MIAMI, FLORIDA.- Bolivian curator Sandra Antelo-Suarez, who is also editor of the art magazine TRANS>, and Mexican curator Guillermo Santamarina are responsible for the program of this year’s «Art Video Lounge.» With «Melancholy (I’ve got dem ol’ kozmic blues again mama… and I’m singing)» as their motto, the two curators have put together four different programs featuring video works by over thirty international artists. The «Art Video Lounge» designed by the New York-based architects LO/TEK is being installed in the Miami Beach Public Library. It is open to the public. Admission is free.

The Show Management of Art Basel Miami Beach has named Sandra Antelo-Suarez and Guillermo Santamarina as the new curators of the «Art Video Lounge» platform of the international art show. Sandra Antelo-Suarez, a Bolivian curator and editor of the art magazine TRANS> in New York, was responsible for the «Annlee» fireworks, a collaborative project by Philippe Parreno and Pierre Hughes at the premiere of Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002. Guillermo Santamarina is a freelance curator from Mexico. He has organized more than a hundred exhibitions in and outside Mexico since 1982. The two curators are entrusted with assembling a film and video program, and coordinating its realization with the participating artists and galleries. They have taken over the job from Chrissie Iles (Whitney Museum of American Art in New York), who was responsible for last year’s «Art Video Lounge» program and had herself succeeded James Rondeau (The Art Institute, Chicago). Art Basel Miami Beach is pleased to have Artecity as a sponsor of the «Art Video Lounge.» Their involvement enables us to expand our varied art programs beyond the show to other forms that our visitors and local residents can enjoy. We thank Artecity for their support and look forward to a productive relationship with their exciting new project in our neighborhood at Collins Park.

The program of the Art Video Lounge features works by some 30 internationally acclaimed artists, with the focus on young emerging talents.

Among the artists in the curated program are: Bas Jan Ader, Gustavo Artigas, John Bock, Jacques Brel, Jessica Bronson, Mircea Cantor, Serge Clément, Bruce Conner, Michel François, Yang Fudong, Ori Gersht, Anthony Goicolea, Félix Gonzalez-Torres, Teun Hocks, Barnaby Hosking, Jesper Just, David Krippendorff, Koo Jeong-A, Peter Land, W.E. Alexander Lee, Jorge Macchi, Bjorn Melhus, Rodney McMillian, Adrian Paci, Raymond Pettibon, Aida Ruilova, Robin Rohde, Joel Tauber, Jordan Wolfson, Erwin Wurm.

Art Basel Miami Beach’s «Art Video Lounge» presents to its audience a selection of video art works that refer to a concept, in this case: Melancholy (I’ve got dem ol’ kozmic blues again mama… and I’m singing), yes… This is why the focus has been towards SORTS of narrative contents, yes, signs that have a certain degree of yearning affection, or – it may be – an expansion of feelings that are shared in adverse realities, you know, disappointed love, plain disillusion, as happens with old-fashioned promises, as we know. With this, we set up guidelines for possible reflections on the artist; public personality, the return to a poetic passage as a codification of plots narrowed down to a sign of pathos. Maybe it is in the creative process – as nothing but another form of wandering in loneliness – that we find an antidote for our irremediable human condition.

It is worth noting – given the opportunity provided by this event – that, despite an undeniable proliferation of melancholy, human beings nowadays are particularly quick to select the deepest and most enduring spiritual archetypes. Nevertheless, despite failure in containing devastating viruses, the foolish warmongering of some, the uncontrollable and very tragic destruction of our eco-system, or the recurrence of a subjugating pessimism, paradoxically, it is today that a great portion of our species demands a dissemination of defense, salvation, solidarity, and faith. Perhaps it is now – rather than thirty years ago, when the poem was written – that these statements by Marcel Broodthaers become meaningful:

We throw a stone into the waters,
Circles appear, we congeal them, from that
We draw a theory, we work
Voluntarily in an obscurity

Art Basel Miami Beach has devised a unique concept combining new ideas and forms of art mediation with Art Basel’s recipes for success. The heart of the event is the art show itself, which is staged in the spacious exhibition halls of the Miami Beach Convention Center and features 190 leading galleries from North and Latin America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. The «Art Video Lounge» is only a few minutes’ walk away, in the Rotunda of the Miami Beach Public Library located in beautiful Collins Park. The conversion of the Rotunda into an video lounge was entrusted to the New York architect duo LO/TEK (Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano). Over the past few years, LO/TEK has gained a reputation for projects that transform prefabricated industrial objects into architecture and place them in new surroundings. The results are usually multifunctional and never cease to surprise visitors. And that certainly applies to the Rotunda of the Miami Beach Public Library, which offers interested visitors an unusual and relaxed atmosphere in which to watch video projections and browse through a videotheque featuring a comprehensive program of the latest video works. Art Basel Miami Beach also organizes a wide-ranging supporting program to complement the international art show: receptions and exhibitions at museums and private collections, lectures and discussions, parties and performances. And under the heading of «Art Loves...,» an array of crossover events featuring music, film, architecture, and design is on the agenda.