The winning project of the 12th edition of the Videocreation Award, 'La mirada catalana', by Maria Alcaide, has been unveiled at the Centre d'Art Tecla Sala in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat as part of the Loop Festival. The work, which merges film, archival materials, and installation, investigates the formation of cultural identities through images, migration, and popular traditions.
'La mirada catalana' will be on display at the Centre d'Art Tecla Sala until 31 January 2027, after which it will tour various Territorial Centres of the Public System of Visual Arts in Catalonia.
A re-examination of archive, memory, and identity
The 2026 installation stems from a collaboration between Alcaide and anthropologist Josep Maria Comelles, who filmed Super 8 footage in the late 1970s during his research on El Rocío. These recordings, made during Spain's Transition to democracy, are part of a generation of documentaries that contributed to new perspectives on Spain, challenging the legacies of Francoism. Alcaide engages with this archival material, preserved at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, and juxtaposes it with new footage from various Andalusian traditions.
The work does not aim to reconstruct or update the past but rather to coexist with diverse times, images, and voices, questioning how cultural imaginaries are constructed and transmitted. A central element of the project is the involvement of individuals born outside Catalonia who now speak Catalan, allowing them to reinterpret these images from a contemporary viewpoint. Through their voices, the work shifts the notion of identity away from a fixed origin, proposing an understanding shaped by migration, languages, and shared narratives.
The installation replicates this montage process within the exhibition space. Features such as fabric hangings from fairground stalls, artificial branches inspired by the Corpus de Hinojos, and a bench covered in nazareno gloves reorganise materials linked to popular rituals, creating an environment suspended between the domestic and the cosmic, memory and fiction. Rather than merely restoring an archive, 'La mirada catalana' seeks to circulate these images anew and raise fresh questions about how to represent and imagine the present.
The Videocreation Award: Supporting artistic production
The Videocreation Award, now in its 12th edition, is a co-production initiative supported by the Territorial Centres of the Public System of Visual Arts in Catalonia, the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and Loop Barcelona. The award aims to promote the creation of new works in contemporary arts that incorporate video as a central element or as part of the artistic proposal. With a funding of €25,000 for production, the initiative supports artists known for the innovative nature of their projects and facilitates their dissemination through participating centres and institutions.
Beyond production support, the award seeks to strengthen collaboration among cultural facilities across Catalonia, expand audiences for videocreation, and promote the circulation of works both locally and internationally through the network of centres and the platform offered by Loop Barcelona. The eight participating territorial centres include ACVIC Centre d’Arts Contemporànies (Vic), Bòlit, Centre d’Art Contemporani (Girona), La Fabra Centre d’Art Contemporani (Barcelona), M|A|C Mataró Art Contemporani, Mèdol – Centre d’Arts Contemporànies de Tarragona, Centre d’Art La Panera (Lleida), Lo Pati Centre d’Art – Terres de l’Ebre (Amposta), and Centre d’Art Tecla Sala (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat).
Throughout its editions, the award has recognised the work of artists such as Jordi Colomer (2015), Carles Congost (2016), Joan Morey (2017), María Ruido (2018), Isaki Lacuesta (2019), Mabel Palacín (2020), Mireia Sallarès and Lúa Coderch (2021), Alex Reynolds (2022), Fito Conesa (2023), Núria Güell (2024), and Julia Montilla (2025). With 'La mirada catalana', Maria Alcaide continues the Videocreation Award's commitment to producing new works and promoting contemporary videocreation.
About Maria Alcaide
Maria Alcaide (born 1992 in Aracena, Huelva) is a visual artist whose practice spans video, installation, performance, and artistic research. Her work explores power relations, cultural imaginaries, and the social and material conditions that shape everyday life, often employing methodologies akin to anthropology and personal experience. A graduate of Fine Arts from the University of Seville, she has also studied at Université Paris VIII and completed a master's in Research in Art and Design at EINA-UAB in Barcelona. Her work has been exhibited in institutions and venues such as the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin, the Frankfurter Kunstverein, La Capella in Barcelona, and the Centre de la Memoria de Andalucía. She has received accolades including the Generación 2021 award, a production grant from the ”la Caixa” Foundation, and the Barcelona Producción award. Alcaide has also conducted research projects on contemporary art and rurality in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
