de Vidarte 2002)