On November 7, 2026, the exhibition Resonance Fields (Campos de ressonância) opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo (MAC USP). Organized collaboratively by Associação Cultural Videobrasil, MAC USP, and GES-2 House of Culture, the exhibition charts the history of video art across the Global South and beyond from the 1970s to the present day, bringing together over 60 works by artists representing 19 countries.
The exhibition revisits foundational milestones of the medium in Brazil. Portable video cameras first arrived in the country during the 1970s. Under the directorship of Walter Zanini, MAC USP embraced experimental artistic practices—video prominent among them. The founding of the museum’s Video Department in 1977 transformed the institution into a vital laboratory for the production, experimentation, and circulation of the electronic image. “This suite of initiatives provided crucial momentum for the new generation that emerged in the subsequent decade,” explains Heloisa Espada, professor at MAC USP and co-curator of the exhibition.
During the 1980s, alongside Brazil’s political opening, video experienced an explosion of creativity marked by multifaceted artistic and political experimentation. Videobrasil emerged out of this fertile climate. Originally founded as a festival dedicated to audiovisual experimentation, the initiative evolved over four decades, keeping pace with shifts across the discipline and establishing itself as a core institution for the preservation, research, and dissemination of moving image practices.
Resonance Fields (Campos de ressonância) articulates two major Brazilian collections—the Videobrasil Collection, built since 1983 across successive editions of the Videobrasil Festival and Biennial, and MAC USP’s historical holdings—placing them in direct dialogue with a Soviet and Russian selection curated by GES-2 House of Culture. This body of work traces experimental film and video from 1970 to contemporary production, spanning pioneering research by the Prometheus group in Kazan, Moscow Conceptualism, late-Soviet underground scenes, and post-1991 artistic reconfigurations
Resonance Fields (Campos de ressonância)
Conceived and curated by Solange Oliveira Farkas
Curators: Alessandra Bergamaschi and André Pitol (Associate Curator)
Co-curators: Esther Hamburger, Heloisa Espada, Andrei Vasilenko, and Dmitry Belkin
On View: November 7, 2026 – February 28, 2027
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 6:00 PM
Admission: Free
MAC USP | Av. Pedro Álvares Cabral, 1301 – Vila Mariana, São Paulo – SP, Brazil (04094-050)
